Re: Mayoral race
Kevin Dempsey Peterson (peterson@ocf.Berkeley.EDU)
Mon, 2 Feb 1998 19:20:27 -0800
On 2 Feb 1998, Seth David Schoen wrote:
> Jelinek then quickly proceeded to describe 10 planks that he said he
> would tout until the November election. He called for free AC Transit
> bus service "within the borders of Berkeley" and said he intends to
> give small businesses and neighborhoods precedence over big
> businesses.
Now, if "give small businesses and neighborhoods precedence over big
businesses" didn't mean, "the evil capitalists are out to enslave us," I
would go for that. A city policy to (say) give a construction job to a
local contractor rather than a national company is a good thing, and if
you don't like it, "vote with your feet."
> Jelinek cautioned that when Berkeley citizens lose their welfare
> money, the city has to provide some kind of assistance. He also vowed
> to preserve Berkeley's architectural heritage.
If a city wants to pay it's citizens to not work, it's no big deal. Of
course, it will ruin the economy of the place, but hey, if that's what
the voters want.
Coming from a Los Angeles suburb (yes, Ventura county, but it's still a
sub urb), the architechture here is definitely worth preserving. Modern
building have no character.
The city is the right level to make descisions like this. Saying, "you
live in our city, you play by our rules" isn't, in my opinion,
"government coercion." There is a case to mde for state level controls
on maintaining the status quo within a city, so that a business which
moves there can expect to be able to operate without the rules changing
over night, and most of the services proposed will be paid for by state
and federal taxes, but it's easier to move to the next city than to the
next state or country.
> But the owners of the neighboring 379-car parking garage, Hink's
> Garage, who have been upset about the Progressive Party's bid to
> demolish the garage to make way for the next Alameda County
> Courthouse, decided to close the garage for three hours yesterday so
> that downtown customers and Jelinek supporters could feel the "pinch"
> of looking for parking in the congested downtown area.
Freedom of speech at its finest. Is there a lawsuit in progress yet?
>It sounds like, unless there's a Libertarian running, Mayor Dean will be
>the logical recipient of Cal Libertarians support -- unless we want to
>advocate NOTA...
I'll be basing my evaluation on practical grounds, isnce I don't think
the libertarian philosphy enters into it in local elections. (That's
the theory, at least, I'll really e basing it on what I hear from other
people, of course)
--
peterson@autobahn.org (preferred)
http://www.autobahn.org/~peterson