NoCoPolitics.com

Fort Collins Brewfest Mess

More than 80 businesses in Old Town have signed a petition to move Brewfest out of Old Town Square. 

It seems that many of them have found that it's safer for them to close for the weekend than have to deal with the damage, vomit and drunkenness. 

The event this year drew more than 15,000 paying customers to Old Town over the two days, but some business owners said those people were there to drink, not to shop. Further, they scare off people who would otherwise be shopping downtown, said the business owners, some of whom Tuesday night asked the Fort Collins City Council to intervene with the DBA.

The comments on the petition are telling.  When even bar owners are complaining about a Brewfest, you've got trouble.

That being noted, nearly four years ago we had a similar debate when a bar called the Purple Martini wanted to open up in Old Town.  Local merchants objected, worried that it would just bring in more unruly drinkers. 

It's not entirely analogous, but there's an important point to keep in mind.  At the time, I wrote:

The 25-34 demographic is essential to the long-term viability of Old Town as a retail center.  If you’re over the age of 40, pay close attention to the following sentence, as it might come as a bit of shock.  Many, if not most, members of the 25-34 demographic have never purchased anything in a non-chain retail store.  They buy their jeans at the GAP, their stereos at Best Buy, and the endless knickknacks that fill their new houses at Bed, Bath & Beyond.  They’ve never bought anything in a “Bob’s Electronics” or a “Jane’s Fashions.”

For this demographic, there is a counter-intuitive trust that comes with making a purchase at a chain store.  If you walk into a GAP, you’ve walked into every GAP.  Serious consumers under the age of 35 know the layout, prices and quality of merchandise in their favorite stores. 

Take another example.  Say you have $20 to spend on a meal.  An older consumer might simply go to their favorite locally-owned restaurant.  After all, they know the place.  There is an inherent trust: a comfort level with the menu, the quality of the food, and the ambiance of the restaurant.  For the 25-34 demographic, chain restaurants have the exact same appeal.  They know that what they’re going to get when they walk into a Chili’s and order a burger.  It’s trust based on familiarity. 

We often read about how locally-owned retailers need to adapt to the competition from chain stores by offering better service and a more personalized customer experience.  With the 25-34 demographic, a group which has no connection to the “good old days” of shopping at the corner store, that’s not enough.

Locally-owned retailers must forge a long-lasting bond with the new generation of consumers.  They need to compete for their trust.  Faced with the choice of making a purchase in an unknown local store or a well-known chain store, a younger consumer is going to choose the chain store.  It is up to the local retailer to reach out to this new generation of consumers, create a level of familiarity, and build that trust.

Sometimes the first spark of that long-term retailer-consumer relationship happens through a shop window.  If I owned a retail store in Old Town, the average person who would have been dropping $10 on a drink at the Purple Martini is the exact type of person I’d want as a future customer.  I’d want them looking in my shop window.

Somewhere, there's a balance to be found between attracting younger consumers to Old Town and dealing with the disruption caused by something like Brewfest.  However, it's clear that this year tipped the balance and the businesses have spoken.

Tax Collector for the Nanny State

My sort-of hometown of Concord, New Hampshire* has created a "pay-as-you-throw" program that forces residents to purchase special trash bags.  The bags cost residents $1 for a 15-gallon bag or $2 for a 30-gallon bag.

The question is: How do you get the mandatory trash bags to the consumers?  Simple, Concord figured, we'd just have businesses sell them. 

One problem:

Market Basket, alone among Concord's major supermarkets, has decided not to stock the trash bags. Their logic is simple: Why sell an item for which the store gets no profit?

Why, indeed.

Of course, someone's making a tidy profit.  Here are the details:

The way the program works is the city has a contract with a South Carolina company called Waste Zero. Waste Zero manufactures the bags and recruits stores to sell them. Waste Zero stores the bags in warehouses, and the individual stores contact Waste Zero to have bags shipped to them.

Consumers then pay $1 for a 15-gallon trash bag and $2 for a 30-gallon bag. The stores get none of that money. Instead, the stores must send all the money they collect from the bags to Waste Zero, which takes a cut and gives the rest of the money to the city. Mark Dancy, president of Waste Zero, said his company typically keeps 20 to 25 cents for each large bag.

The rest of the money goes into the city's solid waste fund. Bob McManus, business manager for Concord's general services department, said the money pays for trash collection, which costs about $1 million a year through a contract with Bestway Disposal Services. It is also used to pay tipping fees for trash disposal at the Wheelabrator waste-to-energy facility in Penacook. Those fees are increasing from $43.50 per ton in fiscal year 2009, which ends this month, to $56 a ton in 2010, and to $65 a ton in 2011.

