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Only Manhattan voters support Mayor Bloomberg's plan to cap the size of sweetened drinks.
There's a racial divide in how New Yorkers view Mayor Bloomberg's plan to cap the size of sweetened sodas.
White voters were ready to go either way on the issue at 48/49 percent in favor/opposed, while black voters were overwhelmingly sour on the idea 60 to 38 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Hispanic voters came in at 50/47 percent in support.
Women were 50-50 -- actually 49 percent in favor, 48 percent against.
Men defended their right to drink up, with 54 percent giving a thumbs down to sugary limits and 44 percent approving the mayor's latest attempt to instill better health.
A borough soda gap also popped up.
Manhattan residents backed the upcoming crackdown on beverages bigger than 16 ounces by a solid 57-39 percent.
No other borough was in the support column.
Brooklyn took the middle road, with 49 percent for and an equal percentage against downsizing.
Voters citywide were right back where they were last June, around the time the proposal first surfaced. Forty-six percent were for it, 51 percent were not.
When those numbers first came out eight months, mayoral aides called them heartening for such a controversial proposal that the public had little time to absorb.
But there hasn't been much movement either way since then despite an advertising blitz by the soda industry, which is trying to block implementation.
The new restriction is scheduled to begin March 12, assuming the industry's legal challenge is unsuccessful.
Restaurants and other food shops that derive at least 50 percent of their revenues from prepared foods will no longer be able to sell caloric drinks larger than the 16-ounce limit.
Supermarkets and grocery stores -- which include the 7-11 chain and its trademark Big Gulp gigantic sodas -- aren't affected.
In other poll news, Ed Koch moved up to second place in the ranks of the city's best recent mayors.
Rudy Giuliani still led with 31 percent of the vote; Koch was next at 25 percent, and Mayor Bloomberg took third place with 24 percent. Before his death, Koch had 20 percent in a July 2011 poll, Bloomberg had 26 percent and Giuliani 34 percent.
Black voters overwhelmingly sour on Bloomberg's sugary drink ban: poll
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Black voters overwhelmingly sour on Bloomberg's sugary drink ban: poll
