noworldsystem.com

Last week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to make the city the first in the country to ban the sale of cigarettes in pharmacies such as Walgreens and Rite Aid.

And that’s only the city’s latest effort to make us all healthier.

The supervisors also voted to require chain restaurants to post nutritional information, including calories and fat content, on menus. This follows the creation of a program to recognize restaurants that don’t use trans fats and an idea by Mayor Gavin Newsom to levy a fee on retailers of sugary sodas.

The board is also taking up legislation to dramatically curb where smokers can light up, including prohibiting puffing in taxis, lines for ATMs and common areas of apartment buildings. And Newsom wants to close some streets to cars on select Sundays so people can jog, hula-hoop and lay out their yoga mats on the pavement.

What’s next from City Hall? A mandate to eat your broccoli and hit the treadmill 30 minutes every day?

“Next, it’ll be if you’re fat and eating sugar, you’ll get a ticket,” scoffed Chris Carillo, a 41-year-old software engineer who lives in Polk Gulch. “There’s crime on the streets, homeless people congregating, a lot of grime. I’d rather see them concentrate on that.”

San Francisco famously became the first city in the nation to attempt to provide universal health care to its residents and requires employers to provide paid sick leave, both of which are mostly popular ideas in this progressive city.

But when it comes to legislating good habits, some San Franciscans have had enough.

They say they can manage their health just fine without Newsom and the supervisors wagging their fingers at them. And some think City Hall has more important matters to take up.

“The city’s looking very shabby. I’d rather have clean sidewalks than not be able to buy a pack of cigarettes in a pharmacy,” said Bobby Kiel, a 60-year-old retired real estate broker who lives in the Marina. He doesn’t smoke. “It’s not any of their business. They’re not the surgeon general or the Centers for Disease Control.”

But health experts say these kinds of measures are needed, especially as obesity rates in the country skyrocket and secondhand smoke continues to be a killer despite education about the dangers of tobacco.