Thursday, May 31, 2012

Bloomberg and the Soda Ban

When is this little dictator's reign over? Or will he maneuver the City Council to allow a fourth term for him? I rarely drink soda, and when I do would prefer a small size, but for people who do drink soda, this new law will just have them purchasing smaller bottles to make up for what they crave, creating more waste and more expenditure for the poor and middle classes. Many fruit juices contain more sugar than sodas anyway. Wine and beer also up one's pounds. Should there be a limitation put on them, too? How about combating obesity by building more city gyms, available at low cost to residents, and instituting more exercise and sports programs in our city schools? And if Bloomberg is so interested in creating a nanny state, why not first "nannify" the tenant issue and mandate affordable housing for the middle class in the city and in Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village?

UPDATE: So Bloomberg follows this soda ban proposal by celebrating National Donut Day! Here's the BS response from Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs when queried by a reporter about the conflict (ie.,hypocrisy):

In case you have difficulty hearing her response, it's:

"The work of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reflects the mayor’s public health agenda. The message is that we will do what we need in our official capacity to protect the health of New Yorkers. The celebratory events, the naming days in honor of individuals or items, or frivolities that are fun and exceptional joy are quite distinct from a public health agenda."

Got that? So celebrating the donut is not encouraging anyone to eat it.

Oh, and how will National Donut Day be celebrated in New York? By the eating of free donuts!!! (BTW, one donut has way more calories than one can of soda.)

From USA Today Online: In celebration of National Donut Day, tomorrow Krispy Kreme will be offering one free doughnut to anyone who walks in the door. No purchase is necessary to take part in the promotion. Elsewhere, Dunkin Donuts is offering a free donut with a beverage purchase. LaMar's Donuts also is advertising free treats, and Tim Hortons is giving away doughnuts to those with Facebook coupons. Entenmann's will mark the holiday by unveiling the "largest box of Entenmann's Donuts ever created," along with a $25,000 donation to The Salvation Army. Free coffee and doughnuts will be available in New York's Madison Square Park.

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a high school teacher who works with students who LOVE sugary drinks of all kinds. Recently, a store opened up across the street from the school (basically a glorified dollar store) that sells gigantic bottled beverages- 64oz. Since this store opened, many students go there during lunch and purchase lots of those beverages. Sometimes, it is all they have for lunch. They have no self-control and drink all of it. I would love to see those cheap, gigantic drinks banned to save my students from getting health problems in the future. Now you may think, "hey, you're a teacher, this type of stuff should be taught to the youth". Oh trust me, it is. I personally teach about the effects of diabetes and what happens to a person who consumes too much sugar over the course of a lifetime. They still crave the sugary stuff, and still eat as much as they want. And so do their parents, who provide it at home. By banning the larger size, people will drink smaller amounts of these super sugary drinks and help with the obesity & diabetes epidemics of our youth.

Anonymous said...

Add to that list bullying of our children in City run schools. Nothing is being done about that and another child just committed suicide this week. Bloomie would probably tell us it was induced by a sugar high...

I also find it interesting that Mayor Anti-Everything still allows the sale of cartons of cigarettes in the city. He upped the tax. He's banned smoking in many outdoor spaces yet he still allows people to buy 10 packs at a time without his paternal intervention. Is he a tobacco investor, hooked on the tax revenue or has he just not gotten to that yet?

What size beverage does he serve on the Bermuda express?!? Please...

Anonymous said...

Why not a fourth term? If there was a third.....

This is some city. Unbelievably corrupt and appalling what politicians get away with here.

Anonymous said...

I am SO sick of this meglamaniac and his cronies trying to control what we eat and drink. Who the hell do they think they are! Bloomberg breaks the laws all the time! He flies his damned helicopter in and out of the heliport illegally, subjecting people to noise and pollution; he overturns term limits which was voted for twice by the people; me makes dirty undercover deals on the taxi trade. God, please make this vile little psycho go away and take all his corrupt-to-the core cronies with him. As they say in Ireland: May they go out with the tide and bad weather and never come back!

Anonymous said...

Bloomberg doesn't want us to have any sugary drink that is taller than himself. Personally, I would ban short, narcissistic men with high-pitched whiney voices who made a pot of money and use it to buy illegal terms in office, overturn laws and bring in cronies (like an addled old drunk with no public education experience) to run the Public Schools which he has royally fucked up. Do we know anybody who fits that description? If so, run him out of town!

