Nanny State: De Blasio to Resurrect Attempt at NYC Big Soda Ban

Hide your Big Gulps again, New York. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week his administration will pick up where former Mayor Michael Bloomberg left off and will continue the battle to ban sodas larger than 16 ounces. The city will appeal a state court ruling that pulled the plug on the ban last year. City lawyers will argue the case at the Court of Appeals on June 4, the New York Daily News reported this week. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg got plenty of headlines in 2012 when he declared war on Big Gulps and other large sugary drinks. The much discussed ban on sodas over 16 ounces was an edict issued by the city's Health Department and never got approval from city council. A state judge in March 2013 blocked the ban and said Bloomberg overstepped his authority in issuing it without the city council's consent. De Blasio and Bloomberg have not seen eye to eye on everything, but the new boss is the same as the old boss when it comes to regulating away that special kind of joy that can only be found at the bottom of a half-gallon of Coca-Cola. He wants a ban on electronic cigarettes, building on Bloomberg's long campaign to make it illegal to smoke traditional cigarettes just about anywhere inside the city limits. He also wants to shut down the famous horse-drawn carriage rides around Central Park, which has won him accolades from animal-rights activists who want to see the horses allowed to lounge in the park like any other resident of the city. And this week, he called for a ban on new wood-burning fireplaces in the city (no word on whether de Blasio is also harboring a vendetta against the Yule log), because in a city with more than 10 million cars spewing exhaust into the atmosphere each day, pollution from fireplaces is a serious problem...more

I think Mayor de Blasio deserves some kind of "award".  Oh look, Watchdog.org agrees:



For his renewed efforts to keep New Yorkers from being able to make their own decisions about soda consumption, Mayor Bill de Blasio takes home our nanny state city of the week award. His prize is 32 ounces of warm, flat, fizzless, off-brand soda.