New crusade for loathsome nanny-state mayor: Let’s make store owners hide cigarettes behind the counter

The most irritating peculiarity of Bloomberg’s petty nannyism is how it gets you thinking like a regulator even if you oppose what he’s doing. The hallmark of Bloombergism isn’t meddling with people’s personal habits, it’s meddling with those habits in a half-assed way such that you’re left wondering, perversely, why he didn’t crack down even harder. Where’s the logic in limiting sodas to 16 ounces if you can buy as many 16-ounce sodas as you want? Why not limit customers by law to one per sale and force them to go to multiple stores if they want to drink more? Why not ban soda from the city entirely? Why not do the same with cigarettes? (Actually, via John Ekdahl on Twitter, there may be a good reason for not doing that.) I guess he’s trying to walk a line politically by finding regulations that will change public behavior a little bit while not affecting it so much that there’ll be a giant outcry. But what does he care about outcries? He’s in his final term. He’s thinking about his legacy, which is why he’s crowing about the fact that this cigarette law is the first of its kind in the U.S. He could regulate with an even heavier hand and let the chips fall where they may, but instead he seems content to just … annoy and inconvenience people. You’re one of a kind, Bloomy.

No, actually, I do think there’s a strategy here.

The mayor announced today his proposed “Tobacco Product Display Restriction” bill, which would require all stores to keep cigarettes hidden from plain view.

The smokes could only been seen at purchase and during re-stocking, under Bloomberg’s plan that he’ll submit to the City Council on Wednesday.

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