Pro-CCP groups aided Toronto mayor-elect

Toronto mayor-elect Olivia Chow says her campaign did not ask for help from nor coordinate with two pro-CCP (Chinese Communist Party) groups that "went all out" to support her election.  

Pro-Beijing groups claim credit for helping Olivia Chow win Toronto mayoralty. She says she was unaware | National Post - Tom Blackwell:

July 10, 2023 - "Two prominent community groups aligned with the Chinese government — including one that allegedly hosted a Chinese police station in Ontario — 'went all out' to support Chow’s push to be mayor, supplying numerous volunteers to the effort, a letter from one of the groups claims. A post last month on WeChat from Felicity Guo, deputy secretary general of the Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association (CTFBA), one of the two groups, urged followers to back Chow. The message was accompanied by a photo of Guo, Chow and another woman.

"'We did not ask for or co-ordinate any volunteers from either organization,' said Shirven Rezvany, a spokesman for Chow. He also pointed to the mayor-elect’s longstanding support for opponents of the Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong, and her history of speaking out against Beijing’s human-rights abuses. Chow was supported during the campaign, in fact, by two of Toronto’s fiercest critics of the Chinese regime: Gloria Fung of Canada Hong Kong Link and Cheuk Kwan of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China....

"[I]deological differences aside, the first election of a person of colour as Toronto mayor has been hailed as a long-overdue breakthrough in one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities. But evidence that the Fuqing Business Association and the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO) worked to help get Chow elected on June 26 — even if their participation was not requested (or, arguably, needed) — raises further questions about the involvement of Beijing and its local allies in Canadian politics. Neither group responded to requests for comment.

"Jonathan Fon, a Toronto-based commentator and Beijing critic, said it’s unlikely Chow would have any motivation to promote groups aligned with the Chinese Communist Party. But 'it is a concern that those pro-Beijingers really have the capacity of mobilization among Chinese diasporas,' he said.... The groups’ participation is worrying because 'they work too close to the Chinese government,' said an immigrant from mainland China and small-business owner in the Greater Toronto Area, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution.... 

"A series of intelligence leaks in recent months alleges Chinese interference in Canada’s federal and provincial politics, but there is evidence that Beijing targets municipal-level politicians, as well. A leaked handbook for cadres of the United Front Work Department — a huge branch of the Chinese Communist Party at the forefront of foreign influence and interference efforts — urged officials to 'work with' several candidates of Chinese descent elected in Toronto in the early 2000s. A recent Globe and Mail report cited a Canadian Security Intelligence Service briefing that said Chinese diplomats tried to get sympathetic candidates elected in last year’s Vancouver municipal vote, in part by using diaspora groups that represented Beijing’s interests. Ken Sim, who won the Vancouver mayor’s race in a landslide, has denied that such interference played any part in his victory.

"An article on the Canadian Chinese Media News site reprinted on June 28 a letter of congratulations to Chow from the Fuqing Business Association, named after a city in China’s Fujian province. [T]he letter says the Fuqing group and the CTCCO 'went all out to actively support, and sent a large number of volunteers to participate in the campaign,' according to a translation from Chinese. In the WeChat post, first reported by the blog Found in Translation, which monitors China’s influence, the Fuqing group’s Guo says 'let’s all support' Chow so she will win.

"The association’s ties to the Chinese regime are not hidden. Its website says it was set up under the guidance of the United Front and other Chinese government agencies. The association also lists its headquarters as a commercial office space it owns in Markham, Ont., that state-media in China listed as the site of one of three Fujian 'police service stations' in Ontario. The RCMP has said it is investigating the stations, amid allegations they are being used to intimidate Chinese expatriates here.... It has defended Beijing’s crackdown on democracy protesters in Hong Kong, while working with the local consulate to promote Beijing’s stance on Tibet, trying to bring the Chinese-outreach Confucius Institute to Toronto schools, and to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Communist revolution. Beijing’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office has praised the group on its website....

"National Post reported earlier that Chow also spoke to and received a gift from the Confederation of Ontario Newcomer Organizations, another group with close ties to Beijing.... National Post has [also] reported on non-Chinese politicians’ relationships with such groups, as well. It documented, for instance, how Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was introduced by a staunchly pro-Beijing regional councillor at an event earlier this year, and sat next to one of China’s most prominent local allies at the same gathering."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/pro-beijing-groups-claim-credit-for-helping-olivia-chow-win-toronto-mayoralty

Is Olivia Chow an Asset of the CCP? | Daniel Bordman | July 11, 2023:

Black endorses Anthony Furey for Toronto mayor

Anthony Furey is the only one who can beat Olivia Chow | National Post - Conrad Black:

June 3, 2023 - "The Toronto mayoral election on June 26 is raising important urban issues and its significance will ramify far beyond Toronto.... Although there are over one hundred mayoral candidates, polls indicate that approximately 90 per cent of decided voters support the seven leading candidates. These are bracketed by Olivia Chow on the left and Anthony Furey on the right. Neither of these could reasonably be called an extremist and the other five principal candidates are somewhere between them in policy terms: former provincial education minister Mitzie Hunter, former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders, environmentalist city councillor Josh Matlow, former deputy mayor Ana Bailao, and councillor Brad Bradford.

"Chow is a veteran former councillor and widow of federal NDP leader Jack Layton. Anthony Furey is a journalist who recently left Postmedia, which publishes the National Post. As the only prominent person in the race who is not a career politician, Furey is refreshingly original in his views, and is the only overt capitalist among the principal contenders. He has risen from zero to about 10 per cent in the polls in two months, but Chow seems to have about a third of decided voters. She ran for mayor in 2014 against John Tory and Doug Ford. There were almost a million votes in that election, ... and Ms. Chow, the NDP’er, polled less than a fifth. She has not been politically active in the intervening years, and her strong showing now demonstrates superior name recognition, but ... if one or more of her opponents starts to make inroads, there is no reason to be confident that her present standing is unshakeable....

"Furey is the candidate who is moving quickly and has attracted prominent and interesting supporters, including the eminent public intellectual Jordan Peterson and former Conservative foreign minister John Baird. His candidacy has practical as well as symbolic importance. If he is able to get his message out more widely in the three weeks before election day, his rapid advance in the last month could accelerate and make him a serious contender. The other candidates apart from Ms. Chow have generally moved laterally in this period, and are not easily distinguished from each other. If they all withdrew in favour of one among them, that candidate would inherit a strong challenging position as a middle-of-the-road alternative....

