He’s no Mr. Softee!
Far-left Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler is pushing new legislation that would require Mr. Softee and other Big Apple ice cream trucks to stop powering their soft-serve machines and freezers with generators that use fuel.
The bill would require the vendors to switch over to environmentally friendly alternatives like electric or solar power — likely at a cost of $5,000 or more.
The ice-cold measure, introduced Thursday, is already under attack from Restler’s riled-up colleagues who fear it could put some vendors out of business and have kids screaming about ice cream of the lack thereof.
“In the dog days of August, it’s hard to imagine more of a killjoy than putting one’s climate bullseye on our iconic ice cream man, but behold, I give you Councilman Lincoln Restler,” quipped Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island).
“That’s not the ice caps melting, kids, it’s your summertime tears.”
Added Borelli: “Sometimes I try to convince myself that hipster Brooklyn is part of the real world, with real-world problems, and then Lincoln Restler goes and reminds us of priority number one: banning the ice cream man.”
A Mr. Softee vendor parked in front of Pier 34 on the Lower East Side said there was no need for a meltdown.
“I’m not worried about it – it’s not gonna happen. It’s too expensive,” said the vendor, who has owned two trucks for 20 years. “They would have to make all of the construction sites and food vendor trucks do the same thing and that’s just not gonna happen.”
Restler, a notorious hater of cars, didn’t speak about the bill at Thursday’s Council meeting but confirmed to The Post that it’s in response to complaints he’s received about diesel-spewing ice cream trucks stinking up Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and other neighborhoods.
The bill would give trucks three years to switch over to electric or solar energy.
Solar? The irony of relying on the thing that ruins ice cream.
