Portland lemonade stand runs into health inspectors, needs $120 license to operate
It's hardly unusual to hear small-business owners gripe about licensing requirements or complain that heavy-handed regulations are driving them into the red. So when Multnomah County shut down an enterprise last week for operating without a license, you might just sigh and say, there they go again.
Except this entrepreneur was a 7-year-old named Julie Murphy. Her business was a lemonade stand at the Last Thursday monthly art fair in Northeast Portland. The government regulation she violated? Failing to get a $120 temporary restaurant license.
[shakes head]
But wait! It gets better!
Technically, any lemonade stand -- even one on your front lawn -- must be licensed under state law, said Eric Pippert, the food-borne illness prevention program manager for the state's public health division. But county inspectors are unlikely to go after kids selling lemonade on their front lawn unless, he conceded, their front lawn happens to be on Alberta Street during Last Thursday.
1. A 7 year old's lemonade stand requires a $120 permit? WTF?
2. There's a division tasked with enforcing this requirement? What rigorous training does one have to undergo to become "Paul Blart, Lemonade Cop"?
3. They openly admit that the county is unlikely to enforce this.
Then why the hell have it???
I'm just trying to conceive of the hell that poor child went through. No, not the little girl threatened with the fine. I mean whoever came up with the harebrained idea that the county government should levy fines against children selling lemonade. There's some deep-rooted resentment there; I'm wagering at some point in that bureaucrat's life there was an incident involving lemons of some sort that has so thoroughly traumatized them as to bring about this pogrom against small business...
Or maybe they're just power-mad bureaucrats who should be run out of town on a rail. That could be it, too...
That is all.
10 comments:
Claire Wolfe was wrong...it's WAY PAST TIME to shoot the bastards.
BTW, I totally scooped you. ;D
I think that Portland now has one more anti-government 7 year old than it used to.
At least someone finally had some common sense. In the end, the county Chairman apologized to the girl and her mother for the incident:
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/08/multnomah_county_chief_apologi.html
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Multnomah County's top elected official apologized today for health inspectors who threatened to fine a 7-year-old for opening a lemonade stand last week at a local arts fair without a license.
"A lemonade stand is a classic iconic American kid thing to do," county Chairman Jeff Cogen said. "I don't want to be in the business of shutting that down."
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Paul Blart, Lemonade Cop?
Dude, you aren't helping your cause here. Allow me to 'splain.
See, you open with all about the rage and the blood pressure. Then drop the story. I'm right there along with you. "F**K THEM GUYS!!!" Then you drop Paul Blart, Lemonade Cop?
How, exactly, am I supposed to get Throbbing Forehead Vein Angry when I'm falling out of my chair laughing?
;)
tweaker
Speaker . . .
I'll help you get Throbbing Forehead Vein Angry by a story I sent Jay a few minutes ago. Hopefully he'll post it for 10am. Until then, keep laughing.
- Brad
Wraith,
Heh. That's the risk I run when I pre-load posts. I actually wrote this post yesterday afternoon, believe it or not...
Borepatch,
One can certainly hope. Something tells me her mother will still vote for Øbama in 2012...
cybrus,
Apologizing is one thing. Repealing the idiotic law would be a much better outcome...
tweaker,
Heh. What can I say? Sometimes the inspiration, she strikes in the weirdest places...
Brad,
That'll come later (you'll see why)...
He's only apologizing because he got caught at the STUPID.
Without the intarweb, he and his petty dictators would be bringing charges against that rogue lemonade stand operator.
JayG: "Apologizing is one thing. Repealing the idiotic law would be a much better outcome..."
Agreed completely! Though it is good to see someone, when confronted, apologize rather than dig in and make things worse.
Anon: "He's only apologizing because he got caught at the STUPID.
Without the intarweb, he and his petty dictators would be bringing charges against that rogue lemonade stand operator."
Possibly - I can't say whether he is included in the list power-tripping mini-dictators or if he honestly was sorry for what they did to that little girl. I agree, however, that were in not for the internet and the immediate and far-reaching attention it brought, there probably wouldn't have been an apology - or at least not until after the family spent money on court costs.
If you people aren't reading John Stossel's blog, you're missing out.
He did a whole show on this stuff.
http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/
The bottom line is when statist busy-bodies see somebody working hard to make some money, their first thought is "How can I get a cut of that action without dirtying my hands?
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