"Furey is advocating 500 more policemen to assure the safety of the transit system and launch a counteroffensive on the streets of more crime-ridden areas, while Olivia Chow wants to send out more social workers on police emergency calls. Furey as the only outspoken capitalist contender in this race, is the only advocate of municipal tax cuts, specifically the municipal land transfer tax. He also advocates reductions in some expenses. He wants to repurpose plans for new safe injection sites to treatment centres where drug addicts are not simply supervised while they take drugs, but are actually treated to fight their addiction.

"Furey is the only serious candidate who really wants to roll back the corrosive despotism of the bicycle lanes that are strangling Toronto’s streets. Chow is a peppy and in policy terms, aggressive, cyclist.... It is a symbolic issue ... [T]he lanes are little used, are almost completely unused for the five coldest months of the year, and are really just a method for enforced technological regression and the coercion of the population to patronize the public transit system, which is substantially infested with drug addicts and hooligans.... In the same spirit as her championship of bicycling, Olivia Chow wants to level the elevated Gardiner Expressway and funnel all traffic onto the ground....

"The only other candidate apart from Chow who at this point appears to have any chance of winning, the only one who will roll back the soft left consensus that has produced the deterioration of security in the subway, the increasing obstructive presence of drug addicts, homelessness, and assorted misfits, and an increasing crime rate, and the only one who is not steeped to the eyeballs in platitudinous and robotic continuation of the policies that have made the city less enjoyable even as its physical proportions become more impressive every year, is Anthony Furey.

"It’s time for leadership and innovation, for some course corrections, and deference to the legitimate wishes of the majority rather than the poseurs and mythmakers of the left. The office seeks the man, and dull habit, humbug, and socialist fear-mongering must not be allowed to stall the maturation of this remarkable city.... We must not fail to seize this opportunity to take the next step in Toronto’s metamorphosis toward becoming one of the great cities of the world. Anthony Furey should be the next mayor."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/conrad-black-anthony-furey-is-the-only-one-who-can-beat-olivia-chow

Candidate Anthony Furey gains ground in the polls for Toronto mayor | CityNews | June 1, 2023::

Canada's Liberals swing sharply statist

Policy resolutions passed at this month's Liberal Party of Canada convention show a party structure and membership that want a far more authoritarian and interventionist federal government. 

Abolish the free press, and other fringe policies just adopted by the Liberals | National Post - Tristin Hopper, First Reading:

May 10, 2023 - "One of the most notable items to emerge from last weekend’s Liberal Party convention was that party members voted to effectively abolish the existence of a free press. A resolution – passed without debate – said the party should 'explore options to hold online information services accountable for the veracity of material published on their platforms.'  

"Party resolutions are non-binding and they’re typically more extreme than the platforms that parties will ultimately sell to voters come election time.... However, it’s notable that the Liberals are now entertaining far more extreme positions than they used to.... Now, party members are flirting with federal legislation to banish cars from cities, enact a guaranteed income and culturally remake the Prairies.... 

"[T]wo resolutions ... advocate ... unprecedented curbs on Canadian free speech. A resolution on 'combatting misinformation' says that the federal government should 'limit publication' of the online news media to those whose 'sources can be traced.' So, if you’re a news outlet employing anonymous sources – say, like [those] that first broke the SNC-Lavalin scandal – ... the federal government should ban you from the internet. And then there’s the 'truth in politics' resolution, which proposes the establishment of an 'independent body' that would impose 'sanctions' on political parties that it deems are not telling the truth....

"To remain 'culturally competitive' with the rest of the world, Canada should buckle down on building 'walkable and bikeable' cities. This resolution also warns that the goal is often compromised by misinformation.... As such, this resolution recommends the creation of a fund paying cities to close 'major commercial streets to car traffic'....

"[T]here is a resolution that calls for a wholesale cultural and economic restructuring of the Canadian prairies — the part of Canada that just happens to never vote Liberal. Entitled 'A Green Transition for the Prairies Provinces,' it proposes a widespread campaign of bringing 'electrified' transportation and non-oil jobs to the remote and 'alienated' peoples of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. And just in case this resolution didn’t ping absolutely every single Alberta anxiety about the Liberal Party, it makes sure to note that top-down federal controls during the COVID-19 pandemic provide a model as to how to achieve 'desirable results' in transitioning the Prairies....

"Speaking of COVID-19, delegates also favoured the creation of a kind of permanent CERB, a 'Guaranteed Liveable Basic Income.' The resolution states that such a policy would end poverty and actually cost Canada nothing because it would 'increase entrepreneurship by giving everyone the ability to take risks whilst also significantly improving health and educational outcomes'....

"Delegates want[ed] Canada to build a high-speed rail line from Windsor to Quebec City. And then, they wanted Canada to draw up an 'affordable, accessible, modern and practical rail system' to serve everywhere else in Canada that has railroad tracks. No mention is made of VIA Rail, the Crown corporation that essentially has that exact mandate, and generally just delivers money-hemorrhaging, chronically late passenger rail service....

"[A resolution to] end all ‘subsidies’ to the oil sector ... sounds fine.... But ... consider what qualifies as an 'oil and gas subsidy.' The environmental groups which popularized the term count absolutely anything that could be framed as an energy company receiving services or even abstract in-kind support from the government. In recent years, this has grown to include federal research funding to clean up oil spills, grants to transition transit buses from diesel to natural gas and even the costs of arresting activist groups who illegally blockade natural gas projects. So, under its 'Climate Crisis' resolution, the Liberal Party calls for all of this to end. The resolution also calls for all public investment funds to be forced to divest from fossil fuels."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/wacky-policies-adopted-by-the-liberals-at-their-recent-convention

2023 Liberal Convention – Preview with party strategists | CPAC – May 4, 2023:

'Mass exodus' from Hong Kong since 2020

Hong Kong exodus | CBC News - Bernice Chan & Winston Szeto:

June 30, 2022 - "The Hong Kong government’s increasing hard line and China’s growing control over the region has coincided with more than 100,000 people leaving the region in the past two years, mostly to the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Canada..... Hong Kong has changed so much — with Beijing increasing its control over the city’s political and legal system and gutting its civil society and media landscape — that people like ... Arial Wong ... have sought new lives elsewhere. 

"Wong was ... active in the 2019 protests, which were sparked by an extradition bill that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam proposed in the spring of that year.... In the ensuing months, the authorities arrested more than 10,000 people related to the protests, more than 2,900 of whom were prosecuted, according to figures released up to February 2022.... 'I formed groups to support the persecuted political prisoners that were sent to jail … I just helped them out with the legal aid and living expenses,' she says, noting she regularly visited people in jail. However, in recent months the Hong Kong government has charged groups like hers of aiding and abetting those related to the protests. To evade prosecution, Wong fled to Vancouver in January....

