City council backs away from fascist policy on lemonade stands

 Tulare city officials are trying to make amends after a code
enforcement officer shut down an 8-year-old girl's lemonade stand.
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/1580754.html

Richard Garcia spotted Daniela Earnest selling fresh-squeezed lemonade
from a stand she and her stepmother set up at a busy intersection. She
had hoped to raise money for a family trip to Disneyland.

But Garcia told the girl she couldn't operate because she lacked a
city-issued business license.

Eight-year-old Daniela Earnest has made lemonade out of lemons in more
ways than one this week.

Hoping to raise money for a family trip to Disneyland, the Tulare girl
opened a lemonade stand Monday. But because Daniela didn't have a
business license, the city of Tulare shut it down the same day.

From that came a radio station's offer of Disneyland tickets to
Daniela's family -- in exchange for 30 cups of lemonade -- and an
appearance in front of the Tulare City Council on Tuesday night that
will likely lead to a compromise allowing her lemonade stand and other
pint-sized business ventures to operate legally.

The story began Monday morning when Daniela and her stepmother, Marisa
Earnest, set up shop at Cartmill Avenue and Hillman Street in north
Tulare. The lemonade was freshly squeezed and priced at $2 for a 32-
ounce plastic cup.

Richard Garcia, a Tulare code enforcement officer, happened to be at
the same intersection to remove illegal signs left behind by someone
selling tetherball poles.


 Garcia told Daniela and her stepmother that their lemonade stand --
on the northwest corner of the busy intersection -- was not safe, and
also that they needed a business license to sell lemonade.

He helped the pair load their ice chest and equipment into their car
and then called city planners to find out where they could relocate.

"He wasn't out there on lemonade patrol," said Frank Furtaw, Tulare's
code enforcement manager. Garcia was merely applying the city's code
enforcement laws equitably, Furtaw said.

Tulare officials said they cannot recall ever shutting down a lemonade
stand before this week. But it's not altogether uncommon. Authorities
across the nation have done the same. And in Fresno, a Huntington
Boulevard shaved ice machine run by a resident mostly so neighborhood
kids could get a sno-cone on hot days was shut down by a Fresno code
enforcer in June 2008.

Ed Earnest, Daniela's father, said Garcia got "a bad rap" from critics
about his enforcement actions. "He was just doing his job," Earnest
said.

Nonetheless, news that the city had put the squeeze on a young girl's
lemonade stand prompted public outcry.

The story was the hot topic on Q97 (KSEQ, FM 97.1) disc jockey Davey
D's program Tuesday.

Davey D, whose real name is David Hickman, and the Visalia radio
station decided to offer four two-day passes to Disneyland and
California Adventure to the Earnest family.

"All I did was follow my heart," Hickman said. "It was a no-brainer."

Vice Mayor Philip Vandegrift said a compromise -- possibly asking
lemonade stand operators to pay a nominal fee or establishing a
license fee waiver for children under a certain age -- could be the
outcome of Daniela's experience.

However, the city needs to enforce vendor laws, Vandegrift said,
"otherwise we'll have people on every corner."

But Vandegrift doesn't want to take away lemonade stands from
children. For many, it represents their first opportunity to flex
their entrepreneurial muscles.

"I had many a lemonade stand as a kid right in front of my home," he
said.

Daniela found the situation "pretty weird" but said it hasn't soured
her on reopening her lemonade stand.

Ed Earnest said he plans to make the lemonade stand a family
tradition. "It's a good way to teach kids to work for something," he
said.

For now, Daniela is looking forward to going to Disneyland this
weekend and riding her favorite attractions -- including the Mad Tea
Party teacups ride.

"I feel pretty happy," she said. "You feel like you've accomplished
something with the lemonade stand and then we get to go to someplace
that's real fun."

 
I don't see any reason that Earnest shouldn't be required to have a business
license like everyone else.

If the little gal food poisons customers they need to have a license to take
away.  And she needs to collect sales tax.

The Disneyland crap doesn't sway me.  A lemonade stand is a business.

Datesfat

 Datesfat Chicks wrote:


I supposed you'd be in favor in tearing down every little kid's
tree house in America without a building permit.

SQ - "You do your own thing in your own time. You should be proud."
'06 S40 / various relics and fossils

 
Actually, yes, if the statistics supported it.

If a lot of children were being injured in badly-constructed treehouses ...
works for me.

But I've never known anyone to be harmed in a treehouse.  Most of them are
adult supervised, and kids are pretty rugged.

But then again I've never known anyone to be accidentally food-poisoned by a
lemonade stand.

Datesfat

 wrote:
 > The Disneyland crap doesn't sway me.  A lemonade stand is a
business.

You really need to find a girlfriend whose last name isn't ".jpg"