Re: Mayoral race

Daniel C. Burton (dan@antispam.autobahn.org)
8 Feb 1998 02:15:33 GMT 

Seth David Schoen <schoen@uclink4.Berkeley.EDU> wrote in article
<6b6k99$f0k$1@agate.berkeley.edu>...
> Kevin Dempsey Peterson writes:
> 
> >>   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."
> 
> What they probably mean is something like "we will grant locally-owned
> business preferential zoning treatment in an effort to keep chains from
> establishing branches in Berkeley".

Basically, special-interest theft-politics in another form.  The big chains
have too little to gain and too little local clout to worry about lobbying
for preferential zoning treatment, while the local ones have a lot to gain.
 The people also have a lot to lose, but not as much individually as the
local business owners have to gain.

Since this is a one-party town, most of the local business owners are
registered Democrats, maximizing their clout.

This sort of thing is a good argument against local zoning authority.  In
Canada there is absolutely no zoning at all on any level and they seem not
to be having too many problems.  You could probably even make an arguable
case that their cities developed in a healthier fashion because of this. 
They certainly don't have as much fo the packed city centers and sprawling
suburbs that we have.

This is also a good argument of how special-interest politics is the
symptom not the problem.  If nobody had the opportunity to steal from
others throught the political system (directly or indirectly, through
regulations), then special interests would have little reason to get
involved in politics.