Chicago politicians getting in the way of business

[Kat]

Lowe's puts hold on 2 city stores

Lowe's has halted plans for two home-improvement centers in Chicago while Mayor Richard Daley weighs whether he will try to block the city's new "big-box" minimum-wage ordinance, a South Side alderman said Tuesday.... Daley opposes the ordinance, which was passed by the City Council on July 26, but he has refused to say whether he would veto it. He has until Sept. 13 to decide whether he will exercise his veto power for the first time in his 17-year tenure as mayor.

Officials of Wal-Mart Stores have said that as many as 20 new outlets in Chicago that had been in the planning stages were on hold because of the ordinance. And last week, it was revealed that Target Corp. has taken a similar stance on a list of planned stores here. They include one that was to have been an anchor of a $90 million shopping center on a long-vacant site at 119th Street and Marshfield Avenue and another that was to have anchored the Wilson Yard development, a $113 million project in Uptown.

Burke Limits No-Fat Proposal To Fast Food Giants

Some balk at Chicago's activist aldermen

Alderman Burke, who led the winning fight to prohibit smoking in the city's bars and restaurants, is crusading against trans fats in cooking oil. Restaurants controlled by companies with at least $20 million a year in sales would be forbidden to use the substance. .... The council's activist streak is well-etched. Chicago was one of the first cities in the United States to ban handguns and to require signs in restaurants and taverns advising women that alcohol can be hazardous to fetuses. ...

Mayor Richard M. Daley is steamed about the move to ban trans fats. ``Everybody is health conscious," he told reporters, ``but is the City Council going to plan our menus?"

I started to write a little bit earlier about these silly laws in Chicago on a thread by Rich but the thread got eaten in the disaster of July 2006. I am glad I moved out of the city a couple of years ago, it is not a capitalist friendly town nowadays. Hell, they want to tell restaurants what kind of food they can cook (foie gras is illegal) and what type of oil they can use. They ban smoking everywhere rather than leave it to the businessowners discretion. What if the owner smokes?

It doesn't seem to end in the Windy City. The city Council has recently passed a new minimum wage for, get this, big box stores only. How fair is that? Lowes, the big home improvement store, has just bowed out of opening two stores in the city, Target and Walmart walked away too. There is a huge shortage of big box stores within the city to begin with and realistic plans to build some have just been shelved thanks to the new law. The city is shooting itself in the foot.

Business people and the citizens of Chicago do not need to be treated like crooks, idiots and incompetents just because certain members of city council fit that description and choose to worship at the church of Science in the Public Interest. It is time for Alderman Ed Burke to retire and Mayor Daley to finally use his veto power. Enough is enough! Nobody needs that much government.

Kat

[Kat]

I am happy to announce that Mayor Daley of Chicago finally grew a pair and vetoed the ridiculous big-box minimum wage bill.

Daley defends 'big box' veto

By Mickey Ciokajlo

Tribune staff reporter

Published September 12, 2006, 8:25 PM CDT

Flashing hints of a campaign speech, Mayor Richard Daley forcefully defended his veto of the "big-box" minimum wage ordinance Tuesday, saying the measure will unfairly keep stores out of black city neighborhoods, where jobs are needed.

Clearly framing the issue in racial terms, Daley pointed out that unions and others had not protested over wages when dozens of big-box stores were built in the suburbs and in white areas of the city.

Daley faces potential challenges from prominent African-Americans in next year's mayoral election. To rally support in favor of his veto, he packed a tent on the city's Far South Side Tuesday with black supporters.

The mayor appeared poised to win his veto battle with the City Council, which is to vote on an override on Wednesday. In the weeks since the measure was passed, Daley has persuaded at least three aldermen to change their votes, giving him the margin he needs.

Ignoring the shouts of protesters, Daley said Tuesday that he used his veto power for the first time in his 17 years as mayor because he believed it was unfair to require higher pay at stores in the city. Big-box retailers have threatened to cancel plans to build stores in Chicago if the ordinance takes effect.

"Not one person objected to any type of store in the suburban area," Daley said. "No one said the community [was] wrong, or church leaders."

Lowering his voice and hunching over the lectern, Daley added, "Only in the West Side. Only in the South Side. ... At the same time it was all right for the North and Southwest Side to get the big boxes before this. It was all right. No one said anything. But all of a sudden we talk about economic development in the black community—there's something wrong there."

The City Council needs 34 votes to override Daley's veto. The ordinance passed in a 35-14 vote on July 26 but one supporter—Ald. Manny Flores (1st)—is out of the country and three others said Monday that they would change sides and support the mayor.

(read entire story)

[Kat]

New York jumps on the Bandwagon

I sometimes bitch and moan about the food police having too much control of Chicago politics. Well, the poison is spreading. Not to be outdone, New York is considering an even stricter ban on trans fatty (aka partically hydrogenated) oils than Chicago.

NYC weighs ban on artificial trans fats

By David B. Caruso – Associated Press

Published September 27, 2006

NEW YORK -- Three years after the city banned smoking in restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids.

The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar cooks at the city's 24,600 food service establishments from using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance, commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil.

Artificial trans fats are found in some shortenings, margarine and frying oils and turn up in foods from pie crusts to french fries to doughnuts.

Doctors agree that trans fats are unhealthy in nearly any amount, but a spokesman for the restaurant industry said he was stunned the city would seek to ban a legal ingredient found in millions of U.S. kitchens.

[...]

Read the story in the Chicago Tribune:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi...hi-business-hed

People are realizing how utterly ridiculous the Chicago ban on Fois Gras is. Mayor Daley has called the law silly and wants it repealed. I think this type of nanny legislation is beyond silly and as long as restaurants are not out there serving up unsafe or contaminated foods, human flesh or our beloved pets for food, government should stay the hell out of their kitchens. You know they will be in our grocery stores and soon our own kitchens if they gain momentum with this type of thing.

These animals are bred solely for the purpose of being eaten, that is the sole purpose of their existence...and no one is forcing anyone to eat the stuff. There are certain foods I don't like and think are treated inhumanely. Lobster for instance. It looks like a giant bug, is fishy tasting and is boiled alive. May be there ought to be a law against lobster! Not! I just won't eat the stuff. It is better to leave the choice to the consumer. No demand equals no market.

Here is the latest on that story:

Foie gras opponents urge city not to repeal ban

By Gary Washburn - Tribune staff reporter

Published September 26, 2006, 6:14 PM CDT

Fearful of a move to repeal Chicago's new ban on foie gras, animal rights advocates on Tuesday urged the City Council to hold its ground on the prohibition. A rabbi and a Roman Catholic priest were among the speakers at a City Hall news conference where Ald. Joe Moore (49th), sponsor of the ban ordinance, invoked the names of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Philip Neri and quoted the Prophet Muhammad and Mahatma Gandhi.

[...]

These politicians really are something!

Kat

[Chris Grieb]

I too am happy Mayor Daley vetoed those two bills. Smoking legistislation is bad all over the country. A town in suburban Maryland tried to ban smokeing outside. It was stopped. There are a huge number of busy bodies in this country.