Last month, New York City enacted a ban on sugary drinks sold at restaurants, sports arenas, movie theaters, etc. as a measure to promote better health. The law is not scheduled to go into effect until March 2013 — and it is already facing numerous legal challenges.
Nontheless, the new Barclays Center is taking a proactive approach in this matter. As Michael Grynbaum reports for the New York Times: “At the amenity-laden Barclays Center in Brooklyn, hungry concertgoers can dine on fresh-from-Maine lobster rolls, gourmet barbecue brisket, and slices of cheesecake from Junior’s on nearby Flatbush Avenue. What they cannot buy is a jumbo soda. Call it life at 16 ounces — the only soda-cup size available at the arena’s concession stands and, not coincidentally, the maximum quantity allowed under new rules that seek to combat obesity by limiting the size of sugary drinks in New York City restaurants, stadiums ,and movie theaters. Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets and host to a series of opening concerts by the borough natives Jay-Z and Barbra Streisand, will now serve as an 18,000-seat petri dish for an unusual and nationally watched social experiment: what happens when big appetites meet little sodas. The restrictions, proposed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and approved by the city’s health board, do not take effect until March, but Barclays volunteered to comply with the regulations from the moment it opened on Friday.”
Interesting, right? Junior’s cheesecake is OK, but large sodas are not.
Click the photo for Grynbaum’s full story.
