Tuesday, February 3, 2009
40 Jealous Whores / Politics / Woods Urban Pioneers Never Say Die in War Against Drunken Bums
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 5:11 AM
Jameson and Gilmore have amended their bill to try to placate critics. (Who would criticize such an altruistic effort?) The proposed ordinance originally contained a "yuppie exception," which would have permitted the sale of tasty microbrewery products by the bottle. You couldn't buy a can of Bud or PBR, but you still could saunter into any downtown market and walk out with a frosty bottle of Red Hook. Well, that exception now is gone.
As Jameson tells Michael Cass, now "we have a very clear statement of what's prohibited. It's all singles." No sacrifice is too great for our hearty Urban Pioneers when it comes to making downtown a special place for all. Another amendment would make the ordinance expire after a year. The council could then decide whether to extend the ban.
We're beginning to think Jameson owns stock in a mouthwash company. We're predicting passage of this bill will cause a sharp uptick in sales of Scope on the streets of this mean city.
Bloggers give the pros and cons of this proposed ordinance.
Comments (5)
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Those who go before the Council in support of this are a more diverse crowd than those who call themselves "Urban Pioneers." Some of us simply support making our community better rather than sticking in the status quo.
Good to see you dropped the greater "enforcement" meme, which you could not back up. That sounds real sexy, but it is also hallow if you pay any attention to actual lived experience and police ledgers rather than writing in abstract concepts.
Keep in mind that your side is the one with slum lords, the developers, and beer industry lobbyists. You write "Bud or PBR" as if it makes you some kind of working class prophet, when in reality you're just defending the profit margins or corporate elites who help you get your drink on when you finish your copy. Those elites don't give a rat's ass what homeless people drink as long as it is their product. If Scope becomes the single serve of choice then Anshueser-Busch is more likely to acquire Proctor & Gamble than squeaky clean Mike Jameson is to purchase mouthwash stock.
But don't let that stop your bleeding heart routine. I'm sure you do a lot for the homeless and urban communities beyond defending their consumption patterns in print.
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Mike, I live across the street from a convenience store that sells 40s. There used to be a problem with loitering and associated crimes. But the owners took a strict approach, telling customers to move, going through the no trespass waiver process, and putting up cameras. Problems are very rare.
This solution punishes good and bad market owners alike to solve a problem that should be handled by existing regulations. And it is an infringement on my liberty. What if I want to buy a single beer, which I've done before? What about all of the people who buy their 40 and quietly go home to drink it?
I think this is a terrible, draconian solution. Market owners who have allowed criminal behavior have been driven out of business by legitimate, existing regulation and good policing. Look at the Nile Market. Passing a law that is an infringement upon the liberties of law abiding citizens to deal with a few lowlifes is a sad sacrifice of freedom for expediency.
DG:
You're raising the enforcement issue like the anti-ban side has been doing since this bill was introduced. Where is the evidence that police are not enforcing laws? Volcano Tobacco Market was cited 55 times and closed for two weeks last year because they were allowing on-site consumption. How does that not count as enforcement?
The neighborhoods around Marathon Village did what they had to do to close down Nile Market. And by supporting Gilmore's bill, Salemtown Neighbors are doing what we have to do to shut them down. I prefer to have documented and reported violations during Volcano's two week beer board mandated prohibition that would have closed them down. However, in that two week period they didn't sell beer, all of the bad behavior went somewhere else. That tells me the ban works. I don't have much pity for good convenience store owners who don't lift a finger to get beer companies to lean on the bad ones or who couldn't care less that our neighborhood kids load on and off buses right in front of Volcano.
You refer to this as if it were an issue of freedom. Nobody's basic freedoms are being sacrificed in regulating commerce. It may not be as convenient to get single serve beer for inner loop denizens, but there is no civil rights violation going on here. If the free market actually weeded out bad owners, then I would agree. But sometimes government regulation is the only thing that can will get their attention. The owner of the property on which Volcano sits is well-placed Nashvillian Kenny Norman who has made it clear over the years that he is not interested in ending the blight. So, our only recourse is to work with Metro Council to win what we can.
Eh? What about the "lowlifes?" Those horrid wastrels who are "the problem." Are you all so precious that you cannot bear to see anyone less fortunate than yourself, can't stand to be confronted by a whiff of body odor, a person without a home, where that single sale 40 could be consumed in warm privacy and the urination take place in upscale splendor.
I am really tired this complacent assumption that "riff raff" "human trash" should just be swept away so your perfect little lives aren't sullied by any little reminder of life's imperfections. If Nashville were real, street people would be a fact of life and you'd have to suck it up, avert your eyes from the bundles sleeping on grates, close your ears to the imprecations of the madmen, close your pockets to the panhandlers, and close the door to your high-end luxury condo with some degree of gratitude that there but for fortune ...
Alas, Nashville is so fucking unreal.