"By late January 2020 the protests were abruptly halted in two ways: the COVID-19 pandemic gave the Hong Kong government an opportunity to impose strict social-distancing measures, and six months later Beijing passed the national security law on Hong Kong, bypassing the city’s legislature. It is a vaguely worded law where anyone anywhere in the world can be charged with endangering China’s national security if the authorities deem someone has colluded with foreign forces, committed sedition, secession or terrorism.... When the national security law came into effect in 2020, Jeff Nankivell was the Canadian consul general of Hong Kong and Macau..... 'It [the national security law] became effective within minutes of having been promulgated. And the next day, already 10 people were arrested,' he said, adding that no one in Hong Kong knew the details of it, not even Lam, the city’s leader....

"A few months after the national security law was enacted, Nankivell says, Canada announced an extraordinary immigration measure: it allowed graduates from any worldwide recognized post-secondary institution in the past five years to apply for work permits that could lead to permanent residency. Many who have arrived though the new stream are young families concerned about the government overhauling the education system in Hong Kong.... Not only students are leaving Hong Kong, but teachers are too — 4,460 students and 987 teachers left the education system in the 2020-21 academic year, according to a survey released by the Hong Kong Association of the Heads of Secondary Schools. That’s nearly double the number of teachers who left in previous years, the survey notes, with a 'seven-fold increase' in emigration."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/hong-kong-handover

Hong Kong lost residents in 2020 and 2021, but this year is expected to far surpass both years in terms of the numbers of people leaving for good | CNBC - Monica Buchanan Pitrelli:

May 27, 2022 - "For the past 60 years, Hong Kong’s population has grown nearly every year, from some 3.2 million people in 1961 to 7.5 million in 2019, according to Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department. From 2015 to 2019, the city gained an average of 53,000 new residents per year. Yet that is roughly the same number of people who departed Hong Kong during the first two weeks of March alone, according to the city’s Immigration Department. Hong Kong lost some 93,000 residents in 2020, followed by another 23,000 in 2021. But early estimates show this year will see far more people go.    

“''In the last couple of years people have thought about leaving, but in the last six months there’s been an absolute mass exodus,” said Pei C., who has lived in Hong Kong for 17 years. She asked to be identified with her last initial because of sensitivities surrounding the topic in Hong Kong. The trigger, she said — one echoed by numerous people who spoke to CNBC for this story — was the highly-publicized policy that separated Covid-positive children from their parents earlier this year.... Pei estimates that 60-70% of her friends have left in the past six to 12 months.... 'Everyone’s going to Singapore,' said Pei, especially those working in finance, law and recruitment, she said. 

"Kay Kutt, CEO of the Hong-Kong based relocation company Silk Relo, agreed.... Families are transferring to Singapore, she said, but small- and medium-sized businesses are also on the move. Whereas one company executive might have left in the past, now 'they’re all going,' she said. Small companies are 'taking the entire team and putting them into Singapore.' Large companies are also relocating to Singapore, said Cynthia Ang, an executive director at the recruitment firm Kerry Consulting. Other companies are staying in Hong Kong, but downsizing their offices, and moving regional headquarters to Singapore, said Ang....

"Others have moved to the United Kingdom and Canada.... During the pandemic, both countries launched visa programs granting eligible Hong Kong residents the right to reside within their jurisdictions. Immigration from Hong Kong to Canada is 'booming,' according to the Canadian immigration website.... Yet even more are relocating to the United Kingdom, with more than 100,000 applying to move as of March....  Silk Relo and Asian Tigers are also seeing an 'uptick' in moves from Hong Kong to Japan, South Korea and Thailand.... Dubai is also absorbing talent from Hong Kong, said Kerry Consulting’s Ang. She said that is especially true for American and European employers that already have a presence there."

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/27/people-are-leaving-hong-kong-and-here-is-where-they-are-going.html 

Mask mandating for profit

Illustration courtesy Amazon.com.

Why Masks? Control, Power, and Revenue | Brownstone Institue - Jeffrey A. Tucker:

October 5, 2021 - "I was in a store the other day [where] the owner put on his mask when I walked in. I was the only person in the store. I said that he can take off his mask. He said that he despises masks but if he takes his off, he would get fined thousands of dollars just like the merchant next door. 

"He said that the same is true if he fails to enforce the mask mandate against me. I don’t get in trouble with the police. He does. I asked how in the world anyone would know. He said there are two ways. Another person could walk by the shop and see me without the mask and call public health who would then call the police. He could take a picture and the merchant would be fined. 

"He said that a second way is for the cops to directly enforce this. They come and sit in the parking lots, sometimes wearing plain clothes, watching for employees who fail to enforce the mandates. If they spot them, they walk in a few minutes later and issue all kinds of citations. They do this any time, any day. 

"What they are after is not public health. They want money. The average local government lost 6% of their revenue in 2020 after many years of anticipating 3-5% increases in revenue year after year. They are now desperate to make it up. Local and state governments don’t have little Federal Reserves to print money for them. They can only spend what they can tax or raise through bond sales.

"So Covid compliance enforcement has, to some extent, become a form of taxation done in the name of public health. Even at the federal level. 'If you break the rules,' says Biden, 'be prepared to pay.' Last month, the White House announced a doubling of fines for non-compliers, as high as $1,000 for first offense and $3,000 for the second offense. 

"At this point, hardly anyone really pretends that these things are somehow slowing or stopping the spread. They don’t do anything but they provide great opportunities for government to further pillage private enterprise. It’s a remarkable example of how a bogus practice hatched in the name of health became captured by special interests hoping to make a buck. 

"What matters here is that the merchants don’t have to actually believe in these mandates. They really don’t care either way. They would mostly rather see the faces of the customers and they would probably like to enjoy the freedom to breathe. But they ... mask up and make others do the same to avoid the tax.... They cannot just engage in civil disobedience because doing so threatens their very existence. They are barely hanging on as it is. And when they tell you to strap one on your face, even if you know it is dumb, it is not just a simple matter of asserting your right to breath. The merchant is being threatened and blackmailed to elicit your compliance."

Read more: https://brownstone.org/articles/why-masks-control-power-and-revenue/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

BLM organizer: Looting is reparations

Black Lives Matter organizer calls Chicago looting ‘reparation’ | New York Post - Jorge Fitz-Gibbon:

August 11, 2020 - "A Chicago Black Lives Matter organizer defended the widespread weekend looting in the heart of the Windy City.... 'I don’t care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci’s or a Macy’s or a Nike because that makes sure that that person eats. That makes sure that that person has clothes,' Ariel Atkins said at a rally outside the South Loop police station Monday, local outlets reported. 'That’s a reparation,' Atkins said. 'Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance.'