*I'm from here.  Close enough.

Let's Check In on England, Shall We?

Noted over at Protein Wisdom: "Parents of children at a primary school have been banned from taking pictures of their own children at the annual sports day."

Patient "Rights"

When government runs health care, government gets to dole out "rights" to patients based on political expediency (and the election calendar).  That's what's happening in England right now.

Patients will today be promised six new rights to NHS treatment as the Government attempts to push through a new raft of public service reforms in the run-up to the forthcoming general election.

What are the "rights"?  How about the right to see a dentist.  Yes, you read that correctly - in England you rely on the government to grant you the "right" to see a dentist.  (After all, the dentists all work for the government.)

Here's the full list:

*An operation within 18 weeks of patients first seeing their GP

*A free health check-up for all at the age of 40

*Treatment from an NHS dentist

*Die at home if they suffer from a long-term medical condition

*See a cancer specialist within two weeks

*Be treated in accident & emergency departments within four hours.

Whatever its flaws, the American health care system at least starts with the understanding that you have the right to seek out and secure the type of health care you want.

...And in related news from the NHS:

Infertile women have been told they can only have IVF treatment if they are aged between 39 and a half and 40.

The 'cruel and bizarre' restrictions were put in place by NHS managers in North Yorkshire struggling to deal with a huge deficit at their health trust.

Astute "Micro" Take on Health Care

From Mark Steyn:

And yes, if you look on yourself as being part of a government health system of millions of people, getting a bedsore and dying in hideous pain is no big deal in the scheme of things. But I look on myself as being part of the Mark Steyn health system. So if I get a bedsore and die, as far as I'm concerned, that's a 100% systemic failure. The difference between government health care and a private system is that, under the latter, you're free to say, "This dump's filthy. I'm going to the state-of-the-art joint five miles up the road." You may have to get out your checkbook, but ultimately the decisions are yours.

In a government system, the decisions are the bureaucrats', and that's that.

(Micro is, after all, what matters.)

Fort Collins, the Nanny City

This is the video from the Independence Institute's Nanny Panel on June 19. 

Complete lineup is here.

Nanny Panel Speaker: Andrew Boucher

... and Some Days, it Rains

(...and some days you'd rather not arrive to work sweaty... or you have an off-site meeting... or you have to pick up a gallon of milk on the way home...)

Vincent Carroll is flabbergasted at our new Secretary of Transportation's assertion that bicycles are a means of reducing traffic congestion:

Bike paths are a wonderful amenity. I ride on them all the time. We should build more of them. But they will have almost no discernible effect in reducing congestion here or in most U.S. cities in years to come. Weather, commuting distances, short winter days, tight schedules and an aging population — among other factors — make that forecast an absolute lock.

According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, bicycles' share of work trips in 2007 was one-half of a single percent. You could double the use of bikes and it wouldn't nick congestion.

I wrote about my own "Bike to Work Day" experiences here.

The End of McCain-Feingold?

Jacob Sullum asks: "Is the Supreme Court Ready to Overturn the 'Electioneering Communications' Ban?"

One decision, issued just six years ago, upheld a provision of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) that bans "electioneering communications," defined as messages sponsored by unions or corporations (including nonprofit interest groups) that mention a candidate for federal office and air close to an election. Since the Court already has narrowed the reach of that provision, restricting it to "express advocacy or its functional equivalent," it may now be prepared to overturn the ban completely. The other decision the court plans to re-examine, issued in 1990, upheld a Michigan ban on the use of corporate funds to advocate for or against state candidates.

How Destructive?

Well, the Denver Post has an editorial ominously entitled: "Cap and trade or Smoot-Hawley".

Fort Collins Cuts: What Took You So Long?

Fort Collins is cutting $2.2 million from the general fund budget.

Take note of this curious quote:

Residents might not notice the cuts, which include money that was tabbed for travel, office supplies and advertising expenses, Freeman said. In some cases, equipment replacement and facility renovations have been put on hold.

"We tried to make cuts that would have minimal impact on residents and service levels," he said.

Quick question: If residents (i.e. taxpayers) might not notice the cuts, why weren't they made long ago?  

Isn't this a tacit admission that the government still has a lot of cutting still to do? 

During the campaign, Mayor Hutchinson talked about the 13 page "stop doing" list that he implemented during his first years in office, commenting that "in many cases, no one even noticed..."

My comment: If no one noticed that you cut 13 pages of programs, why did you stop at page 13?

Good Thing Someone's Worrying About What We Eat

Now it's PVHS:

As budgets tighten and families look for ways to pinch pennies, a wage cut or a lost job can change how people eat.

