Mommy Bloomberg Goes After Pizza Delivery and Kid's Birthday Parties

Last June, Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of the City of New York announced his plans to implement a ban on large sodas and other sugary drinks in virtually every place but the home. His administration is banning the sale of these beverages in containers that are more than 16-fluid ounces. But now we are finding out new rules as part of his ban, rules that will put a damper on pizza deliveries, birthday parties and even mixed drinks sold at bars and clubs.

 Bloomberg has already implemented a ban on trans fats in NYC restaurants, and a rule that fast food and other chain restaurants publicly post the number of calories in their meals and a few weeks after this announcement ordered ordered city hospitals to lock up the baby formula pushing new mothers to nurse whether they choose to or not.  

While I understand that child obesity is an issue across the county, it's hard to understand where Bloomberg or any government official for that matter, gets the right to ban giant sodas. The ban on sugary drinks and baked goods in public schools (carrots for classroom birthday parties?) misguided as it is, at least takes place in a school system run by the city in buildings owned by the city (their house--their rules). But there is something disconcerting about a government deciding what I can drink and/or before eating at their local fast food joint, one has to be subjected to a sign saying something like "Hey this crap is going to kill you!). For the fast food aficionado this will have little (if any affect). 

Now Mommy Bloomberg is at it again, as ban his ban on large sodas will take place in just a few weeks, on March 12 there are new rules to control the lives of New Yorkers.

Say goodbye to that 2-liter bottle of Coke with your pizza delivery, pitchers of soft drinks at your kid’s birthday party and some bottle-service mixers at your favorite nightclub.

They’d violate Mayor Bloomberg’s new rules, which prohibit eateries from serving or selling sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.

The city Health Department last week began sending brochures to businesses that would be affected by the latest ban, including restaurants, bars and any “food service” establishment subject to letter grades.

And merchants were shocked to see the broad sweep of the new rules.

“It’s not fair. If you’re gonna tell me what to do, it’s no good,” said Steve DiMaggio of Caruso’s in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. “It’s gonna cost a lot more.”

And consumers, especially families, will soon see how the rules will affect their wallets — forcing them to pay higher unit prices for smaller bottles.

Typically, a pizzeria charges $3 for a 2-liter bottle of Coke. But under the ban, customers would have to buy six 12-ounce cans at a total cost of $7.50 to get an equivalent amount of soda.

“I really feel bad for the customers,” said Lupe Balbuena of World Pie in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Domino’s on First Avenue and 74th Street on the Upper East Side is doing away with its most popular drink sizes: the 20-ounce and 2-liter bottles.

“We’re getting in 16-ounce bottles — and that’s all we’re going to sell,” a worker said.

People just don't get why Bloomberg would do this:

“It’s ludicrous,” said Robert Bookman, a lawyer for the New York City Hospitality Alliance. “It’s a sealed bottle of soda you can buy in the supermarket. Why can’t they deliver what you can get in the supermarket?”

Families will get pinched at kid-friendly party places, which will have to chuck their plastic pitchers because most hold 60 ounces — even though such containers are clearly intended for more than one person.

Changes will be made at the Frames bowling alley in Times Square, where 26-ounce pitchers are served at kids’ parties, said manager Ayman Kamel.

“We’re going to try to get creative,” he said, noting drinks with 100 percent juice are exempt from the ban.

“We’re figuring out a way to have freshly squeezed juice for the birthday parties. We might have to raise the price about a dollar or so.”

And its going to cause some problems with mixed drinks.

If you get bottle service at a city nightclub or restaurant, you cannot also get a carafe of cranberry juice like the one hostess Maggie is serving up here at Le Souk Harem in the West Village. Tonic water and other beverages are also limited, even though they are only used as mixers.

The carafes in which mixers are typically served hold 32 ounces, and the most common mixers — sodas, cranberry juice and tonic water — will be limited. Only water and 100 percent juice will be unlimited.

“Oh, my God. Seriously?” said Lamia Sunti, owner of the swanky West Village club Le Souk Harem. “It’s not like one person is going to be drinking the whole carafe. It’s silly.”

Its incredible that the guy who believes in abortion because government has no right to make decisions about a woman's body is making lots of decisions about the bodies of both genders. He has no right to infringe on our freedoms, but that is the continuing objective of progressivism.