Occupational Licensing/Permitting Gone Wild
SF Chronicle -- "Novella Carpenter (pictured above) took over a vacant lot on a hardscrabble corner of West Oakland eight years ago and turned it into a working farm of vegetables, goats, rabbits and, sometimes, pigs. Carpenter milked goats, made cheese and ate much of the produce. She also wrote a popular book, "Farm City," about the experience and became an icon of the Bay Area's urban farming movement.
But the future of her Ghost Town Farm is in question. This week, Oakland officials suggested it may need to close. The reason: She sells excess produce for about $2,500 per year and needs a costly permit of several thousand dollars to do so."
MP: Hey, here's an idea: Couldn't Novella apply for farm subsidies?
HT: Roman P.
10 Comments:
Oakland is California's Detroit for the most part...
Carpenter paid $30K for a piece of nowhere, why wouldn't the city be happy they're collecting property taxes on it?
"Candell agreed that the zoning is outdated. But he said the rules nonetheless have to be followed"...
Ahhh, the government parasite falling back on the Nuremberg defense, who would've guessed?!?!
Madness. Kalifornia wan't to leagalize MJ, but they will put a gardener our of business? Let's sell KA to Mexico for the cost of a 20 foot wall along the border of KA and MX.
Over and over again, we are finding out it is local government that stifles free enterprise.
Try building a skyrise condo in Newport Beach Ca, farming in Oakland, driving a Jitney in NYC, or push-cart vending in Phoenix.
BTW, I understand there will be a lot of farming in Detroit's future.
Madness. Even in Oakland that can't be the highest and best use of that resource.
Jeez if she makes 10% profit, she needs to sell 15000 worth of stuff, just to pay the interest on the land. The only money in this is from the book, and speculation on the land.
The county is after the wrong activity: they should be looking for a business and professional license.
If there is farming in Detroit's future, it will be industrial .
Carpenter paid $30K for a piece of nowhere, why wouldn't the city be happy they're collecting property taxes on it?
Logic is never the primary concern of bureaucrats. If they were logical most of them would be out of jobs because 99% of what they do would be unnecessary.
vangel-
as i have said many times, you will never, ever see a press release that looks like this:
"we the governmental body empaneled to study XXXXX have determined that XXXXX is, in fact, not an issue and requires no regulation, subsidy or further study. therefore, we will be immediately disbanding and refunding the remainder of our budget to the treasury."
Yachtsman said, "Let's sell KA to Mexico for the cost of a 20 foot wall along the border of KA and MX."
Best idea I've heard all week.
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