I’ve taken an unusual tack.
I assume that all the Lefties that surround me and promote white privilege are people of good will with a tired 170 year old ideology that hates commerce and lives in a zero sum world of class hatred. They don't have anything better. No ideas.
What they need is a clear path to a pro commerce policy agenda based on a positive sum world. They could be good people doing actual good, if they have some direction.
So here are some local policy recommendations with that positive world in mind.
Make your city tourist friendly, shopping street friendly and new business friendly.
Start by moving all the street people (commonly called ‘homeless’) to a safe area with sanitation and eating facilities. An area such as a little used golf course for example.
This is important because street people and their filth seriously damage tourism and shopping. They make important amenities impossible to create. Amenities such as water, toilets and seating for the ‘clean’ population of tourists and shoppers.
Immediately create widespread access to water, toilets and seating for a safe and appealing city. Also for decent treatment of old people.
Develop and implement a significant tourist appeal program.
- Maps and guidebooks in a dozen common languages, especially those that don’t use Roman letters. Plus a dozen less common languages.
- Publicly place identifying signs and symbols everywhere in the five most important languages for water, toilets, seating, public transportation, hotels and restaurants.
- Have telephone numbers for public information in two dozen languages.
- Create kiosks in all major tourist areas with native speakers of major foreign languages.
- Review all traffic and pedestrian signage to make sure it is meaningful to all tourists.
Develop and implement a positive program to support retail walking streets and neighborhood retail.
- Extensive and safe parking facilities close to all shopping streets and retail neighborhoods.
- Appealing walking streets with continuous retail and comfortable resting facilities.
- Tax all walking street front footage that is not interesting to walking shoppers. Examples: garage doors, street level billboards, hospitals, churches and empty store windows.
- Have extensive street and sidewalk cleaning programs.
- Encourage interesting and lighted signage.
- Encourage eye level information about food and beverage store options.
- Support all retail that promotes conviviality such as coffee shops.
Create government facilities that issue new business permits in three days.
- Put all permit agencies in one place with all tax and utility permit stations.
- Create severe penalties for any and all agencies that delay new business or business expansion permissions
- Be especially vigilant to support new technologies and very reluctant to restrain new technologies.
- Encourage national brand stores in all tourist areas. Tourists are comforted by business names they recognize.
- Eliminate all discriminatory legislation that singles out businesses for any reason, including zoning restrictions. Most current restrictions penalize low income workers and minorities, like the absence of car washes, cigarette-magazine stores and pay-day loan stores.
Review all legislation on the books that discriminate against low income workers such as minimum wages, no smoking zones and traffic and auto ownership barriers. Low income workers are a necessary and integral part of urban commerce.
Review all legislation on the books that discriminate against entrepreneurs and people who are successful at business such as ‘high income” taxes, transfer fees and penalties for capital gains. Hostility to successful people is counter productive for a healthy urban commercial environment. Entrepreneurs are not stupid; they know when people hate them and when elected officials lie to them.
This is just a start. Get to work all you do gooders who want to improve urban life.
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