Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It’s amazing to see DC politicians responding to market forces. Our politicians have spent most of the last decade acting like they could just push whatever far left flavor of the day.
This is what happens when we elect 13 people with exactly ZERO private sector experience. Not a single day in the business world among 13 lifetimes. From a statistical perspective this is about a 1,000,000,000 to 1 outcome, but somehow the voters of DC have pulled it off. Collectively, they are an incredibly unimpressive lot.
Another false claim that can be quickly debunked by browsing the biographies of the members.
Maybe it would be good to have more council members with deeper private sector experience. That is not for you or I to decide, however.
If you feel passionately about this and you have the experience you feel is so important for the council, please mount a campaign. But you might want to consider developing a closer relationship with the truth before doing so.
Ummm. DC nonprofit/attorney/consultant/community organizing is not the same thing as the private sector…
Have any of the Council ever have to make payroll, order inventory, pay rent, build something? Nope. They’re all unimpressive white collar, barely employable hacks.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.
74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)
And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.
But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.
Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.
It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.
Shall we show out all of the results from that election or those you don’t like? Shall we also throw out I-83 because it similarly failed to attract votes from a majority of registered voters? There was nothing else on that ballot - other than uncontested candidates - that attracted such overwhelming support from those who voted in the election. But it is funny that you apparently think very highly of yourself for concocting an argument that is not only stupid but could be used to delegitimize almost any election result in the country.
Special interest groups love ballot initiatives. It's a way for them to get changes in the law that elected leaders would never ever approve. They take some complicated issue and they turn it into a question of whether you love or hate puppies. They carpet bomb with advertisements saying that if you love puppies, then you support their dumb idea, even if it doesn't actually have anything to do with puppies. They always want to do it in an election where few people turn out so that their supporters represent a huge share of the electorate. 50 people show up to vote, they all say they love puppies and then it turns out that two years later, all the restaurants are closing because it turns out the ballot initiative didn't do what they promised.
Let's review a few facts, shall we?
133,000 DC residents voted in favor of I-82. In the same election, Muriel Bowser won the same proportion of the vote running against an Independent, a Republican, and a Libertarian. Other than the mayor or the Chairperson, I-82 won more votes than anyone or anything else on the ballot - more than Anita Bonds or Kenyan McDuffie.
This was a hardly a novel issue.
I-77, which DC voters approved in 2018, concerned the same question. The issue had been discussed ad nauseum in the four years between that result and the I-82 vote. It's also an issue that personally affects everyone who would eat a meal at a DC establishment.
You can complain as much as you want about the wisdom of the majority of voters, but those who showed up to vote on I-82 in November 2022 were about as well-informed about anything they were asked to vote on at the municipal level.
Your issue doesn't thus seem to concern the results of I-82 as it does basic tenets of democracy.
People are so well informed that even today, years later, they still have no idea whether they're supposed to still tip.
Ballot initiatives are a sleazy business. A bunch of lies foisted on informed voters by special interest groups.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.
74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)
And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.
But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.
Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.
It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.
Shall we show out all of the results from that election or those you don’t like? Shall we also throw out I-83 because it similarly failed to attract votes from a majority of registered voters? There was nothing else on that ballot - other than uncontested candidates - that attracted such overwhelming support from those who voted in the election. But it is funny that you apparently think very highly of yourself for concocting an argument that is not only stupid but could be used to delegitimize almost any election result in the country.
Special interest groups love ballot initiatives. It's a way for them to get changes in the law that elected leaders would never ever approve. They take some complicated issue and they turn it into a question of whether you love or hate puppies. They carpet bomb with advertisements saying that if you love puppies, then you support their dumb idea, even if it doesn't actually have anything to do with puppies. They always want to do it in an election where few people turn out so that their supporters represent a huge share of the electorate. 50 people show up to vote, they all say they love puppies and then it turns out that two years later, all the restaurants are closing because it turns out the ballot initiative didn't do what they promised.
Let's review a few facts, shall we?
133,000 DC residents voted in favor of I-82. In the same election, Muriel Bowser won the same proportion of the vote running against an Independent, a Republican, and a Libertarian. Other than the mayor or the Chairperson, I-82 won more votes than anyone or anything else on the ballot - more than Anita Bonds or Kenyan McDuffie.
This was a hardly a novel issue.
I-77, which DC voters approved in 2018, concerned the same question. The issue had been discussed ad nauseum in the four years between that result and the I-82 vote. It's also an issue that personally affects everyone who would eat a meal at a DC establishment.
You can complain as much as you want about the wisdom of the majority of voters, but those who showed up to vote on I-82 in November 2022 were about as well-informed about anything they were asked to vote on at the municipal level.
