"The ability of aldermen to opt out of the [Big Box] ordinance for their wards makes sense," Mayor Daley said.
"Why not?"he asked. "If [Ald.] Joe Moore believes he does not want a big box, fine, I understand that. They don't have to have them in their wards."
"But aldermen who are desperate for development and jobs for their constituents should be able to pursue them, the mayor said.
Updated:
* Today Alderman Moore pulled off one of the biggest stunts the city of Chicago has seen in recent memory. And won. Forget Foie Gras. Forget diapers on horses.
* His ward suffers greatly with poor or no economic retail with Gateway Mall, Howard Street and Morse Avenue. (We don't include crack in this survay.)
* He helps support a slaves wages under Special Service Area tax #19 and # 24 with the janitors pay wages.
What do you think?
13 comments:
Daley attempts to portray proponents of a living wage as opposed to big box stores. The "opt-out" idea is Daley's pathetic 11th hour attempt to kill this bill. We are supposed to be One City, not 50 villages with different laws. Daley's just trying to set the Aldermen against each other, cynically counting on the aldermen to drool at anything that gives them an expanded "aldermanic perogative." Tomorrow we will see if any aldermen try to suck up to Daley and bring a poison-pill opt-out amendment to the floor, even though it was already defeated in committee.
If anyone wants to be able to tell their grandchildren they witnessed a Chicago City Council vote that is NOT unanimous, get down to City Hall tomorrow.
Hugh, are you saying that you are in favor or against this ordinance?
JoMo continues to be an embarrassment. The fact is, living wage ordinancess INCREASE UNEMPLOYMENT. JoMo's utopia vision of a foi grois free existence with full employment will never happen. I say bring in the Big Box stores. Nobody complains about HomeDepot or Target being in the City. Just don't give anyone TIF status. TIFs are bad for the individual tax payer.
The big box ordinance would impact more than just Walmart and the discounters. Bloomies and, presumably, Macy's (the old Fields) would also fall under the regs.
If anyone thinks these min. wage laws work in practice they should go spend some time in Germany, for instance. Unemployment has been so high, because it's expensive to hire and almost impossible to fire employees (including for non-performance) that even the all powerful and once Communist unions are backing off.
There should be a rule that all elected officials have to take at least one economics class and pass an exam.
Joe is such a dummy. He kisses union ass to consolidate his power (thus ensuring that we probably will be stuck with him for another 6) but he's also just helped Walmart to put smaller competitors out of business.
Has anyone noticed that Walmart didn't exactly fight it in it a big way? Now why wouldn't they fight? Perhaps because they see this as competitive advantage? Build a store, pay people more, and put your competition like Ace Hardware right out of business! Go Joe. You just helped Walmart put the smaller guys out of business. Clark Devon Hardware: bye bye. Mega mall: see ya later. Marshalls: it's been nice knowing you.
Anyone care to wager how long it will be before we have a Walmart in RP? Oh, son of Sam, there's a nice spot on Clark. . .
::::POLL::::
Moore was on TV this morning saying that he supported this because the majority of his ward supported it. Can we get a quick poll of you supported this ordinace?
I did and still do not.
> I am opposed ... to discriminating against a particular catagory of businesses, whether they be large or small.
Size matters in regulatory law. If you browse the Illinois Compiled Statutes, you will quickly note that about a third of it by weight applies only to "municipalities of 800,000 or more" or some such. Legal distinctions based on size are common. This new law will pass muster.
> It seems to me that Daley has the right idea. Let them choose.
OK, back to the original topic: the idea of an opt-out clause.
As I posted earlier, Daley's proposal was a tactic, not a serious attempt at improving the legislation. ANY legislation that Daley opposes, if he detects some division within the Council, he can always propose "why not make it on a ward-by-ward basis?" and throw a monkey-wrench into the works, distracting the Aldermen with an offer to expand their authority. But let's briefly consider the issue of ward-specific laws in general.
Laws on a ward-by-ward basis are a dangerous trend, and one which all right-thinking citizens need to oppose. We are supposed to be ONE CITY. Such laws threaten to devolve us into 50 villages with 50 dictatorial mayors (further than we already are, for example in the area of zoning).
Take for example: late last year Ald. Stone passed a new law of the City of Chicago, an ordinance banning push-cart vendors, IN THE 50th WARD!
