In the ongoing competition to see whose city government can coddle its constituents more (and hopefully make kids less fat in the process), New York City's Mayor Bloomberg is attempting one-up San Francisco with a ban on sugary sodas served in unnecessarily large quantities. While the ban wouldn't apply to milkshakes, juices, diet sodas and other low-sugar items, it would eliminate any sugary beverage over 16 ounces from the menus at delis, fast food joints, ballparks and movie theaters.

Impressively-coifed former Mayor Gavin Newsom almost beat Bloomberg's receding hairline to the syrupy punch when he banned soda machines from all city property a few years back. While that ban did little more than deprive some City Hall aides of their life-giving Diet Cokes, if Bloomberg's first-in-the-nation measure passes we imagine it would only be a matter of time before someone on our own Board of Supervisors proposes similar legislation.

We reached out to Newsom this morning to see if the Lite Gov had any Gavin-isms to bestow on us about the matter, but we have yet to hear back from his office. Likewise, resident obesity watchdog Supervisor Eric Mar was has yet to return our requests for comment, possibly because he needed to get to McDonald's before breakfast ended. So, for now at least, San Francisco's freedom to enjoy five dollars and 64 ounces worth of corn syrup at the Metreon (where the smallest option is 32 ounces) continues unmolested.

Previously: San Francisco's Happy Meal Ban, Newsom's Insipid Soda Ban Won't Ban Fat
[Gothamist]
[Chron]