Your issue doesn't thus seem to concern the results of I-82 as it does basic tenets of democracy.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It’s amazing to see DC politicians responding to market forces. Our politicians have spent most of the last decade acting like they could just push whatever far left flavor of the day.
This is what happens when we elect 13 people with exactly ZERO private sector experience. Not a single day in the business world among 13 lifetimes. From a statistical perspective this is about a 1,000,000,000 to 1 outcome, but somehow the voters of DC have pulled it off. Collectively, they are an incredibly unimpressive lot.
Another false claim that can be quickly debunked by browsing the biographies of the members.
Maybe it would be good to have more council members with deeper private sector experience. That is not for you or I to decide, however.
If you feel passionately about this and you have the experience you feel is so important for the council, please mount a campaign. But you might want to consider developing a closer relationship with the truth before doing so.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tipped wage, marijuana decriminalization, excessive bike lanes, and defunding the police have made DC incredibly hostile to businesses.
This is not what has made DC hostile to businesses. Bike lanes are great. When DC required that we stop providing subsidies for parking (dumbest law ever), at least my young employees can bike to work.
My organization has 150 employees downtown. What makes DC hostile is red tape. It's more expensive to have a business here. No one has to be in DC. We could move to VA and it would be easier and cheaper. Everyone thinks that there is this "business elite" and they have so much money they can waste millions of dollars trying to navigate DC.
Initiative 82 is stupid. DC needs to be more business friendly. If you don't like it, move.
Restaurant owners in 2021: Tipped wages and bike lanes in front of my store will bankrupt us.
DC progressives in 2022: No, I read a study that this was not true one time in Brooklyn. Living wages and bike lanes are super cool.
Restaurant owners in 2025: See you in Virginia.
Why is our restaurant industry so messed up compared to the places in the world where tipping is not a thing?
Because our system was built on tips, whereas they were not in the US. It makes a difference when restaurants are doing their business planning.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.
74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)
And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.
But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.
Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.
It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.
Shall we show out all of the results from that election or those you don’t like? Shall we also throw out I-83 because it similarly failed to attract votes from a majority of registered voters? There was nothing else on that ballot - other than uncontested candidates - that attracted such overwhelming support from those who voted in the election. But it is funny that you apparently think very highly of yourself for concocting an argument that is not only stupid but could be used to delegitimize almost any election result in the country.
Special interest groups love ballot initiatives. It's a way for them to get changes in the law that elected leaders would never ever approve. They take some complicated issue and they turn it into a question of whether you love or hate puppies. They carpet bomb with advertisements saying that if you love puppies, then you support their dumb idea, even if it doesn't actually have anything to do with puppies. They always want to do it in an election where few people turn out so that their supporters represent a huge share of the electorate. 50 people show up to vote, they all say they love puppies and then it turns out that two years later, all the restaurants are closing because it turns out the ballot initiative didn't do what they promised.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.
74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)
And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.
But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.
Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.
It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.
Shall we show out all of the results from that election or those you don’t like? Shall we also throw out I-83 because it similarly failed to attract votes from a majority of registered voters? There was nothing else on that ballot - other than uncontested candidates - that attracted such overwhelming support from those who voted in the election. But it is funny that you apparently think very highly of yourself for concocting an argument that is not only stupid but could be used to delegitimize almost any election result in the country.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tipped wage, marijuana decriminalization, excessive bike lanes, and defunding the police have made DC incredibly hostile to businesses.
This is not what has made DC hostile to businesses. Bike lanes are great. When DC required that we stop providing subsidies for parking (dumbest law ever), at least my young employees can bike to work.
My organization has 150 employees downtown. What makes DC hostile is red tape. It's more expensive to have a business here. No one has to be in DC. We could move to VA and it would be easier and cheaper. Everyone thinks that there is this "business elite" and they have so much money they can waste millions of dollars trying to navigate DC.
Initiative 82 is stupid. DC needs to be more business friendly. If you don't like it, move.
Restaurant owners in 2021: Tipped wages and bike lanes in front of my store will bankrupt us.
DC progressives in 2022: No, I read a study that this was not true one time in Brooklyn. Living wages and bike lanes are super cool.
Restaurant owners in 2025: See you in Virginia.
Why is our restaurant industry so messed up compared to the places in the world where tipping is not a thing?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tipped wage, marijuana decriminalization, excessive bike lanes, and defunding the police have made DC incredibly hostile to businesses.
This is not what has made DC hostile to businesses. Bike lanes are great. When DC required that we stop providing subsidies for parking (dumbest law ever), at least my young employees can bike to work.