"She also criticized the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who took to Twitter earlier Monday to denounce the 'pillaging, robbing & looting'.... 'Jesse Jackson has nothing to do with Black Lives Matter,' Atkins shot back. 'Jesse Jackson was not there for the creation of Black Lives Matter. Jesse Jackson can keep his opinions to himself.'

"The rally was held in the wake of a violent weekend that saw 100 arrests and 13 police officers injured in clashes with looters after a 20-year-old man was shot and wounded by cops on Sunday. Police identified the man as Latrell Allen, who was hit in the shoulder after opening fire on cops, according to authorities."

Read more: https://nypost.com/2020/08/11/black-lives-matter-organizer-calls-chicago-looting-reparation/

BLM organizer who called looting ‘reparations’ dismisses peaceful protesting | New York Post - Lee Brown:

August 13, 2020 - "The Chicago Black Lives Matter organizer who justified looting as 'reparation' has doubled down — insisting this week that even calling someone a criminal is 'based on racism'.' Ariel Atkins told WBEZ that her group '100 percent' supports the violent looters who trashed chunks of the Windy City on Monday, again repeating her claim that it is 'reparations.'

“'The whole idea of criminality is based on racism anyway,' she told the NPR station. 'Because criminality is punishing people for things that they have needed to do to survive or just the way that society has affected them with white supremacist BS,' she said.... "Atkins attacked Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot — who is black — for calling the looting 'straight-up felony, criminal conduct.' 'It’s like her deciding what is criminal and what isn’t,' Atkins said.... 

"Atkins dismissed the idea that civil rights had 'ever gotten wins' from 'peaceful protests.' 'Winning has come through revolts. Winning has come through riots,' she said.

"Atkins had no sympathy for the businesses damaged in the spree, which included a small convenience store likely to go out of business after being looted twice in 40 days. 'The fact that anybody gives a s–t about these businesses over what is happening in this city right now and the pain that people are in and the suffering that is taking place, I don’t care,' she admitted."

Read more: https://nypost.com/2020/08/13/blm-organizer-who-called-looting-reparations-doubles-down/

Max Abramson wants to ban sanctuary cities

NH rep. wants to ban sanctuary cities. He put question on WHS school ballot. | fosters.com - Max Sullivan:

February 13, 2020 - "A Seabrook state representative is bringing the debate over sanctuary cities to the local polls this March with a petition on the Winnacunnet Cooperative School District ballot. The non-binding citizen petition put forth by Libertarian state Rep. Max Abramson asks voters to agree that 'no school district nor town official shall establish "Sanctuary Cities" policies that prevent immigration laws from being enforced.' It seeks to see that police officers be permitted to enforce federal immigration laws and comply with detainer requests.

"The petition required 25 signatures to be placed on the ballot, which will go before voters March 10 in Hampton, Seabrook, North Hampton and Hampton Falls. Abramson has drawn criticism from opponents of the petition who said they wished the article could be removed from the ballot for being out of place.

"Abramson co-sponsored a bill that was killed in the Legislature last year seeking to ban sanctuary cities in New Hampshire. He said he chose to poll local voters with an intentionally non-binding article on the school ballot because it would reach a wide swath of residents across four towns. 'Immigration is one of the issues that affects you more than probably any other single one policy issue,' said Abramson, who is also seeking the Libertarian nomination for president. 'I felt it was worthwhile to just open the issue up and let people talk.'

"The issue of sanctuary cities protecting undocumented immigrants from federal authorities has remained a heated debate across the nation. U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced this week there would be a 'significant escalation' from the government against sanctuary communities across the nation.

"In New Hampshire, the city of Manchester, Cheshire County and other communities have been identified as sanctuary cities by the Federation for American Immigration Reform for their policies on how law enforcement handles undocumented immigrants, according to the Union Leader....

"Hampton Police Chief Richard Sawyer said New Hampshire law gives local police chiefs ultimate authority over their department’s enforcement action.... He said from his interpretation of the law, New Hampshire still needs to pass legislation that even allows municipalities to become sanctuary cities. He said New Hampshire is not a 'home rule' state and municipalities cannot enact their own laws without enabling legislation from Concord. 'I’m not aware of any legislation that would permit a designation of a sanctuary community in this state that would be enforceable,' Sawyer said."

Read more: https://www.fosters.com/news/20200213/nh-rep-wants-to-ban-sanctuary-cities-he-put-question-on-whs-school-ballot

Mayoral candidates in CT & NY join Libertarians

Hartford mayoral candidate Aaron Lewis changes party affiliation from Democrat to Libertarian - Hartford Courant - Rebecca Lurye:

September 18, 2019 - "Aaron Lewis, a candidate for Hartford mayor, is changing his party affiliation from Democratic to Libertarian, he announced this week. The publisher and ghostwriter said that historically, 'the Democratic Party has posed itself as the party for African Americans and minorities throughout the United States.' 'After careful consideration, I’ve concluded that is untrue and that the loyalty that people of color [have] had to the party has been counterproductive,' Lewis said Tuesday.

"Lewis is the founder and director of The Scribe’s Institute, a literacy organization, and president and CEO of The Scribe’s Ink, a ghostwriting service. He said he was primarily driven to leave the Democratic Party by the state of Hartford Public Schools, which lag far behind the state but also trail Connecticut’s other urban districts.... Democrats, in leadership in Hartford since 1971, are responsible for the city’s educational failures, Lewis said....

"Lewis was unsuccessful in gathering enough signatures to participate in the Democratic primary earlier this month.... However, Lewis did collect enough signatures to participate in the Nov. 5 general election."
Read more: https://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-pol-hartford-mayors-race-aaron-lewis-party-20190918-oh47pm6ucragvgabz4r6zkj4s4-story.html


Liuzzo Joins Libertarian Party - WFRA 107.9:

September 23, 2019 - "Jamestown City Councilman At Large and 2019 mayoral candidate Andrew Liuzzo has left the Republican Party to join the Libertarian Party. The announcement was made during a press conference Sunday morning with county Libertarian party officials present, along with an appearance by Larry Sharpe, 2018 Libertarian candidate for New York Governor....

"Liuzzo was elected to the city council during the 2017 election when he ran as a Republican candidate. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican Party’s endorsement for mayor earlier this year [but] after losing the primary he accepted the Libertarian party’s nomination to run as mayor under their party line on the ballot. This is the first year where a local election will feature the Libertarian Line on the ballot. The addition comes after Sharpe received at least 50,000 votes during his failed run for governor in 2018.....

