Berkeley Proposes Tax on Disposable Food Containers

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Muse

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
41,034
10,287
136
Capt Caveman said:
Yeah, you could have easily googled it or gone to your city's website but whine instead.
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Why do you have to get personal and turn it into an indictment? What is it that makes you turn me into a target for condemnation? Ad hominem, it's called. "Before you accuse me take a look at yourself." You've obviously got a problem. Don't ask me what it is, I don't know. You do, if not consciously, unconsciously.

Did it occur to you that I wanted to get others' reaction to this news, not that I am aggrieved or concerned so much with what happens with it? I don't really give a shit, I hardly ever eat out. What bothers me is that they often don't take care of the bigger issues in this town and deflect from themselves by grandstanding in bizarre positions. That's Berkeley politics.
 
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boomerang

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
18,883
641
126
Maybe the money is getting funneled to the state to help fund painting the streets white? That's kinda racist but then again, those streets have been black for a long time.
 
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fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
88,073
55,604
136
Muse said:
Maybe you saw the news... in my town (Berkeley, CA) the city council is on the cusp (they may have done it last night) of adding a $0.25 charge when you get take-out at any shop in town. They figure it will cut down on the litter problem. I think they are daft. It will have zero effect other than taking a quarter out of the customer's pocket and putting it in someone else's pocket, I don't know who. They will do this even if your take out container is recyclable cardboard, they don't care.

Traditionally, Berkeley City Council hosts "lefties" who think they are on the forefront of politics, the leading edge of progressive, forward thinking, planet saving movements. In reality, they are something quite different and are neglectful in important ways. The streets here are abominably maintained. Rather than take care of pressing issues they take up some new cause nobody else does and pat themselves on the back and think they are doing a fabulous job.
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While I agree that Berkeley should be first and foremost concerned with building more and denser housing, (upzone EVERYTHING) this is also an exceptionally good idea.

Research shows that even small fees, like a nickel for plastic bags, has a dramatic effect on consumer behavior.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...drops-85-per-cent-since-5p-charged-introduced

So really you should be all for this, it’s smart public policy. Use that time calling the city council to instead tell them to ignore the NIMBYs.
 
Muse

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
41,034
10,287
136
Moonbeam said:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/americas-smartest-cities-from-first-to-worst?ref=scroll
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Where it says this:

#2, SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND-SAN JOSE


Metro Area Population: 6,093,729


Daily Beast IQ Score: 165


Like Raleigh-Durham, the Bay Area’s great universities (University of California-Berkeley) spawned a world-class technology hub, and the brains follow. On a per capita basis, the number of people with college and graduate degrees was right at the top. The Bay Area only fell short of No. 1 because of a relatively low score in political engagement, undercutting the reputation of this notorious activist hotspot.
 
Muse

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
41,034
10,287
136
fskimospy said:
So really you should be all for this, it’s smart public policy. Use that time calling the city council to instead tell them to ignore the NIMBYs.
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Perhaps. I'm not written in stone by any means.

NIMBY = Not in my back yard

Honestly, I wasn't hot under the collar on this. I was in the thread about Subway declining and I remembered the Berkeley proposal and thought to myself why not post and get other's reactions. I wanted to bounce this off the community. Glad I did because I'm seeing some perspectives that are enlightening. Meantime I was goaded to contact my councilman, something I've never done, but I did yesterday and tagged on a general complaint about the condition of the city's roads. I have called a few Berkeley agencies on occasion, including the Engineer's office complaining about a couple of particular streets, but no action was ever taken to improve those roads.
 
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zinfamous

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,904
31,433
146
Muse said:
You again, you douche. I've never met my councilman, I don't know his email address and I stay clear of fucking FB and Twitter. Telling him I don't like it isn't going to change much. At least posting here some people are finding out about something they didn't know about.

What kind of difference do you make? You have nothing to say other than try to run me down. Get lost.

Edit: There's no info at the city's website concerning how I can contact my councilman.
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I still get emails from my Berkeley and Albany council-people about what's going on, events, town halls, yadayada. I haven't lived there in almost 3 years now.

So yeah, they have emails.
 
dank69

dank69

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
37,463
33,175
136
Muse said:
Maybe you saw the news... in my town (Berkeley, CA) the city council is on the cusp (they may have done it last night) of adding a $0.25 charge when you get take-out at any shop in town. They figure it will cut down on the litter problem. I think they are daft. It will have zero effect other than taking a quarter out of the customer's pocket and putting it in someone else's pocket, I don't know who. They will do this even if your take out container is recyclable cardboard, they don't care.

Traditionally, Berkeley City Council hosts "lefties" who think they are on the forefront of politics, the leading edge of progressive, forward thinking, planet saving movements. In reality, they are something quite different and are neglectful in important ways. The streets here are abominably maintained. Rather than take care of pressing issues they take up some new cause nobody else does and pat themselves on the back and think they are doing a fabulous job.
Click to expand...
I think the idea is you take all those quarters and you use them to clean up the trash and fix the roads, no? Seems reasonable to me. You could get a job cleaning the roads and all those quarters will go into your pocket.
 
Homerboy

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
5,001
126
Incorruptible said:
These leftists can go screw themselves, this is just another tax and shouldn't be brought in.
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And why not? You're choosing to use something that, when it's use is complete, has a cost associated with it's removal and (proper) disposal. If there isn't a tax on that item, the recourse for the more expensive disposal is to build in a tax into your local property taxes (that pays for the general garbage/sanitation disposal). So then EVERYONE is taxed for something that isn't used by everyone. F*ck... that sounds like socialism. You commie!
 
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