City of Brotherly Love Goes Full-On Nanny State --- Over Plexiglass

By Jon Street | 11:08 PM on December 18, 2017

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FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2009 file photo, a sign outside the Comcast Center is seen in Philadelphia. A federal appeals court has upheld the government's "net neutrality" rules that require internet providers to treat all web traffic equally. Providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T say the rules threaten innovation and undermine investment in broadband infrastructure. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Philadelphia city lawmakers appear to be pulling out all the stops to ensure residents and business owners are about as miserable as humanly possible.

The Democrat-controlled city recently implemented a soda tax, which thus far has proven to be utterly disastrous, particularly for small businesses. Now, the Leftist Nanny State wants to ban bulletproof Plexiglass, because equality, or something.

Philadelphia Councilwoman Cindy Bass, the Democratic city lawmaker who sponsored the bill that would have endangered store owners just looking to make a decent living, said that stores with Plexiglass were not the effect of bad policing policies that have resulted in high rates of violence in some parts of the city. Rather, she passed the blame to business owners, saying that they are the reason that violent crime is such a problem.

“We want to make sure that there isn’t this sort of indignity, in my opinion, to serving food through a Plexiglas only in certain neighborhoods,” Bass said, according to Reason.

While the attempt to ban Plexiglass was ultimately shattered by infuriated business owners, a revised version that regulates the use of Plexiglass did pass the city council.

The bill instructs the Department of Licenses and Inspections to regulate the “use or removal of physical barriers” by January 1, 2021 and to require certain businesses to have public restrooms that can be accessed without having to walk through food preparation areas.

In other words, some businesses — restaurant takeout establishments, for examples — will literally have to renovate their interiors so that patrons who can’t hold their pee for more than 10 minutes can use the toilet. These are just the latest examples of government overreach — not just at the federal and state levels, but also at the local level.

How long until citizens, particularly business owners, say enough is enough. How long until they fight back against the Obama mantra of “if you own a business, you didn’t build that.”

In case Philadelphia city lawmakers need reminding, these business owners did build that.

They deserve to be left alone in how they run their businesses, and they deserve to defend themselves however they see fit — whether it be with a gun or Plexiglass.