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>They have no self-control and drink all of it. I would love to see those cheap, gigantic drinks banned to save my students from getting health problems in the future.<<

Then let's start selling large size soft drinks only to adults. ID required.

Anonymous said...

One thing Bloomberg is teaching our children is that democracy doesn't matter any more. One rich man can set himself up as dictator, pay a lot of lackeys, pull in his pals and make The People do his bidding. Bloomberg may have been bullied as a kid because he's a skinny little runt and now he's a rich old man he is getting a sort of revenge. Get him to a shrink. Quickly!

Anonymous said...

It's an unenforceable law because they're going to allow large drinks of diet soda or club soda, so vendors can simply put the sugared version into the cups. What are the cops going to do ?, walk around tasting or testing everyone's drink ? Give me a break. Plus, the city will be sued by the beverage industry and they'll tie this up in the courts.

Just nonsense.

Anonymous said...

I am sick of Bloomberg's social engineering. This man has an agenda and the last thing he cares about is the well being of New Yorkers. From his fanatical crackdown on tobacco users to his forcing bike lanes on us so vehicular traffic is congested so one or two bikes a day can have a lane all to itself, his destruction of the old neighborhoods, driving out smalll businesses for his fucking money-grubbing developer cronies, I am so sick of this man that you would not print how I REALLY feel!

Anonymous said...

In trying to "improve our health" Bloomberg somehow takes away the will to live.

Anonymous said...

Check out Jon Stewart's rant on Thursday night's show. It was characteristically funny and rude and pointed up the hypocrisy of Mayor Moneybags's latest control binge. dailyshow.com

Anonymous said...

Clearly he doesn't give a rat's ass about middl class living in NYC. Thanks for the unaffordable housing Mayor Buttberg.

Anonymous said...

Soda should be outright banned, at least in its current concoction.

Anonymous said...

Wtf does this have to do with Stuytown?

Anonymous said...

Will Oval Cafe ban the new 64oz Rosie Cola? I needed all the big gulps I could get today after hopscotching over all the transient dumps.

Stuy Town Reporter said...

>>Wtf does this have to do with Stuytown?<<

I did mention Stuy Town in the post. But I'm not obligated to just write about ST/PCV.

Anonymous said...

People from ST and PCV drink soda!

Anonymous said...

This is Bloomberg's way of "wagging the dog." This nonsense about soda size is to avert attention from the more egregious failures of his incompetent purchased and illegal third term, such as the uptick in filth, crime, homelessness, joblessness, child abuse and general lawlessness and quality of life issues, while at the same time he and his corrupt corporate cronies get richer and more and more destructive of everything that they don't hold dear in the form of the suburbanization of New York, corporatization of the schools and everything else they can get their dirty, greedy hands on. The sooner this apology for a man has waddled back to Boston, the better.

Anonymous said...

I have lived in New York City my whole 60 plus years life and I have never known such an embarrassment of a mayor. Please go away Bloomberg! You are making us so ashamed to be New Yorkers! You are a bad joke !you are really embarressing us ini the eyes of the world! We are cringing with shame at your capers.

Anonymous said...

Right? But how did we AS NEW YORKERS let him get away with overturning the term limits?

Who voted for bloomberg in the first place? NOT ME.

Tommyboy said...

But you have to admit the sizes of sodas & such has gotten ridiculous. The infiltration of 7-11's into the area will not help.

Anonymous said...

I never voted for Bloomberg ever and he got his third term because Christine Quinn, the political whore of political whores, and the filth on the City Council allowed him to overturn term limits that had been voted for twice by the electorate. He outspent Bill Thompson because he is a billionaire and still won by only a slight margin.
As for the size of sodas, I don't think it's anybody's business if people want to buy it by the bucket. I don't drink soda, but I think anybody who wants to should be able to buy it in any size available and that what that is should not be dictated by a napoleonic little jerk who has no business trying to make up laws at whim.

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, under Der Fuhrer's proposed edict a bodega selling a giant sized soda would be breaking the law and subject to a fine, bit 711 wouldn't. More warfare against the Mom and Pop stores that Bloomberg disdains in favor of corporate owned businesses.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I live in an entirely different NYC and Stuytown than you do. I love this city still.

Anonymous said...

