Red Mosquito

This is evil, evil stuff--and it's largely hypocritcal, too. Most of the state legislators passing these laws would hate it if the feds did this do them.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/ ... ities.html

For those of you furious at HB2 in North Carolina, that whole mess started with the NC legislature preempting Charlotte.

Green Habit wrote:This is evil, evil stuff--and it's largely hypocritcal, too. Most of the state legislators passing these laws would hate it if the feds did this do them.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/ ... ities.html

For those of you furious at HB2 in North Carolina, that whole mess started with the NC legislature preempting Charlotte.

My understanding is that in California at least, cities are granted charters by the state and are effectively extensions of the state. Its a bit different than 'soverign' states vs. the feds.

This is not the best mechanism to bring activist city councils to heel, but they seem to find no issues outside the scope of their authority. The City of Oakland run by almost any state legislature would probably work more efficiently than local control.

simple schoolboy wrote:

Green Habit wrote:This is evil, evil stuff--and it's largely hypocritcal, too. Most of the state legislators passing these laws would hate it if the feds did this do them.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/ ... ities.html

For those of you furious at HB2 in North Carolina, that whole mess started with the NC legislature preempting Charlotte.

My understanding is that in California at least, cities are granted charters by the state and are effectively extensions of the state. Its a bit different than 'soverign' states vs. the feds.

This is not the best mechanism to bring activist city councils to heel, but they seem to find no issues outside the scope of their authority. The City of Oakland run by almost any state legislature would probably work more efficiently than local control.

Cities will make mistakes, just like any body politic is prone to. But if that's the mistakes their voters want to make, then at least they're making their own bed instead of it getting made for them.

An example here in Boise: the city was once trying to shoehorn Uber into typically antiquated traditional taxi laws. The right thing to do was for Boise to repeal or restructure their own laws...but instead the Idaho Legislature stepped in and did it not just for them but for all cities. Good ends, but terrible means.

OMFG! Do I need to list all the bullshit by my state General Assembly again?

- Invalidated town design committees.
- Handed Asheville's water purification to the county.
- Redistricted Wake County's (Raleigh) school district.
- Redistricted Guilford County (Greensboro) county commissioners.
- Invalidated town restrictions on guns in parks, churches, and/or bars.
- Eliminated town minimum wages.
- Invalidated Durham's pollution controls over their reservoir.
- Invalidated all town/county anti-discrimination ordinances.
- Limited town/county tax initiatives to every other year.
- Invalidated a previous sale of land from the state to the city of Raleigh.

Maybe there are others I'm forgetting.

B wrote:OMFG! Do I need to list all the bullshit by my state General Assembly again?

- Invalidated town design committees.
- Handed Asheville's water purification to the county.
- Redistricted Wake County's (Raleigh) school district.
- Redistricted Guilford County (Greensboro) county commissioners.
- Invalidated town restrictions on guns in parks, churches, and/or bars.
- Eliminated town minimum wages.
- Invalidated Durham's pollution controls over their reservoir.
- Invalidated all town/county anti-discrimination ordinances.
- Limited town/county tax initiatives to every other year.
- Invalidated a previous sale of land from the state to the city of Raleigh.

Maybe there are others I'm forgetting.

Idaho also invalidated local minimum wage hikes after McCall, a resort town that's close to my heart, put such a measure on the ballot. They also forbade gun bans on university campuses, which resulted in this hilarious article.

They also forbade cities from enacting plastic bag bans, even though absolutely no one was even coming close to considering it.

Green Habit wrote:They also forbade cities from enacting plastic bag bans, even though absolutely no one was even coming close to considering it.

I think our state did this too. Some of our coastal counties had bans in place.

Green Habit wrote:This is evil, evil stuff--and it's largely hypocritcal, too. Most of the state legislators passing these laws would hate it if the feds did this do them.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/ ... ities.html

For those of you furious at HB2 in North Carolina, that whole mess started with the NC legislature preempting Charlotte.

Oh this stuff drives me absolutely crazy. Its another indication of just how full of shit most of our politicians are.


The best government is local. At higher levels, they should be protecting the smaller governments ability to function, the rights of all citizens and national security.

If some town in bumblefuck NC wants HB2 let them have it. If Asheville and Charlotte don't let them live the way they want to freaking live.

All this talk of elections and voting and your vote counting, then the higher levels block that and impose their will anyway. It's nonsense.



At the end of the day, it's a stupid law that is woefully unenforceable and has cost the state millions because of pig headed legislators.

tragabigzanda wrote:Where are you in ID? One of my great uncles lived in McCall. I think he worked a dredge in Stanley Basin? My dad's family is from Placerville.

Boise. Both Stanley and Placerville are to the east of the highway that connects Boise and McCall.

Yeah, we ate at the Boise Fry Company when we were there in June

Texas Gov. Greg? Abbott signs "sanctuary cities" bill into law

When I saw Nate Silver & Co. speak in Boise a couple months ago, they brought our mayor up onto the stage to talk for a bit. One thing he mentioned was his declaration of Boise as a "welcoming city", and how very meticulous he had to be in his wording (even though it was clear he sympathizes with the sanctuary city concept) so that he wouldn't be attracting the Idaho Legislature from pulling shit like this.

Yeah, Texas also is considering (or has passed at this point) making all local plastic bag bans illegal. NC is doing that too b/c the Outer Banks banned them a couple of years ago.

B wrote:Yeah, Texas also is considering (or has passed at this point) making all local plastic bag bans illegal. NC is doing that too b/c the Outer Banks banned them a couple of years ago.

Dog owners used to have these to use, but alas no more. We have to pay for poop bags now.

simple schoolboy wrote: Dog owners used to have these to use, but alas no more. We have to pay for poop bags now.

Pretty much every dog owner I know agrees with you. I think the case for plastic bag bans is weak, but if citizens of a local government think it's in their best interest for their community through representative democracy, then that should be their choice to make.

I found this amazing. 75% of people take a free plastic bag. That drops to 16% when you charge 10 cents per bag. Most people don't need a bag, and a small free is all it takes to make people think for a couple seconds and realize that.

tragabigzanda wrote:We have stopped using our cloth grocery bags because A) plastic bags get re-used in our bathroom trash bins, and B) paper bags get re-used for either recycling of other paper products, or for our cat to play with.

A doesn't really matter because those plastic bags you reuse still eventually end up in the trash.

cutuphalfdead wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:We have stopped using our cloth grocery bags because A) plastic bags get re-used in our bathroom trash bins, and B) paper bags get re-used for either recycling of other paper products, or for our cat to play with.

A doesn't really matter because those plastic bags you reuse still eventually end up in the trash.

But it additionally serves the purpose of keeping the trash can cleaner.