No longer content with simply tracking your purchases and banning "offensive" images, he now wants to personally oversee where restaurants go. I'll simplify the bill for you; If you have a take-out restaurant, then your going to be zoned just like if you were a strip club! In order to get a variance from the city, you would need to talk to your City Council rep. And, oh look, Clarke is in control of half of Center City! Namely, the WESTERN HALF! Considering that means everything west of City Hall, the business district and the places where the most revitalization has happened, it's obvious that this bill is here to make life hell for anyone running a business.
Credit where's Credit Due, City Council President Anna Verna is also sponsoring the bill.
Let's not forget what Darrell Clarke also wants to do:
Clarke wants to ban being able to display nooses, burning crosses, and swastikas in public. Being a fan of the First Amendment, as well as belonging to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a First Amendment group, I oppose it with every American bone in my body. It doesn't mean I entirely agree with these symbols, but at the same time, let's consider that the Swastika alone has a VERY long history of non-violence before the freakin' Nazi's bastardized it.
It's all detailed here in Bill No. 070914.
He also wants to pass two other bills. Both would create electronic tracking of beer, alcohol, spray paint containers, indelible markers and etching acid!
Bill No.: 070875 - The bill that would track cigarettes and beer:
http://www.hallwatch.org/councilnotices/bills/1192803462538
Bill No.: 070876 - The bill that would track spray paint:
http://www.hallwatch.org/councilnotices/bills/1192803462937
Now, I'm sure that a LOT more people agree that all of these measures are, well... INSANE! Czar Clarke, this isn't Oceania and we are not the Proles from Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four! This is the USA in 2008, Councilman, and before you decide to take more rights away from us and start tracking up like cattle, realize a few things!
1. WE ALREADY HAVE HATE CRIME LAWS! Your entire proposal to "ban" these images violates the First Amendment! Not only that, but anyone with some basic legal knowledge knows that it is incredibly difficult to prove intent, and in a case like this, where you can not always tell the intent of an artist who uses any of these symbols, your are going to cost the city millions in lawsuits!
Councilman, why create a new law that can hurt the city to create this awareness that this is already a crime to do in order to commit hate? There is hate crime legislation already that covers this!
2. WE ALREADY CHECK IDS! Clarke's legislation to "electronically scan ID's" come down to tracking these legal purchases. There are already laws in effect to make sure that this doesn't happen, so why the extra move? Why track law-abiding citizens?
3. WE DO NOT NEED MORE ZONING LAWS! Mayor-Elect Nutter has already stated and even given a clear plan that he will head zoning code reform, and I feel that we should let him go ahead with this. What Czar Clarke is asking is to give HIMSELF the power to decide where restaurants should go! Not you or me, but himself! Why regulate decent businesses as if they were nuisances or harmful to the community?!
In essence, everything Czar Clarke wants is MORE government in your life! Is that what you and I need?
What we NEED, Councilman, is more ENFORCEMENT OF EXISTING LAWS! We need to make sure that the citizens of Philadelphia are aware that we do have these laws. Your selective laws and enforcement (I can only suspect your behind the recent run of shut downs of First Friday) have hurt Philadelphia and continue to do so!
If your mad as hell about this, WRITE CITY COUNCIL:
1st FRANK DiCICCO Dicicco-1st-District@phila.gov
2nd ANNA C. VERNA verna-2nd-district@phila.gov
3rd JANNIE L. BLACKWELL blackwell-3rd-District@phila.gov
4th CAROL ANN CAMPBELL cambell-4th-district@phila.gov
5th DARRELL L. CLARKE Clarke-5th-district@phila.gov
6th JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI krajewski-6th-district@phila.gov
7th DANIEL J. SAVAGE savage-7th-district@phila.gov
8th DONNA REED MILLER miller-8th-district@phila.gov
9th MARIAN B. TASCO tasco-9th-district@phila.gov
10th BRIAN J. O'NEILL oneil-10th-district@phila.gov
Councilmembers-At-Large
W. WILSON GOODE, JR. goode-at-large@phila.gov
WILLIAM K. GREENLEE greenlee-at-large@phila.gov
JACK KELLY Kelly-at-large@phila.gov
JAMES F. KENNEY Kenney-At-Large@phila.gov
JUAN RAMOS Ramos-at-large@phila.gov
BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN brown-at-large@phila.gov
FRANK RIZZO rizzo-at-large@phila.gov
Also, feel free to buy some Czar Clarke Merchandise. I would love to make some cash off his incompetence!
http://www.cafepress.com/larrysshop/4278795
I have to admit
Somehow it has a little more flair when you say it Larry.
And I was so proud of my catchy title too. ;)
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
Thanks!
To be honest, I'm trying to focus on those three other bills he's trying to pass than the Restaurant one. He has now sponsored a total of 4 insane bills in the last month. This guy just hates us!
The Zoning Bill is a travesty
Bill 070913, which will label take-out restaurants as a regulated use, along with strip clubs and tattoo parlors, is one of the most misguided and poorly thought out pieces of legislation ever.
Because of its broad definition of take-out uses, it would render places like Tony Lukes, the Reading Terminal, South Street, Starbucks, delis, small sushi places etc as a regulated use. Any new use will go to the Zoning Board, and the existing places will be severely limited.
The intent of the bill was to target stop and gos. However, this bill does nothing because it does not affect existing stop and and gos, and stop and gos already go to the Zoning Board because of the take out. The Bill is just plain stupid and wrong.
Call Councilman Clarke and tell him.