New York has plenty of ridiculous laws and plenty more on the way from legislators and the city council. These lawmakers are hoping to prove they know how to write legislation without making a real difference for New Yorkers. Unless you think banning metal baseball bats and restricting people from dancing in bars without having cabaret licenses is a good thing, there is much we need to do and get rid of.
From AM New York:
New Yorkers learned about the unfunny side of such laws when Rudy Giuliani, while mayor in the 1990s, began enforcing a 1926 law requiring cabarets to obtain a special license if more than two people would be dancing.
The law was originally enacted as a response to "civilized" New York's horror at increasingly popular multiracial jazz clubs. Seventy years later, no one in a more tolerant city had bothered taking the law off the books, and bars and clubs sometimes faced serious fines.
Among proposed laws out there now are one that would prohibit pet owners from keeping their animals outside on a leash for more than three hours in any 12-hour period.
Others would put the kibosh on selling permanent markers to anyone under 21, establish stiff fines for defacing U.S. flags on private property that are on par with those reserved for hate crimes against religious institutions, and create a raft of well-intentioned -- but sometimes impractical -- new street names (Brother George Washington Way "Legendary Boxing Trainer" in Brooklyn is going to need either a really big sign or illegibly small lettering).
So many laws, so little room to maneuver around the pens of legislators we keep electing. What we need are laws that truly make a difference for the city. Clean elections would be a great start. With last week's steam pipe explosion, mandating a permanent fix for the antiquated infrastructure beneath our feet sounds like a no-brainer. There is so much our government could spend their time on, instead we have to worry about trans-fats, spitting in bars and putting on puppet shows in city windows (I kid you not).
|