I recently attended a forum for candidates running for the local Advisory Neighborhood Council (ANC-1C) in Washington, DC this past Wednesday evening. Regular citizens who serve as ANC representatives volunteer their time and energy for no monetary compensation whatsoever to essentially lobby the DC council for the interests of their neighborhoods. The issues they tackle range from liquor licenses of local businesses to rat control to street parking matters. Their intentions are generally good, but like anyone involved in public service their actions can encroach into areas that should raise some questions. More on this further down.
This year, an Islamic group proposed to build a mosque within very close proximity of Ground Zero in New York City. This has stirred feelings of pain, anger, and sadness within the NYC community, not just because of the location of the mosque, but also because the primary financier of the mosque has made comments in the past stating that America essentially got what it deserved on 9/11. The proposed site is private property. 100% of the funds to build the mosque will have to come from private financing. The builders claim they want to demonstrate that Islam is as much a part of America as every other piece of American culture. The concept of this mosque runs through the NYC population as an unpopular idea. Some in NYC claim that Muslims have no right to build a mosque because of their strong feelings against it, but proponents have used the argument of private property to defend the planned mosque.
Now, I turn back to the ANC forum I attended on Thursday night of this past week. Several of the candidates discussed ideas for growing local small businesses in the neighborhood, a good thing in general. Small businesses have an investment in the community beyond a financial one. They serve as the largest engine for growth in the US economy. They don't export jobs. And they bring diversity to the economy that big businesses often do not. For example, near 18th St. and Columbia Rd. NW lies a Starbucks and local coffee shop called Tryst. Personally, I'd choose Tryst over Starbucks any day of the week and twice on Tuesday as a place to patronize over Starbucks. However, none of that justifies something that these ANC candidates suggested, something I find borderline appalling.
Within the neighborhood, a few businesses have closed and hence moved out of their retail rented space, leaving it open. The owners of the space, as claimed by the ANC candidates, have turned down offers to rent their space because those offers didn't reach the price they demanded. Small businesses have made such offers, but the owners have held out for better offers, offers that chain franchises could more likely fulfill. To address this, the ANC candidates proposed lobbying the city council to, "put pressure," on those owners to rent their space for less money than they choose to keep the chain franchises out of the neighborhood. They gave impassioned speeches while those in attendance cheered and applauded. They propose this with no regard for the fact that those business space owners OWN that property and have the right to rent it to whom they choose. Those owners have the obligations to their debtors, not the ANC candidates. Those owners have to put food on their own tables, not the ANC candidates.
The property rights of those retail shop space owners are no less that those of the owners of the site of the proposed "Ground Zero" mosque. In one case, the unpopularity has its roots in fear of Ialam and Shia law. In the other, the unpopularity has its roots in chain franchises changing the face of the neighborhood in a way that displeases those who live in the community. The heart of the issue, however, does not differ: private property. If proponents of Sharia Law have private property rights, so too do commercial real estate owners who want to rent to big, trendy chain franchises.
DC neighborhood communities should make such decisions based on principal, rather than personal interest alone. We can either as a society autocratically allow popular opinion to dictate what private owners must do, or we can draw limitation on how far our personal interests can encroach on private property. The overall point is this. My local ANC demonizing chain franchises while the local authorities of NYC defend proponents of Sharia Law makes for quite a disgusting contrast, but that's nonetheless what's happening now.