The ordinance was introduced by Stone on 7/27/05, and it was refered to the Committee on Finance.
http://council.forum49.org/Journal-2005-07-27-053.pdf#page=38 , p. 54610
A substitute version was passed by the Finance Committee on Monday, 9/12/05.
http://www.chgofinancecomm.chi.il.us/agendas/2005/09122005_main.html
... and passed by the full City Council on that Wednesday, 9/14/05.
http://council.forum49.org/Journal-2005-09-14-003.pdf#page=12 , p. 54713
Less than 2 months start to finish. The City Council can act with astounding alacrity at times.
The ordinance as originally introduced was entitled
"TO RESTRICT PEDDLING IN CERTAIN AREAS WITHIN FIFTIETH WARD,"
The ordinance as passed is entitled
"RESTRICTION OF PEDDLING WITHIN BOUNDARIES OF FIFTIETH WARD"
and applies EXACTLY to the area of the 50th Ward.
The ordinance presses our CITY Police Dept. into service to round up offenders, as if they don't already have enough on their plates. Now an ear of corn slathered in mayo may not be your idea of a tasty summer snack, but this idea of ward-specific laws has some serious good government implications. Unclear is why if push-cart vendors are such a bad idea they are only a bad idea in the 50th Ward. Consider the US Senate: Durbin and Obama are not in Washington handing down laws for the State of Illinois, neither should each Alderman be legislating for his home ward. Our City Council is supposed to be putting their heads together and acting as a COLLECTIVE, considering the common good of ALL Chicagoans. We need to encourage them to do so. But rather than do the heavy lifting of developing concensus across the diverse membership of the City Council, it seems the Alderman often prefer to exercise their "aldermanic prerogative," the long-standing cultural convention in Chicago's City Council that an Alderman rules within his ward.
Many people who work in these stores are young high school kids. I'm sorry, but a high school kids working part time as a retail job does not need to be making $10/hr.
If the city feels that the state or federal mimimum wage is too low, then they should increase it across the board.
One thing caught my eye from the articles this morning. The amount of support this got from the unions. This whole thing is about the unions not being able to get a foot into these businesses. So, they went around them and got the aldermen who they have in their pockets to enact this idiotic plan.
It is interesting that all these alderman, union leaders and such are so much in favor of this. yet anyone with any business sense, such as the chicago chambor of commerce thinks this is abad idea.
The opt-out plan may set a bad precedent, but the wards that this is really going to affect were against this proposal. Most of these aldermen are jokes. They don't have common sense, they don't dig into the facts and learn about the issues. They are playaing a big political game. They will just follow along with what anybody says, as long as that person looks confident, or can get them some good TV time.
They are making this city a laughing stock.
Get out the smelling salts, people. Walmart is lobbying Dem politicos and Dem politicos are doing their bidding in return for campaign contributions and the like. You guys are falling for it!
Try this bit of info on for size: "Wal-Mart has hired a consummate DC insider, Democratic strategist Leslie Dach, as its executive vice president for corporate affairs. Dach advised President Clinton during the impeachment, and has been working at Edelman, the DC consulting firm responsible for Wal-Mart's recent PR offensive, which has included a call for a higher minimum wage and federal regulations on carbon dioxide emissions--both regulations that will harm Wal-Mart's competitors more than they will affect Wal-Mart. Tim Carney, author of The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, laments this development. "Wal-Mart has previosuly prided itself on fighting by the rules of the free-market, and being good country boys from Arkansas. Now they have tangled themselves up with Washington, and their subsidy-suckling and regulatory-robber-baronry will accelerate.""
One of the reasons I choose to live in the city is the choice and uniqueness of shopping provided by independent merchants. The last thing I want is more chains/franshises of any type and the "vanilla flavor" they bring to a neighborhood. Don't we already have enough strip malls?
“No business which pays less than a living wage to its workers has any right of existence,” said chief sponsor Ald. Joe Moore (49th), quoting Franklin D. Roosevelt. “Those words ring just as true now as they did then.”
City Council approves big-box wage ordinance
By Greg Hinz, Crain’s, July 26, 2006
DevCorp North serves the local business community by administering an Illinois-state sponsored program to provide local businesses with workers paid below minimum wage, let alone a living wage. DevCorp North's "special service area" employees are paid in food stamps with no benefits. Please support a living wage for Rogers Park's most visible and most abused workers.
With a good vision small stores can still exist. Take a trip to the Morse Grocery store. They are doing better than ever before. And, take a look at the products they sell. 90% of them are produced right here in Chicago. Dairy from Wisconsin.
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