RUCO would not have helped at derelict apartment tower, says this week's report from the Manager.
Also: Bill Burckley vs kudzu, the Grimsley pool, and a press release on the food truck trial that explains exactly nothing about what criteria will be used to judge the success or failure of the two-month experiment with freedom of choice.
But wait, there's more!
Order now and you get this bonus analysis of the City recycling RFP.
And now, because I've expressed an interest, I have to read the damn thing. Thanks.
Posted by: Fec | Sep 07, 2012 at 07:27 PM
Regarding the food trucks, I'm also curious to see if a dozen applications are submitted, how are they going to choose the 4 that get to participate...
Posted by: Jim M | Sep 08, 2012 at 09:40 AM
Mr. M, it's explained here -- a lottery of sorts that can rotate more than four vendors through the four spaces, although as Ed has noted, the criteria for evaluating the trial remain a mystery.
Posted by: Roch | Sep 08, 2012 at 10:17 AM
So, did the food truck ban begin with a pilot program, perhaps by limiting the acceptable number of trucks by 4?
Seems unlikely.
Why is there a greater fear of freedom than of restriction?
Why is it so easy to ban an activity while the opposite is treated with such trepidation?
==Privilege licence...(OK)
==Submit an application...(Why)
==Submit a Menu With pricing...(Why?)
==Submit a picture of the food truck...(Why?)
==Limited availability of spaces...(Why?)
==Day Broken into sessions ... (Why?)
==$20 fee per day ... ($650/month no utilities on a marginally profitable venture? (Privilege license taxes paid(Why?)))
Just let them do their thing.
Posted by: polifrog | Sep 08, 2012 at 10:24 AM
The City is one thing when it comes to consistency, they keep screwing things up. There are some people that ask how can the grandover apartment mess have happened and the answer is simple. The answer is who is going to mess with real estate when they invest so much in city elections, some even work in real estate. I wonder sometimes if people in this city even have a clue, they elect people with special interest and then wonder why some get special favors.
The food vendor program is going to be funny to watch fall apart.
Posted by: sal leone | Sep 09, 2012 at 05:12 AM
Wouldn't the inspections have identified the problems sooner?
Posted by: Hartzman | Sep 09, 2012 at 09:20 AM
Ruco would of done that, you have a point Hartzman, but the problem with Ruco is that it was against realators and that will never happen in this city. I will say that we have bigger problems in this city, like weeds growing on property. I just dont get how all those people were put on the street and the city council had no clue, I say fire the person who should of told the council.
Posted by: sal leone | Sep 09, 2012 at 10:45 AM
On the foodtruck fees:
I believe I got the $20/day fee wrong. It is actually $20/day per session.
If the day is broken into two sessions, lunch and dinner, then the foodtruck fee for those who manage to operate throughout the day not including breakfast would be $40/day.
That would be $1300/month for parking 12 hours a day.
$1300/month.
Billy's right. Designed to fail.
Posted by: polifrog | Sep 09, 2012 at 12:53 PM
Forgot the link to Billy's post.
Posted by: polifrog | Sep 09, 2012 at 12:58 PM
"Planned systemic obsolescence is the deliberate attempt
to make a [regime] obsolete by altering the system in which it is used
in such a way as to make its continued use difficult."
Systemic obsolescence
Posted by: Hartzman | Sep 09, 2012 at 01:54 PM
"...rent-seeking is an attempt to obtain economic rent
by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur,
rather than by creating new wealth.
...Rent-seeking generally implies the extraction of uncompensated value
from others
without making any contribution to productivity.
...a more common example of rent-seeking is political lobbying
...to impose burdensome regulations on one's competitors
in order to increase one's market share.
...such behaviors may result in substantial social losses.
Studies of rent-seeking focus on efforts to capture special monopoly privileges
such as government regulation of free enterprise competition.
The term "monopoly privilege rent-seeking" is an often-used label
for the former type of rent-seeking.
Often-cited examples include a farm lobby that seeks tariff protection...
...rent-seeking includes the use of the power of the state or government
to distribute wealth between different groups of individuals."
Rent Seeking
Posted by: Hartzman | Sep 09, 2012 at 01:58 PM
More perspective...
This is $15,000 to $16,000 per year in taxes for a food truck.
A restaurant of 2.5 million in real estate value pays almost $16,000 per year in real estate taxes assuming a tax rate of .6325%.
A restaurant of 1.75 million in real estate value pays almost $16,000 per year in real estate taxes assuming a tax rate of .9% within the CBD.
$20/ half-day may not come across as much, but it is a killer.
Imagine how much the food from one of these trucks will cost you.
Posted by: polifrog | Sep 09, 2012 at 10:04 PM