I bet Adam Rose is grateful for the mayor's latest public brainfart because while we are bitching about Bloomberg on here, we are leaving him alone! Enjoy it while you can, Adam because there's always tomorrow! LOL!

Anonymous said...

Democracy, folks. 557k New Yorkers voted for him last time, including 55% (13k) of the people in our district.

Anonymous said...

June 3 and still no news from TA about the overcharges. No news about the conversion.

Crazy Eddie said...

Correct me if I am wrong, but when the T&V did their post analysis of PCVST voting patterns of the least three mayor elections, Bloomberg won the PCVST % in all three. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." And third is definitely not the charm. If the Son of Sam has made parole and if he had run for mayor last time, I would have voted for him as opposed to the Emperor of Bermuda.

Anonymous said...

The Emperor has decreed: in all of my Fifedom No drink Shall Be Taller than I!

Anonymous said...

So Bloombucks will overturn term limits again? why not? what's to stop him...

and now ,,, he has even MORE MONEY.

Anonymous said...

So Bloombucks will overturn term limits again? why not? what's to stop him...

Indeed, what's to stop him? It's not like we are living in a free country or a democracy any more. That is nostalgic history at this point. If he can suck enough you-know-what, will definitely buy himself a fourth term. With his money, he can buy all the suck available out there.

Anonymous said...

You people are hillarious, want all these rules for stuyvesant town but cannot handle a rule, that is for the common good, set by government.

Anonymous said...

Big difference between rules set for the common good in a privately owned residential community which rents units to diverse tenants and rules dictated by government concerning personal choice pertaining to personal habits. It's one thing for government to set, for instance, a speed limit on the streets and quite another for it to tell you what you may or may not eat or drink and in whatever sizes you wish to consume what you eat and drink. The large soda rule is stupid and unenforceable. It also will result in more garbage for the landfills because people who like to drink a lot of soda will purchase more containers of it. However, the city will pull in more tax revenue on the sale of extra units of the stuff. I suspect that Bloomberg's nannying has a lot to do with the fact that he is only concerned with money and not with the health and wellbeing of his "subjects."

Anonymous said...

Your comparison between rules to live by in a community and big brother telling people what they can and cannot eat or drink is just ridiculous.

Crazy Eddie said...

Courtesy of a link from Andrews Sullivan’s blog, I think this is a great article on our little dictator:

“To Bloomberg, it’s all in good fun. Shoving fat, salt, and white bread down your throat is a circus act, to be gawked at and celebrated on TV. But soda? That’s a health threat requiring government-enforced portion control. You can have it one way or the other, Mr. Mayor. You can preach moderation or the right to stuff yourself. But you can’t do both. The next orgy is four weeks away. We’ll be watching you.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2012/06/michael_bloomberg_s_hot_dog_eating_contests_if_soda_is_bad_why_is_competitive_eating_good_.html

Anonymous said...

If Emperor Bloomberg would just get his priorities straight for once. How about he cracks down on ACS. It seems that almost every day we are hearing about horribly abused children, e.g, Nixmarie Brown, Marchella Bret Pierce and many, many others who ACS allows them to stay with "parents," even though those "parents" torture, beat and starve them to death. It makes me so angry and sick to my stomach that this asshole of a Mayor has nothing to say about these kids and there are so many of them who just haven't been brought to the public's attention yet, but he is so keen on trimming the waistlines of New Yorkers that he cannot see beyond that. I will be proud to be a New Yorker when the Marchellas and Nixmaries are no longer being ignored by Bloomberg and his useless ACS agency and dictating the size of sugary drinks is a non-issue. Give me a kid who is fat, but has a chance to learn how to change his/her eating habits over a starved, beaten little mite like Nixmarie or Marchella whose "parents" fed them nothing and abused and beat them to death. Get with the reality of New York's children, Bloomberg, you stupid, half-assed idiot and lay down the law where it really matters. It may take what you don;t have - balls, but it has to be done. I call on all our elected (and purchased their term) officials to start really looking at ACS and the poor little helpless victims of the stupidity and incompetence and total apathy of its employees and the taxpayer funded agencies that fail so miserably. You are a failure Bloomberg and the stolen voices of so many dead children echo this. Stick your fucking soda bans, cigarette and transfats and sodium obsessions up your ass until you come to grips with and address the real issues of importance in this city. If you can't handle that, then just go away.