Linky's war on custard

 

NY Post

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.

Parents can't resist Mr. Softee

The caption for this photo in the Daily News reads: 7-year-old Lindsey Tourgeman enjoys a vanilla cone from a local soft serve ice cream truck, under the disapproving eye of her mother, Melissa, in Brooklyn.

Now when I saw this initially, I thought that maybe the kid was stealing the mother's money to buy ice cream or that grandma/grandpa was slipping her an Abe Lincoln now and then. But then I read the article and became astounded.

“It’s very frustrating that they’re here every day,” said Carroll Gardens mom Meryl Allison, who picks up her son Ben at Public School 58 and has to take him past a Mister Softee truck to go to Carroll Park across the street. “You’re a trapped audience. It’s hard to say no to your kids.”

Wha? A NYC mama not able to say no? I do not recall my mother having similar issues when I was a kid. In fact, she said no more times than I remember her saying yes. And what I wanted must not have been all that important because all these years later, I can't remember anything I had asked her to get for me in the first place.

“I’ve had fights with my daughter in the past about it. You kind of feel like it’s pushed on you,” said Tourgeman, who said she lets her 7-year-old daughter Lindsey get a cone about twice a month.

“It’s one thing if they’re just in the neighborhood, but to be here by contract [with the city], they might as well be selling drugs.”

Honestly...just say "no" and stop whining to the papers.