The grassroots can beat Big Soda, says Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney in an interview about the City Council vote during the summer to put a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on soda and sugary beverages. “Don’t be afraid of Big Soda. They are not that tough,” Kenney told Vox.
Voters in three California cities — San Francisco, Oakland and Albany, all in the Bay area — and in Boulder, CO, will vote in local soda-tax referendums on Nov. 8. In 2014, Berkeley, CA, was the first U.S. city to adopt a soda tax, framed as a public-health response to obesity. In Philadelphia, the second city to approve a soda tax, Kenney said the money was needed to pay for pre-kindergarten for all children and for other city services.
“Big Soda hired everybody they could find … But we had pre-K advocates, parks and recreation advocates, library advocates, religious folks,” said Kenney. “It was truly a grassroots effort backed by an extremely competent staff.” Nonetheless, Kenney said it was one of the most brutal public debates of his career.