{"id":413,"date":"2017-12-17T00:17:10","date_gmt":"2017-12-17T07:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/?p=413"},"modified":"2018-01-16T23:07:40","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T06:07:40","slug":"tempe-safety-or-plastic-bags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/tempe-safety-or-plastic-bags\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempe Safety or Plastic Bags"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are dozens of issues citizens hold their government officials accountable for.\u00a0 On the local level we expect safe neighborhoods, a quick response from first responders, successful schools, properly maintained streets, clean water, and regular garbage pickup.\u00a0 These are tall tasks, but they are what is expected when electing city council members.<\/p>\n<p>In Tempe, we are concerned with all the above.\u00a0 Instead of focusing on these issues, Councilwoman Lauren Kuby is worried about the use of plastic bags.\u00a0 She would like them banned in the city.\u00a0 In other words, Fry&#8217;s, Target, and even your local Ace Hardware would not be allowed to distribute them at check out.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a nice idea, but as usual, elected officials from academia are full of theories instead of common sense.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Tempe?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Tempe<\/a> Councilwoman Lauren Kuby is suing <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Arizona?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Arizona<\/a> for cities&#39; right to ban plastic bags:<a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/79bVQl2a1k\">http:\/\/t.co\/79bVQl2a1k<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/Bph2XJ8BCK\">pic.twitter.com\/Bph2XJ8BCK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; PhoenixNewTimes (@phoenixnewtimes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/phoenixnewtimes\/status\/649631145882071040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 1, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Ms. Kuby has a plum <a href=\"https:\/\/schoolofsustainability.asu.edu\/person\/lauren-kuby\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">position<\/a> in Arizona State&#8217;s School of Sustainability.\u00a0 Are her efforts to ban plastic bags a conflict of interest?\u00a0 Should she be forcing Tempe and other Arizona businesses to comply with laws which will benefit her employer while burdening local Tempe businesses?<\/p>\n<p>Councilwoman Kuby, usually a supporter of large federally-run programs like DACA and Obamacare, champions local control of businesses when she wants to push a new Council ordinance.\u00a0\u00a0Which way does she want it?<\/p>\n<p>Some stores like Trader Joe&#8217;s do not offer plastic bags.\u00a0 Good for them for having a mission and following through with it.\u00a0 But that is Trader Joe&#8217;s option, just as it it Target&#8217;s option to provide only plastic bags.<\/p>\n<p>Like them or not, plastic bags are popular.\u00a0 And as one resident reminded us, they use fewer trees.\u00a0 The government mandating that a local business can only use a certain type of bag parallels the government mandating what kind of wedding cakes a bakery should bake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are dozens of issues citizens hold their government officials accountable for.\u00a0 On the local level we expect safe neighborhoods, a quick response from first responders, successful schools, properly maintained streets, clean water, and regular garbage pickup.\u00a0 These are tall tasks, but they are what is expected when electing city council members. In Tempe, we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxedintempe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}