CPR: On the corner of my block in Oakland sits a small eatery serving everything from donuts to Chinese food to barbecue. Its large picture windows with faded lettering tells you its age and the loyal following of customers it enjoys. Its status is all the more remarkable considering that a new shopping center with chains and restaurants is bustling with customers just two blocks down. The struggle to remain solvent in a changing neighborhood would only worsen if state legislation to ban polystyrene foam returns for a third year in a row. Adding to the burden of small business with the proposed ban is especially senseless when food container alternatives are on the rise organically.
This small eatery was beating the odds against small businesses. It worked around Oakland’s $13.23 minimum wage by using its own labor and closing for a day or two per week. It survived possible rent hikes and attractive buyout offers for its storefront located on a major bus line and blocks from other transit options. Even more, its product stood out amidst a sea of assembly line food options. It was comfort food so conveniently located that even new residents like myself couldn’t resist. They piled the food high in white polystyrene containers that would keep it hot, no matter the walk or bus ride home.
Currently, 116 cities and counties in California enforce some type of polystyrene ban. The patchwork of municipalities that have banned polystyrene range in their scope. Some bans are for government organizations only; others have provisions to ease small businesses into the ban. There’s even a current ban in Oakland, with an exemption for small businesses or anyone who can prove that the requirements to provide a compostable food container item “would cause undue hardship.” However, this exemption isn’t as kind as it may sound, seeing as the steps to prove undue hardship are themselves imposing undue hardship. Owners have to produce financial records and anything else the city requires, taking additional time away from their business to prove their case to officials. more
People are pigs! Has nothing to do with plastic straws, plastic bags or whatever. It’s called littering and not giving a damn!
OT
DJT had a big day today. He just kicked the EU’s ass into submission. Not to reduce tariffs, but to eliminate them. China’s got to be shitting Pork Rolls.
Are we sure the chinks are eating real pork rolls and not ones made from stray dogs and cats and every disgusting creepy, slimy type of seafood like eels etc?
Small businesses are typically run by middle class folks and the middle class must disappear for communism to succeed because it’s in the way.
Shorter: ” Hey! My favorite greasy spoon might close because of laws I voted for!”
I wish California businesses would GET THE MESSAGE that their ultimate goal is (conceptually speaking) a BUSINESS BAN…i.e. free market ban – and GET THE HELL OUT OF CALIFORNIA NOW!
People from 3 World Countries throw their crap on the ground, or out
the window of their Vehicles….No amount of Laws will change this
Go to any Commercial Construction Site and watch the pigs in action.
One of the most Beautiful Highways in the US is US 1 through the
Florida Keys…..Trash all over the side of the Road…
Don’t get Me started on the Cruise Ship Industry…
If it’s a small business in California it never had a chance of getting any bigger.
@Bcattin: And don’t get ME started on disposable diapers. Before we were over run with Mexicans, you never saw these on the side of the road. Now they are everywhere. And truckers LOVE to leave jugs of their urine at their over-night stops. Yup, people are pigs.