Hot Dog Kid’s Family Is Now Homeless. Restaurateurs Who Pay Extra Taxes Are Safe, Though.
Remember 13-year-old Nathan Duszynski, the
Michigan kid who wanted to make some money to help out his disabled
parents by
opening a hot dog stand?
The story has taken a turn for the worse: The Mackinac Center,
which originally brought the story to light, is now reporting that Nathan and
his parents are homeless after the city shut down his
business:
The family receives about $1,300 a month in disability payments,
Medicaid and food assistance. The three are having a hard time
staying together. MLive confirms
what the Mackinac Center learned Thursday — Nathan and his mother
are staying at the Holland Rescue Mission.“Nate and I are now in a shelter,” Lynette said. “Doug can’t
stay with us because he takes prescription narcotics to deal with
his pain and the shelter does not allow him with those kinds of
drugs.”She says the situation has been stressful on the family. Lynette
is afraid to be away from her husband in case she has a
seizure.
The cart was shut down 10 minutes after Nathan started set up on
his first day in the parking lot of a sporting goods store with the
owner’s permission. The cart violated a rule against food carts in
Holland, Michigan’s downtown commercial district.
After the story gleaned some media attention, city officials
responded to individual inquiries by explain that there has been
some bureaucratic snafus. But they ultimately stuck to their guns,
justifying the decision like this:
The downtown business owners annually pay substantial
assessments (often reaching into the thousands of dollars) for
improvement and maintenance of the free parking lots, amenities and
events, and “snowmelt” to keep the downtown alive and well – and
these assessments are on top of their regular property taxes.With that in mind, it is understandable that these businesses,
historically at least, have been reluctant to allow mobile vendors
into the downtown area to benefit from the environment the brick
and mortar businesses have created, compete with them for
customers, but not contribute to the substantial capital and
operational costs of the downtown.
Got that? The businesses
You can read the rest of this article at: http://reason.com/blog/2012/08/10/hot-dog-kids-family-is-now-homeless-than
Short URL: http://www.txwclp.org/?p=14495
Posted by rbutler
on Aug 10 2012. Filed under Libertarian News.
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