When a trip to the grocery store makes a big dent in the piggy bank, it's sometimes easy to reach for boxed and processed fruits that offer quantity but not quality while bypassing fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains, experts say.

Of all of the things to worry about in this world...

Now we're worrying that boxed and processed fruits are not up to the same quality as fresh fruit?  So we're somehow damaging our health by eating applesauce instead of fresh apples or canned tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes? 

And then there's this non sequitor:

A recent American Heart Association survey of 1,000 Americans found that 42 percent planned to make changes in the next six months that may impact their health, such as buying fewer fruits and vegetables.

Wait... weren't we talking about fruits versus fruits?  Let's jump to the obligatory hit on fast food:

"People may be eating out less, but on the other hand people tend to still eat highly processed, convenient foods," Morales said. "Fast foods are still a common behavior."

And, finally, pre-made meals:

People go for the boxed, all-in-one pasta bake rather than buying fresh peppers and broccoli for stir-fry.

So I guess my traditional summer diet of Spaghettios, hot dogs and Fla-Vor-Ice is out?

Don't Worry... These New Regulations Won't Hurt...

The oil and gas companies are having a hard time doing business in Colorado.

Up Next: Your Kid's Lemonade Stand

In Longmont, city councilmember Sarah Levinson is going after an estate sale for not paying sales taxes to the city.

How's this for being an activist for the tax collectors:

"I noticed that they were not collecting taxes for the city of Longmont," said Levison. "I wonder if there is any system to check on when there are professionally run estate sales to ensure that we are collecting taxes. I hate to think that we might have lost several hundred dollars of tax income that day. I'm also wondering whether or not we could connect with the state to find out if they reported the amount of state sales tax and if we could go back and try to collect it. We need every dime we can get these days."

Diggs Brown on Independence Day

READ THE WHOLE THING.

It takes less than a minute to be sworn into military service. It takes a lifetime of selfless sacrifice to uphold the duty sworn to within those 60 seconds.

The men and women with whom I have served understand that obligation. We are dedicated to preserving the union and defending the ideals instilled by our nation's founding fathers.

And, just as they did in Philadelphia 233 years ago, to this cause, we also mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

God bless America and all she stands for.

It's a Freedom of Speech Issue

FreeColorado.com correctly calls out "Clear the Bench Colorado" for its response to the judicial injunction against Amendment 54.

"New Colorado auto fees stir shock, anger"

You don't say.

So say you're working on an old clunker in your garage, and it's a long way from being put back together.  You can either register it now, even though it's not even close to being ready to drive (and pay insurance)... or get hit by a major fine for being "late" when you register it later.

Scott Doyle has the right idea.  Give the people the contact information for the state legislators who voted for the new system:

Larimer County Clerk Scott Doyle had his staff hand out information sheets on the increases and contact numbers for state lawmakers. There is also a new security guard after two recent incidents.

Barack Obama Has Saved 90.5% of American Jobs!

(i.e. unemployment rate jumps to 9.5%)

What Markey Voted For

The costs of "cap-and-trade", explained by Robert Zubrin:

Here's the cheery intro:

While proponents of the bill have sought to argue that the costs of such a system would be negligible, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the bill proposes a massive and highly regressive tax on the U.S. economy, and could potentially cause not only extensive business failures, unemployment and privation within our borders, but starvation among poorer populations elsewhere.

Some specifics (or, just read the whole thing):

...at a rate of $15/ton fee for emission indulgences, the bill would impose a tax of $135 billion per year on the nation. Divided by the U.S. population of 300 million, that works out to a cost of $450 per year levied on every American man, woman or child, or $1,800 for a family of four.

...coal would therefore be taxed at a rate of almost 400 percent. Coal provides half of America’s electricity, so such extraordinary imposts could easily double the electric bills paid by consumers and businesses across half the nation.

...a $15/ton tax on CO2 emissions will also cause an increase in the price of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel on the order of $0.22/gallon. This will not only hit consumers’ pockets, but increase transport costs throughout the economy, thereby disabling businesses and increasing unemployment levels still more.

And:

If you tax carbon, you tax fertilizer and pesticides. If you tax these things, you tax food, and by no small amount. A $15/ton CO2 tax would increase fertilizer production costs directly by about $60/ton, with the cap-and-trade bill’s increased transport costs inflating the burden still more. That’s enough to make many farmers use less fertilizer, and less fertilizer means less food.

David May on the Health Care Debate

David May, president and CEO of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce weighs in with a cautionary note for business.

