A brief note about why action has been slow here at TJR.
Phones calls are being made and emails are flying back and forth between myself and various captains of industry in the plastics field. The Los Angeles City Clerk is being consulted with about the legal technicalities.
It looks like the citizens of Los Angeles have had enough with the "Philosopher Kings" down on Spring Street. These fellow patriots have had enough of taking their marching orders from The Dark Lord, The Hamburglar, Touchdown Tommy, and The Cat Whisperer.
It looks like there is a movement developing to defeat the plastic bag ban.
I have reserved the website domain StopTheBagBan.org in anticipation of political activity aimed in this specific direction.
Plastics executives are being consulted about our options.
I'll always think of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as a degenerate, but I admit that I have to be thankful to him for one small thing. His refusal to participate in the 2009 Mayoral Election activities muted interest in the election. Low turnout has had one surprising after-effect.
The number of signatures now needed for political forces to get a Referendum or Ordinance on the March 2013 ballot is quite reasonably -- and incredibly -- low.
Activists need only 27,425 valid signatures to get a Referendum on the ballot for the March election. For an Ordinance Initiative, 15% of that election vote total would be needed
... or 41,138 valid signatures.
One aspect of the delusional thinking on the City Council is that business owners and workers would sit back and watch their livelihoods get wiped out without a fight.
Certain owners have confirmed to me that this proposed plastic bag ban would cripple their business. They have indicated a willingness to commit time, energy, money, and labor to this effort.
We haven't formed the committees yet or completed any legal paperwork, but I assume that next step is coming soon.
The L.A. City Council has a fight coming...
