Long Beach city government often gets complaints for unnecessarily legislating for legislation’s sake, and setting up roadblocks, but on at least one agenda item this week the City Council is looking to “reduce unnecessary impediments” to a certain types of construction.
When I read City Council Item #34, I was pleasantly surprised when it started:
Now, I am sure that solar energy is great and all (we all know the sun isn’t pulling its own weight), but I am reminded of that bumper sticker that conservatives and professional contractors display that says “Make building permits as hard to get as welfare.” The City Council is on the right track, because in my humble opinion, we need more efforts on all fronts to “Reduce Unnecessary Impediments”. That’s all…maybe that can be a bumper sticker.
Just when you think that this City Council has started on a new trend, the fervor is lost, and the City Council returns to its status of not reducing impediments, and even throwing up a couple for good measure.
Item #53 creates the Fourth District Parking and Business Improvement District. Although some could make a case that this action reduces impediments to increased business along the “Funky Fourth”, it doesn’t quite fit in with the spirit of the “Reduce Unnecessary Impediments” crusade.
Item #33 prohibits “rental car and vehicle agency” parking on public streets, unless you are a private individual renting that car. This is put on by Councilmember Schipske, who several weeks ago put up a similar item prohibiting limousines from parking on residential streets. I was unsure before, but now I am convinced of the likelihood that Schipske’s neighbor(s) are operating a rental/limousine business out of their house, and taking all the prime spots.
Item #36 goes counter to it all when it asks that “all communications be received and approved to review demolition permits of significant historic buildings” over 45 years old. That means that any time anyone wants to alter or tear down a house or other structure constructed up until 1962, it has to be run through a city committee. If this isn’t an impediment asking for a bumper sticker somewhere down the line, I don’t know what is.
Finally, the City Council will take its second to last vote on the FY 08 budget. There weren’t a lot of fireworks this year, except for a fizzled out ruckus over City Management salaries. The City Manager’s office found 7 million dollars to put towards the police department’s over expenditures in the same amount, and after all the expense of a special election and pulling his figurative weight around, the Mayor didn’t even use his line item veto. I guess that’s real power.
Regardless, somewhere in that almost 2 billion dollars, there has got be something propping up “unnecessary impediments”. If you have spoken up in the last month though, you are probably too late to do anything. It will have to wait until next year when angry hordes of limousine drivers, old building demolishers, and Republicans storm the council chambers, shouting: “Reduce Unnecessary Impediments! Reduce Unnecessary Impediments!…”