Rising insurance premiums make it tempting for some businesses to toss the problem to the government and walk away. The unintended consequences of doing so are profound: A huge portion of the economy would shift from being somewhat market-driven to government-operated with all the inefficiencies and politics that implies, quality of care goes down, timely access to care goes down, your personal health-care choices go down and aggregate costs skyrocket.

Nationalized health care will become a massive unfunded obligation and an anchor on our country's economic prosperity. Business people need to become involved, learn the numbers and let Rep. Betsy Markey and Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall know health is a personal matter too important to be socialized.

Taco Bell's Green Menu

Via the Onion, of course.

Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature

Shocking News: College Sofas Might be Biohazards

CSU has ended the "Great Sofa Roundup" because of the fear of bedbugs.

Bedbugs?  Really?  That's the biohazard that they're worried about?  We're talking about free sofas dumped by college students.

Though the local and state health departments have not issued any warnings of increased bedbug infestations, there have been some nationwide reports of problems with bedbugs, said Melissa Emerson, community liaison for CSU and the city of Fort Collins."

It just gave us a reason to pause," Emerson said.

The "Great Sofa Roundup" was a sensible solution to the problem of college students dumping their sofas at the end of the year.  Instead of dumping your old sofa in the alley or paying to cart it off to the landfill, you just brought it to the free swap-lot:

The Great Sofa Roundup allowed people with old couches to bring them to a parking lot for others to take free of charge.

It matched a supply with a demand.  It was convenient, it saved people money, and it diverted a lot of solid waste from the landfill. 

Frankly, people knew what they were getting (and knew that sometimes it wasn't going to be pretty).

But CSU apparently thinks that students (and others) need to be protected from themselves.  So the "Great Sofa Roundup" is no more. 

The Tipping Point?

"Cap-and-trade" subsidizes "the shower Nazi"?

So let me get this straight:

1. I get a job and earn money.
2. Instead of spending the money on something that I may want or need, I send the money to someone in Washington.
3. After paying the salaries, benefits, overhead and rent for whatever bureaucratic department this is flushed through, the government takes whatever's left of my money and launches an advertising campaign to get me to apply for a shower head subsidy.
4. Once I apply for a shower head subsidy, someone else in Washington processes my paperwork (more salaries, benefits, overhead and rent) and mails me my money back in the form of a rebate coupon.
5. Finally, I take what's left over of the money I earned in the first place (i.e. the rebate coupon) and buy a shower head.
6. The shower head automatically shuts off the water flow when the government thinks my shower is done.

Gee.  That makes perfect sense.  How about this for an idea instead: I'll just turn off my shower when I'm confident all of the soap is rinsed out of my hair.  I'll use the money that I'm not spending on government salaries, benefits, overhead, rent, postage, advertising and paperwork to stimulate the economy.

(h/t Junkscience.com)

Markey Makes Herself a Target

According to Politico:

Those likely to find themselves with targets on their back after the 219-212 vote: freshman Reps. Harry Teague of New Mexico, Betsy Markey of Colorado, John Boccieri of Ohio, Thomas Perriello of Virginia and Alan Grayson of Florida and second-termer Zack Space of Ohio.

Here's the analysis of Markey:

Markey

Like Teague, Markey hails from a heavily rural interior West district that is traditionally friendly to Republicans and views environmental restrictions warily.

President George W. Bush received 58 percent of the vote in Markey’s 4th District in 2004.

But running against a weak incumbent, former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, Markey rode President Barack Obama’s coattails to victory last year.

Despite lobbying from several agricultural and energy groups, Markey supported the bill — support that was notable as she had shown independence earlier this year by opposing the House Democratic budget.

Markey didn’t respond to a request for comment about her vote.

Not mentioned is the active lobbying by chambers of commerce and business groups.

The Uninsured

David Harsanyi takes the 46 million number apart, piece-by-piece.

One of the most persistent examples of modern-day statisticulation is the sufficiently true claim that 46 million (it becomes 50 million when senators really get keyed up) Americans are without health insurance.

Taking apart the different groups that make up the 46 million number, Harsanyi identifies:

The temporarily uninsured:

According to the CBO, 45 percent of the uninsured are uninsured for four months or less...

Those who already qualify for another government program but have not signed up:

The CBO estimates that as many as 15 percent of the chronically uninsured are already eligible for help. The Urban Institute (hardly advocates of free-market fundamentalism) found that 25 percent of the uninsured qualify for some program.

Those who might be able to afford insurance:

Turns out that 8.4 million uninsured Americans are making $50,000 to $74,999 and 9.1 million more are making more than $75,000.

The young:

Then again, 27 percent of all adults in their 20s (many, I presume, without offspring) choose not to have health insurance.

