San Francisco Government Wants You On Welfare
It sure doesn't seem to want you to open a business and, you know, employ people and pay taxes. At least, that's what one has to conclude from the hell Julie Pries went through opening her ice cream parlor.
I repeat: Her ice cream parlor.
Not her toxic chemicals lab. Not her nuclear warhead assembly plant. '
The lady wants to sell you "house-made ice creams and exotic sodas (flavorings include pink peppercorn and tobacco)," according to a New York Times story by Scott James:
The shop also employs 14 full- and part-time workers.But getting it opened wasn't easy.
"Many times it almost didn't happen," said Juliet Pries, the owner, with a cheerful laugh.
Ms. Pries said it took two years to open the restaurant, due largely to the city's morass of permits, procedures and approvals required to start a small business. While waiting for permission to operate, she still had to pay rent and other costs, going deeper into debt each passing month without knowing for sure if she would ever be allowed to open.
"It's just a huge risk," she said, noting that the financing came from family and friends, not a bank. "At several points you wonder if you should just walk away and take the loss."
Ms. Pries said she had to endure months of runaround and pay a lawyer to determine whether her location (a former grocery, vacant for years) was eligible to become a restaurant. There were permit fees of $20,000; a demand that she create a detailed map of all existing area businesses (the city didn't have one); and an $11,000 charge just to turn on the water.
The ice cream shop's travails are at odds with the frequent promises made by the mayor and many supervisors that small businesses and job creation are top priorities.
The matter has also alarmed some business leaders, who point out that few small ventures could survive such long delays.
Ya think?
She ended up paying those idiots.
She should have left them to wonder why California is beyond broke.
Radwaste at February 9, 2012 2:51 AM
I didn't see anything in there about protection money, but that was probably just an oversight.
Tobacco flavored soda?
Old RPM Daddy at February 9, 2012 4:36 AM
I'm just wondering how Amy is getting away with operating a small business out of her home?
Granted it's L.A. not S.F., but still CA.
How is California like a box of cereal?
Take out all the fruits and nuts, all you're left with is the flakes.
Jim P. at February 9, 2012 5:44 AM
If you understand that the far left intends to eliminate the entrepreneur, than such behavior makes perfect sense.
BarSinister at February 9, 2012 6:39 AM
San Francisco has always been way ahead of its time: the Occupy movement has been running it for years. "Capitalism is war; socialism is peace."
Storm Saxon's Gall Bladder at February 9, 2012 7:22 AM
I got my own small business started late last year, when doing so I considered all my options on the best state to incorporate in...and in all my research California was consistently somewhere in the bottom 6 out of all 50 states.
Robert at February 9, 2012 7:29 AM
The hurdles come with the Liberal Elitist mindset. It's significantly harder to open a small business with a storefront in Austin than it is in other Texas cities. (If it's a large business that's either "green" or tech, of course they'll throw taxpayer money at it, forgive permitting fees, and speed up the whole process.)
ahw at February 9, 2012 8:23 AM
"How is California like a box of cereal?"
Because it has 30 million people in it who comprise the world's, what, 5th or 6th largest economy, with a GSP of $1.9 Trillion, making up 13% of the US GDP?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USA-World_Nominal_GDP.PNG
SF is not representative of California, it's just a tin cup full of crazy, from the bizarre and clueless Board of Supes to the free-range homeless who fill the streets with pee.
My solution was to move out. I got tired of being part of a social experiment that ran its course decades ago.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at February 9, 2012 8:35 AM
ahw..."(If it's a large business that's either "green" or tech, of course they'll throw taxpayer money at it"
And the definition of "tech", of course, will depend on what is currently fashionable. I knew someone who started a metalworking business building an innovative product...he wanted to take advantage of a county "incubator" program, but they turned him down because they were only defining "tech" as computer stuff (dot-coms and software companies). There were no envirnomental issues...this was clean light manufacturing.
I wonder how many of those "tech" companies they wanted so badly are still in business...
david foster at February 9, 2012 9:06 AM
San Francisco passed a payroll tax on any business employing over a certain number of people (25, I think).
However, The City waives the taxes for those businesses it wants to encourage to remain in The City (or the ones who effectively blackmail it into granting a waiver).
So, "desireable" high tech businesses like Zygna, salesforce.com, and Twitter receive breaks while less desirable companies are forced to relocate in order to avoid the tax.
In other words, laws in San Francisco apply to some and not to all. Any wonder critics deride this place as little more than a banana republic (and I don't mean the store chained headquartered here).
Conan the Grammarian at February 9, 2012 9:25 AM
Tobacco flavored soda?
Yeah me too. I keep envisioning carbonated bong water.
Meloni at February 9, 2012 1:08 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/02/your-government.html#comment-2969595">comment from MeloniCouldn't figure that one out either. Then again, I think coffee-flavored and mint-flavored ice cream are obscenities.
Amy Alkon
at February 9, 2012 1:19 PM
"he wanted to take advantage of a county "incubator" program, but they turned him down because they were only defining "tech" as computer stuff (dot-coms and software companies). "
Mostly entertainment-related stuff actually: social media, games, etc. On the other hand, the aerospace industry has pretty much been run off. Most of it's in the Southeast now.
Cousin Dave at February 9, 2012 7:07 PM
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