"'I am grateful that the Libertarian Party recognized me as an individual that cares about the residents and holding our elected officials accountable,' Liuzzo added. 'Because of their support, I can now represent all parties and all people that want to work hard to restore a community that is one city.'”
Read more: https://www.wrfalp.com/liuzzo-joins-libertarian-party/

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U.S. cities turn to fines to raise revenue

Excessive fines? Florida city hits homeowners with massive penalties - Kristine Philips, USA Today:

June 19, 2019 - "'Fines are a reliable source of revenue for cash-starved cities, and they have become a big – and rapidly growing – business for local governments. States, cities and counties collected $15.3 billion in fines and forfeitures in 2016, according to the most recent financial records collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a 44% jump from a decade earlier....

"The ways in which cities levy fines have been under scrutiny since at least 2015, when Ferguson, Missouri’s law enforcement became a national symbol of racial bias in policing after the shooting death of a young black man, Michael Brown, at the hands of a white police officer. The Justice Department cleared the officer of wrongdoing but published a scathing report describing the city’s municipal court system as a moneymaking enterprise that trapped poor and predominantly black residents in an endless spiral of debt and incarceration.

"Hard-to-pay fines spring up seemingly everywhere as cities look for ways to ... collect money without raising taxes. In Miami, traffic violations usually add up to hundreds of dollars. Collection agencies also add a 40% surcharge, meaning someone with several tickets can owe fines of $3,000 to $7,000.

"Doraville, Georgia, fined one homeowner $1,000 for stacking firewood in his backyard, according to a lawsuit that accuses the city of aggressive ticketing practices. A government newsletter said in 2015 that Doraville’s court system, which collects the fines, brings in 'over $3 million annually' and 'contributes heavily to the city’s bottom line.'....

"Last year, the chief justice of Ohio’s Supreme Court condemned governments’ reliance on fines to make money. 'Courts are centers of justice, not automatic teller machines whose purpose is to generate revenue for governments,' Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote in a letter to her fellow judges urging them not to succumb to pressure to generate revenue through the court system.

"In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ... ruled unanimously that the Eighth Amendment, which forbids 'excessive fines,' restricts the fees state and local governments can impose. 'Protection against excessive fines has been a constant shield through Anglo-American history for good reason,' Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court. 'Such fines undermine other liberties.'

"The Supreme Court's decision alone will not stop municipalities' aggressive practices, said Vanita Gupta, former head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division who oversaw the Ferguson investigation. Instead, she said, it will take more lawsuits to flesh out the limit for what constitutes an excessive fine."

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/2019/07/19/florida-city-hits-homeowners-massive-penalties-supreme-court-excessive-fines/1691703001/

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FL woman fined $100K for home she left in 2011

Excessive fines? Florida city hits homeowners with massive penalties - Kristine Philips, USA Today:

June 19, 2019 - "Kristi Allen read the letter and thought it had to be a scam. It said she owed $92,600 in fines for overgrown vegetation and a stagnant swimming pool at a house she no longer owned. She must pay in two weeks, the letter said, and it hinted that she could be sued if she didn't. Including interest charges and other fees, her debt swelled to $103,559, about twice her yearly income.

'Three months later, in late 2018, the city of Dunedin sued to collect, setting off another legal fight over how local governments use their power to impose heavy fines on citizens....

"Dunedin, a small seaside city outside Tampa, cracks down on code violations, saddling homeowners with massive fines while its revenue grows. In 5½ years, the city has collected nearly $3.6 million in fines – sometimes tens of thousands at a time – for violating laws that prohibit grasses taller than 10 inches, recreational vehicles parked on streets at certain hours or sidings and bricks that don't match.... The city fined a man nearly $30,000 because of a 'chronic' overgrown yard. It fined a couple $31,000 for fixing their roof without a permit after a tree fell on it during a hurricane....

"Allen moved to Dunedin in 2005 to be with her boyfriend, Keith, who later became her husband. She bought a bungalow-style house on the same street where he was raised.... Then the financial crisis hit. Allen ... took a pay cut and lost her house in the wave of foreclosures that washed over Florida. She signed an agreement with U.S. Bank National Association allowing the foreclosure and moved out. She thought Dunedin was behind her.

"In early 2014, three years after Allen moved out, a code inspector came to the house, which had been vacant. Brown palm fronds littered the overgrown backyard. A neighbor told the inspector that something dead may have been rotting there. The swimming pool had turned into a bright green, mosquito-infested cesspool.

"City officials sent notices of the problems to Allen, who was still listed as the homeowner in county property records. Then they started fining her $100 a day. The letters mailed to Allen were returned undeliverable with no forwarding address. The city kept fining her anyway.... Her name stayed in property records because the foreclosure was not finalized until late 2014. By then, the city had been fining Allen for several months.... The daily fines continued for the next two years until a code inspector visited the house again and saw it had been cleaned and renovated....

"In Florida and elsewhere, unpaid fines can be attached to someone’s property through liens. That allows cities to foreclose and take the property to collect what they’re owed.... Dunedin expects to make a little more than $1 million this year from fines and forfeitures. That’s about five times as much as the city made a decade ago."

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/2019/07/19/florida-city-hits-homeowners-massive-penalties-supreme-court-excessive-fines/1691703001/

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Mow your lawn or lose your home in Dunedin FL (video)

Stossel: Mow Your Lawn or Lose Your House! – Reason.com - John Stossel:

July 9, 2019 - "Jim Ficken left his home to take care of his recently deceased mother's estate. While away, the man he paid to cut his lawn died. The grass in Ficken's yard grew more than 10 inches long.

"The City of Dunedin has an ordinance against long grass. The Florida city fined Ficken $500 a day. Over time the fines added up to almost $30,000.... Ficken doesn't have $30,000, and now the city wants to foreclose on his home.

"Ficken's lawyer, Ari Bargil of the Institute for Justice, points out that the city could have 'hire[d] a lawn service to come out and mow the grass, and send Jim a bill for 150 bucks, but they didn't do that.' The reason, says Bargil, is that the city 'wants the money. Code enforcement is a major cash cow for the city.' Dunedin collected $34,000 in fines in 2007. Last year, the fines ballooned to $1.3 million.

"Bargil argues Dunedin's big fines violate the 8th Amendment. That protects us not only from cruel and unusual punishment but [also] from 'excessive fines.' Stossel agrees. What's more excessive than politicians taking your home because you didn't cut your grass?

Read more: https://reason.com/video/stossel-mow-your-lawn-or-lose-your-house/

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Florida legalizes front-yard vegetable gardens

After 6-Year Fight, Florida Couple Wins Right to Grow Veggies at Home – Reason.com - Billy Binion:

July 5, 2019 - "Vegetables are ugly. Or at least that's the view of the officials in Miami Shores, Florida, who implemented a ban on front-yard vegetable gardens at residential properties in 2013. The ordinance forced Hermine Ricketts and her husband, Laurence Carroll, to uproot the garden they'd maintained for nearly two decades.

