You're Only Supposed to Go to a City with the City Council's Invitation? Who Knew?

The Contra Costa Times reports:

[T]he Berkeley City Council ... voted 8-1 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

In addition, the council voted to explore enforcing its law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against the Marines because of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. And it officially encouraged the women's peace group Code Pink to impede the work of the Marines in the city by protesting in front of the station.

In a separate item, the council voted 8-1 to give Code Pink a designated parking space in front of the recruiting station once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week from noon to 4 p.m....

"I believe in the Code Pink cause. The Marines don't belong here, they shouldn't have come here, and they should leave," said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates after votes were cast....

Oddly enough, in pretty much every city I've lived, I've been "uninvited" by the city council or any other organization representing the city. Nor would I have felt I was doing something rude or otherwise bad if the city council has announced that I was "unwelcome."

On the other hand, being labeled as "intruder" would have troubled me, because it seems to assert some sort of property rights on the city council's part. If a host declares me an intruder in his house, or a business on its property, I would have to leave. But here the Marines, I take it, are on private property that the commercial landlord has voluntarily rented to them. A little arrogant for the city council to decide who's an intruder as to all the private property in the city, no? (The same would go as to government-owned parcels of property or easements that are by law open to the whole public, such as roads or sidewalks.) Especially when it's quite likely that many Berkeleyans, even if only a minority, take a different view, and are entitled to themselves invite the Marines onto the property if they so choose?

Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. Community Morality and Zoning Restrictions on Adult Businesses and Military Recruiting Stations:
  2. Conspiracy Theory -- Pass It On:
  3. You're Only Supposed to Go to a City with the City Council's Invitation? Who Knew?
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Conspiracy Theory -- Pass It On:

Berkeley's and the far Left's latest bout of self-marginalization was cunningly planted by Karl Rove, and of course the neocons. On top of the lovely, pointless self-parody from the Berkeley City Council, check out this item, from the same news story:

Code Pink on Wednesday started circulating petitions to put a measure on the November ballot in Berkeley that would make it more difficult to open military recruiting offices near homes, parks, schools, churches libraries or health clinics. The group needs 5,000 signatures to make the ballot.

I mean, that wouldn't be even remotely effective, even if it were enacted and upheld against a preemption challenge -- it's just an attempt to insult the Marines. Karl and the neocons say, "Bwahahaha! Everything is going just as we planned."

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Community Morality and Zoning Restrictions on Adult Businesses and Military Recruiting Stations:

In addition to the measures against military recruiters described in Eugene's recent posts, Berkeley is also considering enacting a zoning ordinance to restrict their location in much the same way as other cities use zoning to restrict or ban businesses selling pornography:

If passed by a majority of Berkeley voters, a proposed initiative would require military recruiting offices and private military companies in Berkeley to first acquire a special use permit....

If the initiative passes, recruitment offices could not be opened within 600 feet of residential districts, public parks, public health clinics, public libraries, schools or churches...

The author of the initiative, Berkeley-based lawyer Sharon Adams, modeled the initiative after current zoning law that restricts the location of adult-oriented businesses.

"In the same way that many communities limit the location of pornographic stores, that's the same way we feel about the military recruiting stations," said Phoebe Sorgen, an initiative proponent and a member of the city's Peace and Justice Commission. "Teenagers that really want to find them will be able to seek them out and find them, but we don't want them in our face."

Conservatives are justifiably outraged by the proposed Berkeley measure. I share their indignation. However, it is striking that advocates of the Berkeley measure use most of the same arguments for it as many conservatives use to justify zoning out adult businesses and other enterprises they disapprove of.

For example, the Berkeleyites claim that the measure is justified on the basis of community morality in Berkeley, where much of the very left-wing population finds military recruiters offensive. As Berkeley Councilmember Dona Spring puts it, "I do want to do something, whatever we can do, to shut down an agency that offends our public standards." Conservatives similarly argue that local communities that find adult businesses offensive should be able to ban them for that reason. If conservative local majorities should be able to use zoning law to enforce their moral values, why shouldn't the left-wing local majority in Berkeley be able to do the same thing?

Similarly, both groups cite the need to protect the young. As Sharon Adams, author of the proposed Berkeley law explained, "We feel that as a community we need to protect the youth" from military recruiters. Similarly, conservatives seek to use zoning to protect the young from the supposedly corrupting influences of porn. In (very limited) defense of the Berkeley activists, it seems likely that joining the military (at least in a combat role) is a far more dangerous activity for the young than consuming porn.

Finally, both groups justify zoning restrictions on the grounds that the enterprises they oppose cause harmful "secondary effects" on the community. Conservatives claim that adult businesses cause crime and disorder. The Berkeley leftists argue that military recruiting stations promote violence, militarism, and discrimination against gays and lesbians. I think that the Berkeley secondary effects arguments are extremely implausible. But social science research suggests that the conservative ones aren't much better. For a good summary of the data, see Bryant Paul, et al., Government Regulation of "Adult Businesses" Through Zoning and Anti-Nudity Ordinances: Debunking the Legal Myth of Negative Secondary Effects,6 Communication Law & Policy 355 (2001). See also this more recent study.

To be clear, I don't believe that local governments should use zoning restrictions to target either recruiting stations or adult businesses. Those individuals who have a strong desire to isolate themselves from either one have many options for doing so. They can use restrictive covenants, live in a private planned community (as over 50 million Americans do already), or move to a neighborhood where there is little potential market for whatever type of business they disapprove of. However, they should not use the heavy hand of government to force out enterprises merely because they find them offensive. Zoning might be able to play a valuable role in providing certain local public goods and in restricting businesses that cause genuinely severe harm to their neighbors. But mere community disapproval - whether by the right or the left - should not be enough to justify such restrictions.

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. Community Morality and Zoning Restrictions on Adult Businesses and Military Recruiting Stations:
  2. Conspiracy Theory -- Pass It On:
  3. You're Only Supposed to Go to a City with the City Council's Invitation? Who Knew?
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