(Come to think of it, I've been part of the "uninsured" at a few different times in my life.)

It's the End of the Quarter!

(In other words, tomorrow the fundraising e-mails from candidates will slow down a bit.)

The National Nag

It's bad enough when overly-ambitious municipalities get in the business of spending your money to tell you all of the things you should have learned from your mother.  ("Turn off the light when you leave the room!  Do you think we have stock in the electric company?")

In England, the nannies control the federal government.

The "Climate Change Minister" just put out a nag list to tell you how to be a better Briton.

Here are the recommendations:

"Take a quick shower rather than a long bath."

... Of course, a long bath is presumably better than a long shower, right?  So if you're going to spend a lot of time in the bathroom, we'd probably rather have you soaking.  More clarity, please. 

"Don't waste food: Plan menus ahead, make shopping lists and use leftovers wisely."

... Clean your plate?  But... but... what about the "obesity epidemic"?  And does anyone find it kind of annoying that the government is now telling people to "make shopping lists"?  What's next: "Don't play golf in a thunderstorm"?

"Save on car fuel bills by chaning up a gear a little earlier and keeping your tyres correctly inflated."

... You mean you're still driving a car?  Shame on you.

"Don't use the tumble dryer in good weather - hang out your clothes instead."

... Unless, of course, your neighborhood has a nuisance ordinance against clotheslines.

"Turn the thermostat down by one degree Celsius."

... And if you live in California, the government will do it for you.  ("Celsius" is some sort of degree of temperature that foreigners use.  Substitute "Fahrenheit" and it makes sense.)

"Boil less water when making a cup of tea."

... Really?  We're going to save the world by boiling less water per cup?  What's next: "Use fewer candles on your child's birthday cake"?  ("Tea" is some sort of hot beverage that foreigners drink.  Substitute "coffee" and it makes sense.)

"Use energy efficient light bulbs."

... Just don't throw them away.

Cap-and-Trade Endgame

I like this summary:

Tonight, 50 Democrats lost their jobs and this bill is dead in the Senate.

(Including Betsy Markey.  You don't vote against every chamber of commerce, every farmer, every rancher, every small businessperson... heck, every ratepayer in the 4th CD and get re-elected.)

Knives Don't Cut People... People Cut People

(... thinking about a slogan for the upcoming fight against Obama's knife ban.)

Oh, yes.  You read that right.  Knife ban.

Hunters, whittlers and Boy Scouts, beware - your knives may soon be on the government's chopping block.

The Obama administration wants to expand the 50-year-old ban on importing "switchblades" to include folding knives that can be opened with one hand, stirring fears the government may on the path to outlawing most pocket knives.

Maybe they could just go with this:

The first “anti-stab” knife is to go on sale in Britain, designed to work as normal in the kitchen but to be ineffective as a weapon.

The knife has a rounded edge instead of a point and will snag on clothing and skin to make it more difficult to stab someone.

It was invented by industrial designer John Cornock, who was inspired by a documentary in which doctors advocated banning traditional knives.

I can see it now: New legislation that offers a government rebate when you trade in your stab-friendly knife for the new, nanny-approved model.

(h/t Instapundit)

It's Official: The Nannies Control the Left

File this as the ultimate "Dead Head sticker on a Cadillac" moment.

The Green Party fights against head shops on Haight Street in San Francisco.  (You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Lawmakers agreed unanimously Tuesday to snuff out new shops that sell pot-smoking paraphernalia in the heart of San Francisco's one-time hippie district.

The Board of Supervisors approved a three-year moratorium on new businesses in the Haight that sell the smoking equipment.

At least a dozen businesses sell rolling papers, roach clips and glass water pipes along Haight Street, a popular destination for tourists nostalgic for the Summer of Love.

...

Mayor Gavin Newsom will consider signing the bill, his spokesman said.

"When even the Green Party politicians are opposing head shops, you know it's a legitimate issue," Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said.

Can we now dispense with the notion that the left stands for anything other than government control?

The Pressure's On Markey

So... is she going to side with Colorado business or the White House?

Behind the scenes, the administration worked furiously to help the Democratic leadership garner support for the legislation. Obama, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other administration officials have been calling skeptical lawmakers from both parties for weeks. Energy adviser Carol Browner met with several on-the-fence lawmakers Thursday.

Emanuel met Wednesday with Kratovil and a group of other Democratic freshmen: Reps. Bobby Bright of Alabama, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Larry Kissell of North Carolina, Betsy Markey of Colorado and Mark Schauer of Michigan. Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz was invited for a Thursday meeting.