"Now they can start planting again: The Florida legislature has passed a bill shielding vegetable gardens from local prohibitions. "After nearly six years of fighting…I will once again be able to legally plant vegetables in my front yard," Ricketts said in a statement. "I'm grateful to the Legislature and the governor for standing up to protect my freedom to grow healthy food on my own property."

"The Institute for Justice filed a lawsuit on Ricketts' behalf in 2013. Florida's Third District Court of Appeals upheld the ban, and the state's Supreme Court declined to hear the case. So Ricketts and the institute lobbied the legislature, and it passed a law effectively invalidating the local ordinance. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it last week.

"How were city commissioners able to pass the rule in the first place, much less get it past an appeals court? It was billed as a zoning regulation, which cities have near-unlimited power in implementing. The Florida League of Cities opposed Ricketts' efforts until the end, arguing that code enforcement is an essential tool for maintaining a town's aesthetic. They also didn't like the idea of a state government preempting measures adopted at the local level.

"Ricketts now uses a wheelchair and has suffered from a litany of health issues in recent years, which she blames on stress induced by the legal battle. She's hoping that a little gardening might be the medicine she needs."

Read more: https://reason.com/2019/07/05/after-6-year-fight-florida-couple-wins-right-to-grow-veggies-at-home/
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Did lack of zoning contribute to Houston flooding?

Don't blame Houston’s lack of zoning for Harvey flooding | TheHill - Scott Beyer:

September 3, 2017 - "Houston was recently victim to the largest rainfall in U.S. history, a 52” deluge from Hurricane Harvey that’s left many parts of the metro still underwater. Houston is also arguably the nation’s least-regulated metro area for land use, featuring a central city that doesn’t even have a zoning code.

"This correlation is, apparently, enough for the media to conclude that one has to do with the other.... Houston, wrote the Washington Post, 'is the largest U.S. city to have no zoning laws, part of a hands-off approach to urban planning that may have contributed to catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey and left thousands of residents in harm’s way.'

"The oddest thing about this analysis is that it misses the actual details of Houston’s land-use policy. The city proper, while technically without zoning, still preserves many of the regulations found in other cities, which inhibit density.... Much of the sprawl development being criticized, meanwhile, wasn’t built in the city anyway. Since 2010, Houston has been America’s fastest-growing metro in net terms, adding 850,000. Only 200,000 of this has been in the city, while the rest has arisen in boomburbs like Katy and Sugar Land. And those municipalities have zoning codes that, again, discourage density.

“'This is not a zoning-related problem,' Jim Blackburn, a civil engineering professor at Rice University, said to me about the flooding....

"The idea that Houston’s land use decisions were the main cause for flooding is absurd on its face. No amount of regulation will properly absorb or confine a year’s-worth of rainwater falling in 5 days. New York City, which is basically the anti-Houston — a dense, regulated city — was devastated by Superstorm Sandy, when just a few inches of rain and strong winds caused flooding in all 5 boroughs.

"And the idea that Houston’s land-use decisions were even a minor factor in the flooding looks increasingly baseless.... The wetlands that have been lost to development since 1990 would have absorbed an estimated 4 billion gallons; the rainfall that Harvey dumped onto the Houston area was an estimated 20 trillion [20,000 billion - gd] gallons....

"Blackburn believes that there are still measures Houston can take to lessen future flooding.... Even if strong growth continues in Houston, it will need to be different — which he believes, counterintuitive to many commentators, should mean more market-oriented. Blackburn said that a FEMA flood insurance program has distorted settlement patterns, incentivizing many to locate near bayous or in flood plains. And he thinks that Houston’s future development will be denser, and built in more elevated areas.

"The irony is that Houston, because of its looser regulations, will likelier tolerate such dense development. This contrasts with, say, New Orleans, another flood-prone city where much of the housing remains in flood plains, but where zoning laws restrict construction in wealthier, higher-elevation areas.... Houston’s lack of zoning and minimal regulation, while not the cause of flooding, may in the future be the greatest control against it."

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/state-local-politics/349021-opinion-dont-blame-houstons-lack-of-zoning-laws-for
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Freedom of speech mauled in Boston

A free-speech rally, minus the free speech - The Boston Globe - Jeff Jacoby:

Ausust 21, 2017 - "Participants in the 'Boston Free Speech Rally' had been demonized as a troupe of neo-Nazis prepared to reprise the horror that had erupted in Charlottesville. They turned out to be a couple dozen courteous people linked by little more than a commitment to — surprise! — free speech....

"Indeed, nothing about the tiny rally seemed in any way connected with bigotry or hatred. One of the speakers was Shiva Ayyadurai, an immigrant from India who is seeking the Republican nomination in next year’s US Senate race. As Ayyadurai spoke, his supporters held signs proclaiming 'Black Lives Do Matter.'

"But he and the others who gathered at the Parkman Bandstand had never stood a chance of competing with the rumor that neo-Nazis were coming to Boston. That toxic claim was irresponsibly fueled by Mayor Marty Walsh, who denounced the planned rally — 'Boston does not want you here'....

"A massive counterprotest, 40,000 strong, showed up to denounce a nonexistent cohort of racists. Boston deployed hundreds of police officers, who did an admirable job of maintaining order. Some of the counterprotesters screamed, cursed, or acted like thugs — at one point the Boston Police Department warned protesters 'to refrain from throwing urine, bottles, and other harmful projectiles' — but most behaved appropriately....

"The speakers on the Common bandstand were kept from being heard. They were blocked off with a 225-foot buffer zone, segregated beyond earshot. Police barred anyone from approaching to hear what the rally speakers had to say. Reporters were excluded, too.... The free-speech rally took place in a virtual cone of silence....

"Even some of the rally’s own would-be attendees were kept from the bandstand. Yet when Police Commissioner Bill Evans was asked at a press conference Saturday afternoon whether it was right to treat them that way, he was unapologetic. 'You know what,' he said, 'if they didn’t get in, that’s a good thing, because their message isn’t what we want to hear.'

"No, Commissioner Evans. It was not a 'good thing' that people with a right to speak were effectively silenced by the operations of the police. The ralliers did nothing wrong.... They absorbed the slanders flung at them by the mayor and others. They didn’t try to shut their critics down, and they weren’t the ones hurling 'urine, bottles, and other harmful projectiles.'

"All they were guilty of was attempting to defend the importance of free speech. For that, they were unjustly smeared as Nazis and their own freedom of speech was mauled."

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/08/21/free-speech-rally-minus-free-speech/vymrZBl1NLtz04oW2IBpKK/story.html
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This column is adapted from the current issue of Arguable, Jeff Jacoby’s weekly email newsletter.

