Vending machines where I am located, not sure about this area, are generally very overpriced therefore people generally avoid them anyway.

first they came for my lead paint, then they came for my cigarettes, then they came for my HFC. then things were pretty alright.

eat whole fruit. Got nothing on the controversy though.

It’s basically a car ban.

These machines are normally installed and serviced by local people. They are going to fill the machine with whatever makes them the most money. Branded machines have less flexibility, but talk to your vendor and they can probably get you a non-branded machine and fill it with whatever you want – as long as it will sell and make the person enough money. If they won’t find a different vendor.

Secondly, what’s with the midwestern hate? It’s snarky and uncalled for. Spend some time in the midwest and if you do so without prejudice, I think you’ll find that the people there are friendly and unpretentious. In fact, the fine residents of DemographicAverage, Ohio share far more similarities than differences with residents of your city.

Of course if we let people make their own choices they might choose something bad! We can’t let that happen!

Not sure how replacing a 120 calorie soda with a 90 calorie soy milk is going to have this drastic affect on health.

I don’t really see any science behind this attack on “junk food”. Calories are calories, eat to many you gain weight. If you drink 10 bottles of soy milk a day you will gain just as much as you would pounding back sodas.

If they are worried about health and want to encourage water consumption get rid of all the machines and install a free water fountain.

Gatorade (8oz):
50 Calories
14g sugars (sucrose & dextrose)
14g carbs

100% Apple Juice (8oz):
114 Calories
24g sugars (2:1 fructose to glucose ratio)
28g carbs

It’s not hard to tell which one I’d prefer if I were watching my weight (okay, so the real answer is the water fountain, but still).

The plain truth is obesity causes are less related to coke machines and more connected to food deserts in urban areas and cheap processed food being more readily available than fresh produce across the country. Those are complex issues requiring a mixture of public and private measures to tackle.

Banishing Sody-Pop makes politicians look like they’re “taking it seriously”.

A car ban would be a bit authoritarian, but we could take all the public money going to road construction, maintenance, traffic cops, lights, signs, land, drivers license/registration/insurance regulation, auto safety testing, etc and spend it on rail and bike paths instead. Make drivers pay the full costs of road infrastructure themselves.

Drivers also need to pay for the health and environmental destruction caused by their pollution. Either they should pay a gas tax to internalize the economic externalities of their pollution, or they should be open to lawsuits from anyone those cancer or asthma may be petrol related and anyone who has been displaced due to climate change.

“Private” auto use often entails more public money than “public transit” and always entails more public suffering due to externalities (namely habitat loss, pollution, accident related deaths and injuries, social atomization due to auto driven sprawl, and the original point: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc due to lack of exercise) It’s time we get our priorities straight and only fund transportation systems that are safe, sustainable, and efficient.

Of course that would entail electing politicians that act in the public interest and not in the interests of private corporations. SF is probably one of the only places in the US where this might be possible.

Secondly, what’s with the midwestern hate?

It’s not midwestern hate. It’s hate for the fact that I can’t buy garden supplies at Costco in October when it’s 100° here because national stores stock based on an imaginary average US city. And that imaginary city has the leaves down and the Christmas decorations up by Halloween.

They are going to fill the machine with whatever makes them the most money.

It’s pretty standard practice for most businesses to sell what they can buy cheaply in quantity rather than what the customers want. They’re pretty safe in assuming that their customers won’t go elsewhere because elsewhere carries the same quantity of the same products at the same prices.

A local company in SF that was seriously trying to cater to the local buyers would have tofu salad sandwiches on gluten-free bread in its vending machines. People there really eat that stuff.

55mph in a 50mph zone: $260

Jaywalking: $150

Oddly enough, the only one I was able to beat was the carpool lane violation, although I had to skip work TWICE because the cop didn’t show up the first time… then didn’t show up again.

Got out of a 105mph in a 65 zone a few years ago – but the fine was only $950. I say “only” because 5 measly mph over cost me $260. (hired a lawyer for $1k who managed to find records of the lidar malfunctioning during subsequent calibration… cop was stupid not to show up since in his notes it clearly says he paced me for ~1/2 mile.

The jaywalking ticket was on easter morning at 10am (not a soul around) *in a god damn crosswalk*, but we crossed against the almighty ‘red hand’. because a couple of fucking adults can’t be trusted to cross the street. in broad daylight. with no traffic. they then proceeded to shake us down, tried to search us, tried to say we were high, all this shit.

So let me get this straight: A soda with SUGAR is worse than a Diet with ASPARTAME?

Nooooo… it’s worse.

Anything diet is literally poison. Corn Syrup is way better than Aspartame or “AminoSweet” as they call it now.

Read this before ever drinking a diet drink:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/americas-deadliest-sweete_b_630549.html

Personally, I prefer Mexican Coke, that actually uses cane sugar.

http://www.bumwine.com/

Surely not: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/06/mercola_and_raw_milk_faddism_invade_huff.php these people?

As for regulation, the FDA regulates the content of these drinks. Guess who is on the board? Yeah, food manufacturers.

Natural? Fructose is natural yes. As is alcohol, opium, tobacco, cocaine. Need I go on? Natural doesn’t mean good.

As for some real science, this from a Prof of Pediatric endocrinology in, wait a minute, SF :

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/16/sweet-little-lies-the-bitter-truth-about-sugar/

If you have the attention span to read the article and watch the video (which, I accept, may have too much science for most folks) I’ll be happy to discuss your explanations for obese 6 month old children. Must be all those kids buying burgers. Their own choice huh?

blah blah blah.

Also, how many snack/drink machines does this REALLY affect?

Does this also affect non-automated refrigerators?

It says city property — that’s going to be fairly limited, right?

Someone mentioned schools — primary, secondary, post-secondary; are those city facilities proper, or are they something else? And how many machines would the schools have, anyway, provided they are covered?

What’s nice about this is it doesn’t ban the sale of drinks period, it just limits the inventory of machines themselves. There are still available choices which include sodas, but they have been disincentivized by convenience.

Sodas with HFCS have sugars that are 45 percent glucose and 55 percent fructose; this is by weight not calories. Still, this has to be just about identical to apple juice as a source of fructose. The name “fructose” means “fruit sugar.” It got that name for a reason. If you’re trying to avoid fructose, most fruit drinks won’t help at all.

But, but… they’re NATURAL.

–Beryl