The Tattoo Tax

[Stephen Elliott]

Hey guys,

I know this is the Stop American Apparel group, and American Apparel
has been stopped, and so you might want to unsubscribe.

In the meantime, I wanted to tell you about the outrageous new tax
they're putting on tattoo parlors.

The permit to run a tattoo parlor is about $120. Sound fair? I think
so. That’s what it was last year. Now, to put the budget back
together, the city raised that permit to like $1,500.

It’s a 1,259% increase. And it’s irresponsible. There is a petition
that I would like you to sign, please. It will take you 2 minutes.
It’s here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/H412009/petition.html

From Chicken John:

The petition was started by Jason Stein, from Cyclops tattoo. If
you’ve ever seen the fish on my left wing… that’s Jason’s work. He
also plays bass for Sissy now. He’s a cool guy, but it’s important to
know the place of the small business in our fragile community. And
this kinda fee increase is going to affect it. Not only a strain for
struggling shops, but also preventing the new shop from opening. The
position of the small business in our community is paramount. All
communities. The corner store, the café, the video rental store, the
odd little curio shop, the specialty shop, the copy shop and all the
rest… these places are hanging on by belly button lint right now. If
there is any doubt in your mind how the economy is doing, just visit
Craigslist.com and looky loo on business’ for sale. It’s staggering
how much is for sale and for how much. People are giving ‘em away.
Can’t pay the rent. It’s pretty bad. And this is an insult to that
injury.

The small community business is a heroic place in our complicated and
fragile eco-system. With an outpouring of support never before seen by
City Hall, we all stopped American Apparel from opening on Valencia.
That was cool. But the reason there is a community at all is that
people start and maintain small businesses. This is how neighborhood
exist. Duh! And if you raise the permit fees, then it’s another chip
chipped away at the cornerstone of the whole point of the reason why
most of us are here: The neighborhood. So the end of the story is that
more people leave. Then more billionaires come in to kick the
remaining millionaires out. But Gavin will be Govenor by then, so what
does he care?

There are 1 and 2 ACRE properties in the Mission district that have
been passed down from generation from generation. JFK once said “There
is inherited wealth in this country, and also inherited poverty.”
These estates were eltablished before the advent of property taxes.
They are owned outright. And since they pre-date the tax, they are
excluded. That’s a neat trick, aye? Own a 15 bedroom mansion on Genoa
Street with a 7 car garage, a swimming pool in your living room and
those dumb ass giant bushes sculpted like a bunny or something. You
pay the calbe, the water, the garbage and the PG&E. Yea. Lets raise
the permit fees on the tattoo parlors. Will someone please deliver a
crowbar to City Hall so our supervisors can get their heads out of
their asses?

The permit process is necessary. Sure. Sure it is. But my friend Sweet
Melissa says it better than me that the process is absurd. She went
down to see what kinda permits are on offer down at City Hall. Here is
her report:

Say you own a shooting gallery ($723) where you deal in firearms
($961) as part of your amusement park ($871) where people play ring-
throwing games ($477) and see traveling shows ($680). One day after
the rodeo show ($651), you decide to gather the junk people left
laying around ($439 for residents, $370 for nonresidents) and sell it
($330) using a pushcart ($594). But despite your use of kite
advertising ($367) and “public outcry sales” ($716), when customers
don’t flock to your wares, you decide to make the cart into a
motorized rickshaw ($268) and offer to escort funeral processions
($224) complete with an honorary cannon blast ($400). Along one of the
routes you discover the perfect place for an off-heliport landing site
which, at $477, is only slightly more expensive than an out-call
massage service ($462).

She’s a cool lady and a good writer, if ya like the myopic, endless,
petty jewel that is SF politics. http://sweetmelissa.typepad.com/

If I had known that a cannon blast was only $400… welll… lets point
the thing at Gavin’s 6 MPG Lincoln limo and see if we can get him to
roll down the window and throw us a bone.