Toronto tears down stairs senior built for $550

Toronto mayor thanks citizen stair master as city demolishes his handiwork | CTV News - Daniel Otis:

July 21, 2017 - "A City of Toronto work crew was seen in Etobicoke’s Tom Riley Park early Friday morning, removing a staircase that had been erected by maverick local handyman Adi Astl. Construction on new stairs, Mayor John Tory promises, will begin immediately.

"Astl, a retired mechanic, says he built the stairs for a mere $550 after several neighbours tumbled down a muddy slope leading to the park’s garden. The work, which only took a few hours, came after the community was told to wait for a $65,000 to $150,000 solution from the city.

"If you imagine after heavy rain, or any rain, it becomes like a slippery slope -- there’s no holding on,” Astl told CTV News Channel from the park on Friday. “It might be okay when you’re ten-years-old, but if you get in my age, or a little bit younger, it’s very tough.'

"Astl’s stairs, declared unsafe by city bylaw officers, were quickly cordoned off with caution tape....

"In a written statement released Friday, Mayor Tory called the original price tag for the project 'absolutely ridiculous and out of whack with reality.'

"'I want to thank Mr. Astl for taking a stand on this issue,' Tory added. 'His homemade steps have sent a message that I know City Staff have heard loud and clear.'

"According to Tory, construction of new stairs will begin Friday and be completed within days.... The City estimates that the new stairs will cost $10,000. In an interview with CTV News Channel from Toronto City Hall, Tory vowed to make sure that cost estimates are more reasonable in the future."

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto-man-builds-park-stairs-for-550-irking-city-after-65-000-estimate-1.3510237
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This story has been updated.

Crystal MN libertarians keep city council majority

America’s One and Only City Council Run by Libertarians - Alan Greenblatt, Governing.com:

January 2017 - "Libertarians claim their only majority in the country on the city council of Crystal, Minn., population 22,000....

"Mayor Jim Adams and Councilman Casey Peak, both Libertarians, were first elected four years ago. Two years ago, they put together a council majority of Libertarians and people Adams describes as 'liberty-minded.'

"They’ve pursued some of the ideas you would expect, running a task force that’s been going through and questioning almost every law on the books. An ordinance requiring bomb shelters, for example, has been eliminated, and the pool table at the community center is now legal. A lot of the changes have strengthened property rights, whether it’s eliminating point-of-sale inspections or taking care of smaller matters, such as lifting a ban on keeping chickens in yards. 'We’re not doing a lot of fundamental changes in terms of wiping out stuff and changing how things operate,' Adams says. 'We’re getting rid of obsolete stuff.'

"The biggest change the council has made is to insist, when it can, on paying cash upfront for capital projects. It paid for a new public works building with $13.5 million in cash, rather than issuing bonds. If the city had borrowed the money, it would have paid back $1 million per year for 20 years. Driving down the cost over the long term made a lot of sense to Adams. Not everyone agreed it was a good idea. Paying for the building meant siphoning money from other accounts, reducing city reserves by nearly a quarter. As a result, the city has raised property taxes, as well as water and sewer fees.

"John Budziszewski, who was re-elected to the council in November after a two-year absence, complains that the council eliminated the licensing requirement and fee for those who operate rental properties. He notes that the mayor, who has a home remodeling company, owns several rental houses. 'It looks like they’ve pretty much created a tax break for themselves,' says Budziszewski, 'while raising a levy for the rest of us.'

"Budziszewski managed to unseat Peak this fall, but the election of a 'liberty-minded' candidate to another seat means the Libertarians have kept their working majority intact. 'I don’t know anybody in the metro area who is taking this approach beyond us,' Adams says, 'but we’ve got buy-in from the council and that should not change.'"

Read more: http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-crystal-minnesota-libertarians.html
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Libertarian city council shakes up Crystal, MN

Libertarians shake up Minneapolis suburb of Crystal - Steve Karnowski, Associated Press:

November 1, 2016 - "When most cities want to build something — a water plant, a convention center — they borrow the money on the bond market and pay it off over time with interest. Not Crystal, a middle-class suburb of Minneapolis.

"It paid $13 million in cash when it needed a new public works building, taking the money from its savings accounts and shrinking the city’s reserves by nearly one-quarter.

"Pay-as-you-go wisdom or long-term financial folly? However it eventually works out, the decision is just one example of how the Crystal City Council approaches civic issues a bit differently. The reason: A majority of its seven members are Libertarians or are sympathetic to the party’s philosophy of maximum personal freedom and minimum government....

"In addition to paying cash for civic improvements, Crystal has undertaken a cleanup of the municipal code to get rid of ordinances considered outdated, unenforceable or just plain silly. And it has all but eliminated the city’s human rights commission. At the same time, in a seeming departure from Libertarian principles of thrift, the city has raised property taxes and water and sewer fees.

"'I know a lot of fears that are out there: If Libertarians get into government, they’re going to be cutting government,” Libertarian council member Casey Peak said. “The reality is we just think differently because we come at it with a different core mentality'....

"Peak was elected in 2012 and recruited other Libertarians and like-minded people to run for the council two years later, leading to the current five-member majority.

"Peak defended the project to overhaul the code, which is as thick as an unabridged dictionary. He said several parts had become 'almost unenforceable' because they referred to state laws that have been eliminated or rewritten. None of the revisions fundamentally changed policy, he said.

"'Finally, the pool table at the community center is going to be legal,' said Mayor Jim Adams, who is not a party member but considers himself 'liberty-minded.' 'Because you [couldn’t] have a pool table within so many feet of a city building.'

"As for the human rights commission, which was set up in the civil rights era to advise the council on eliminating discrimination in the city, it still exists on paper, but there’s nobody on it.... Peak said that even under the previous mayor, it was difficult to find people to serve on the commission and that it no longer had a clear purpose....

"The Libertarian bloc was united on a vote to raise water and sewer charges 25 percent, saying it was the most cost-effective way to save for repairs and pay the higher rates Minneapolis is charging to tap into its water. Peak said the increase works out to only a few dollars per quarter for most households....

"Crystal’s experiment with Libertarian governing has drawn little attention, even within the city. Because the council is officially nonpartisan, few residents seem to have noticed."

Read more: http://www.twincities.com/2016/11/01/cash-no-credit-libertarians-shake-up-minneapolis-suburb-of-crystal/
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Libertarian elected mayor of Johannesburg

Libertarian Herman Mashaba elected mayor of Johannesburg - Globe and Mail - Geoffrey York:

September 16, 2016 - "Herman Mashaba is a millionaire tycoon, an ideological libertarian and self-proclaimed 'capitalist crusader' who lectures his listeners about the evils of big government and minimum wage. He is also, shockingly, the newly elected mayor of South Africa’s biggest city....