My organization has 150 employees downtown. What makes DC hostile is red tape. It's more expensive to have a business here. No one has to be in DC. We could move to VA and it would be easier and cheaper. Everyone thinks that there is this "business elite" and they have so much money they can waste millions of dollars trying to navigate DC.
Initiative 82 is stupid. DC needs to be more business friendly. If you don't like it, move.
Restaurant owners in 2021: Tipped wages and bike lanes in front of my store will bankrupt us.
DC progressives in 2022: No, I read a study that this was not true one time in Brooklyn. Living wages and bike lanes are super cool.
Restaurant owners in 2025: See you in Virginia.
Why is our restaurant industry so messed up compared to the places in the world where tipping is not a thing?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tipped wage, marijuana decriminalization, excessive bike lanes, and defunding the police have made DC incredibly hostile to businesses.
This is not what has made DC hostile to businesses. Bike lanes are great. When DC required that we stop providing subsidies for parking (dumbest law ever), at least my young employees can bike to work.
My organization has 150 employees downtown. What makes DC hostile is red tape. It's more expensive to have a business here. No one has to be in DC. We could move to VA and it would be easier and cheaper. Everyone thinks that there is this "business elite" and they have so much money they can waste millions of dollars trying to navigate DC.
Initiative 82 is stupid. DC needs to be more business friendly. If you don't like it, move.
Restaurant owners in 2021: Tipped wages and bike lanes in front of my store will bankrupt us.
DC progressives in 2022: No, I read a study that this was not true one time in Brooklyn. Living wages and bike lanes are super cool.
Restaurant owners in 2025: See you in Virginia.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.
74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)
And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.
But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.
Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.
It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.
This is why DC's ballot-initiative laws either need to be changed or simply scrapped. DC's electorate is notoriously apathetic and barely shows up to the polls no matter how important the race, and deciding city law because a tiny percentage of city residents votes for it is problematic. The law needs to be changed so that there's a threshold that needs to be met for ballot initiatives, namely 50.1 percent of the registered voters in DC -- not the percentage of people who actually voted in that election -- need to vote yes. Otherwise, the Council is completely within its rights to reverse laws that only a small group of people support.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.
74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)
And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.
But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.
Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.
It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.
Shall we show out all of the results from that election or those you don’t like? Shall we also throw out I-83 because it similarly failed to attract votes from a majority of registered voters? There was nothing else on that ballot - other than uncontested candidates - that attracted such overwhelming support from those who voted in the election. But it is funny that you apparently think very highly of yourself for concocting an argument that is not only stupid but could be used to delegitimize almost any election result in the country.
Setting policy based on the whim of 28 percent of the voting population is absurd, and a recipe for bad policy.
I guess you're fine with Anita Bonds, then? She wins with like 15 percent of the vote.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It’s amazing to see DC politicians responding to market forces. Our politicians have spent most of the last decade acting like they could just push whatever far left flavor of the day.
This is what happens when we elect 13 people with exactly ZERO private sector experience. Not a single day in the business world among 13 lifetimes. From a statistical perspective this is about a 1,000,000,000 to 1 outcome, but somehow the voters of DC have pulled it off. Collectively, they are an incredibly unimpressive lot.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.
74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)
And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.
But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.
Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.
It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.
Shall we show out all of the results from that election or those you don’t like? Shall we also throw out I-83 because it similarly failed to attract votes from a majority of registered voters? There was nothing else on that ballot - other than uncontested candidates - that attracted such overwhelming support from those who voted in the election. But it is funny that you apparently think very highly of yourself for concocting an argument that is not only stupid but could be used to delegitimize almost any election result in the country.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's always a huge helping of magical thinking in DC policymaking. Whether it's Initiative 82 or bike lanes or pot legalization or whatever, it's like the underpants gnomes are in charge of designing these policies.
74% or DC voters are underpants gnomes? (Whatever the hell an underpants gnomes is, not that any of us really want to know.)
And god forbid DC voters might think that restaurants in DC could figure out how to operate the way that restaurants and almost every other business functions almost everywhere else in the world.
But, no, they throw a fit with all sorts of junk fees and nonsense charges just to piss all the customers off, childishly branding I-82 as responsible for their own crappy behavior, and then go crying to Mommy Bowser to get their way.
Well, it ain’t gonna work. There aren’t the votes for this on the Council. Not even Mendelsohn is going to vote for it. And you think that after this, DC voters are going to be even more eager to eat at your restaurants? Please.
It wasn't 74 percent of DC voters. It was 74 percent of the people who voted in that election, or around 28 percent of the registered voters in DC. I know critical thinking isn't your strong suit, but please try.