Stoopid Is As Stoopid Does

Alec Magnet has a good story today in the NY Sun on the effort by Councilmember John Liu to pass a new law (Intro 731) that would ameliorate the impact of Intro 699, the original legislation aimed at regulating stoop stands sponsored by the Councilman and opposed by the KASBSC and the Alliance. According to Liu the opposition to 699 was generated by "scare tactics" initiated by the city's DOT.

This is certainly news to the hundreds of fruit stand operators who rallied in front of City Hall last week in opposition to 699 (Perhaps brainwashed by the militant cadres at DOT). Their concerns, outlined in yesterday's post, was that the increased oversight would cost operators more in licensing fees and many would be forced out of business by arbitrary enforcement standards, standards that Mr. Kim of the KASBSC has shown to have no correlation to the protection of pedestrian safety or mobility.

As the Alliance's Richard Lipsky points out in the Sun today, the idea of a task force, the essence of the new Intro, is a good one but should precede any new enforcement regulations. The city should be armed with at least some data before embarking on a new regulatory scheme that will, like all others in the past, end up costing law-abiding shopkeepers millions of dollars.