"Less than a month after winning office as Johannesburg’s mayor, Mr. Mashaba is already energetically putting his free-market ideas into action. He is distributing thousands of title deeds to impoverished residents, trying to create a new class of landowners. He is plotting with private developers to turn the city into a vast construction site, and he is pledging to use small businesses to slash the unemployment rate....

"Mr. Mashaba is probably the only avowed libertarian to become mayor of a major African city. He’s even more of a free-market fundamentalist than his political party, the Democratic Alliance. The DA supports a minimum wage, for example, while Mr. Mashaba scathingly denounces it as 'an evil system to deprive poor uneducated people of the opportunity to advance.'

His highest value, he says, is 'individual freedom.' He rails against the 'culture of dependency' and excessive regulation in South Africa. 'I’m just asking the government to leave us alone,' he says.

"When a Globe and Mail interviewer suggests that he must be a lonely voice as the only libertarian mayor in the country, he laughs. 'I was born alone. My life is not shaped by other people.'

"The son of a domestic worker who was widowed when he was 2 years old, he grew up in poverty in a black township near Pretoria. In the apartheid era, when the white-minority regime made it difficult for blacks to enter business, Mr. Mashaba overcame the obstacles and made his fortune by creating a hair-products empire under the 'Black Like Me' brand name....

"Until two years ago, Mr. Mashaba had never joined a political party. He finally joined the DA in 2014, angered by the corruption scandals and race-baiting rhetoric of President Jacob Zuma. But if anyone had suggested he might end up as mayor of a city of five million people, he says, he would have asked them what they were smoking. Political pundits sneered at his weaknesses as a campaigner, predicting he would never become mayor.

"The ANC won 44 per cent of the Johannesburg vote last month, six percentage points more than the DA, but Mr. Mashaba became the 'accidental mayor' with the support of a third party, the Economic Freedom Fighters. The EFF, ironically, is even more left wing than the ruling party. Its leaders, portraying the DA as a white-dominated party, said Mr. Mashaba must be someone who hates his own skin colour. But the EFF is virulently opposed to the ANC and determined to unseat it anywhere, even at the cost of supporting a right-wing party. In the end, the ANC lost control of three of the country’s biggest cities."

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/libertarian-herman-mashaba-elected-mayor-of-johannesburg/article31942363/
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Downtown Atlanta revitalized by private enterprise

How Policing Works in a Privatized City | Foundation for Economic Education - Jeffrey Tucker:

June 10, 2015 - "'All the common areas of Atlantic Station including the streets, sidewalks, parks, and alleys are private property.'

"Thus reads one line buried in the Rules of Conduct for Atlantic Station, Atlanta, Georgia: a marvelous city within a city. But it’s this one line that makes the critical difference. It’s why this one-square mile in the heart of this great city has done more to model beauty, prosperity, diversity, and happy living than 50 years of 'urban renewal' and other government programs.

"The entire community was built on top of the old Atlanta Steel Mill, which opened in 1901 and closed in the 1970s, leaving desolation in its wake. Atlantic Station opened 10 years ago as a visionary entrepreneurial venture — the brainchild of The Jacoby Group, headed by Jim Jacoby — funded mostly with private money (the city helped with tax breaks and some infrastructure funding).

"It is not a gated community walled off from the public for only the elite. There is no charge to get in. Everything is public access, and subject to all the laws governing commercial property. The difference between the public and private city, however, is huge.

"You can tell when you have entered the space. Whereas many areas of Atlanta struggle, this area in the heart of the city is clean, bright, ebullient, bustling with enterprise and life.

"On an evening recently, on the way to the movies in the spectacular theater there, I sat outside on the patio of a Mexican food restaurant and watched adults and children playing games and having fun on the green space that serves as a mini-park in the middle of this urban experiment in capitalism. There were people from all races, classes, and ages. They listened to the live band and sang along....

"It was a typical evening, and it was all taking place in a place that was, only twenty years ago, a burned out, low-rent, disaster zone, the kind of place people flee. Now, the migration patterns have changed. Atlantic Station is a place where you want to live and work.

"I was walking along and a uniformed police office greeted me good evening. I responded with delight, and we had a nice conversation. She wanted to know if I was enjoying the evening, made a few bar recommendations, we chatted about the weather, and I went on. She was uniformed, yes, and probably armed, but in a non-threatening way. She looked sharp and helpful, as well as official.

"Then it struck me: the police in the community are privately employed by main stakeholders in the community, which are the merchants, apartment owners, and other service providers. (The streets are also private but public access.) For this reason, the police themselves have a deep investment in the well-being of the community and the general happiness of the consumers who shop there. They are employees of the free enterprise system. In particular, Atlantic Station owners contract with Chesley Brown for experienced service."

Read more: http://fee.org/articles/how-policing-works-in-a-privatized-city/
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110,000 sign to put libertarian on Bogotá ballot

Libertarians Clinch Historic Candidacy for Bogotá Mayor - Sabrina Martin, PanAm Post:

July 22, 2015 - "The Libertarian Movement of Colombia have made history. By collecting 110,255 signatures, they have enough to register Daniel Raisbeck’s candidacy as the first ever Libertarian for mayor of Bogotá.

With the signatures in tow in time for registration on Friday, July 24, he can now focus his campaign on the October 25 election. Raisbeck’s plan is to offer a change in management, with clear principles of independence and freedom....

"Raisbeck told the PanAm Post that he faced a series of hurdles when gathering signatures for the campaign.... The Libertarian candidate said that not until the last month of the campaign was he able to assemble a worthy team to surpass the required number of signatures.

"Another notable obstacle his team had to face was the certification of a sufficient bank balance with the registrar, valued at COL$128 million (US$45,000). They could not lean on an established donor base or institutions to invest in the candidacy.

"Raisbeck said that the campaign will now focus its outreach strategies through social media, mass media, and public debates to engage bogotanos about the Libertarian Movement’s proposals.

"The traditional political parties in Colombia 'are smeared' and have not fulfilled the citizenry’s expectations, Raisbeck added. 'Almost 80 percent of citizens reject political parties'....

"For Raisbeck, increasing taxes does not serve Bogotá’s citizens. Money will always be better in the pockets of citizens, he said, adding that 'it is they who better manage their funds.'

Regarding the state of education in Colombia, the Libertarian candidate contends that public education has failed to accomplish its purpose. If elected mayor of Bogotá, he would offer alternatives, such as school vouchers for parents, so families could decide the type of education they want for their children."

Read more: http://panampost.com/sabrina-martin/2015/07/22/libertarians-clinch-historic-candidacy-for-bogota-mayor/
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