It was talked about for a year. It was called an overreach by some. People took to the talk circuit to thwart it. Tri-cornered hats were donned in response to tyranny. It was wordy in some areas, and even so, may not actually solve the problem it sought to fix. Of course, I’m talking about…the Chestertown bag ordinance.
Assuming that Councilmen Marty Stetson or Jim Gatto is satisfied with the amended ordinance that discussed on March 22, Chestertown will ban the distribution of “single use” plastic bags at the retailer’s point of sale. The ordinance comes after much discussion. All in all, the Town got it right. Let’s explore how we got there, and have a little fun with some compare and contrast.
In 2009, we heard a lot of talk on the health care issue. There was talk of access. There was talk of bending cost curves. Among the 2700 pages that were enacted into law, there were provisions that opened doors to access (e.g. the existing condition and under 26 provisions). That said, mandates on insurers to spend up to 80 percent of premium revenue on claims do nothing to help the cost curve. There are also unintended consequences which could affect the quality of care.
In 2011, we heard a lot of talk on the plastic bag issue. There was talk of the environment. After all, we are a waterfront town. There was also talk of quality of life. After all, bags in trees are eyesores. Among the three pages that were in the original ordinance, there was a mandate to use a special type of paper bag. Apparently this type of bag does not exist. And lest we forget, the Council has no authority to tell Middletown, Rock Hall, or Queenstown retailers how to conduct business. So there is no guarantee that we will never see another plastic bag in a Chestertown tree.
Each instance had its share of dissent; however, each instance was handled differently. On February 25 of 2010, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) sat in a room with the President to discuss the shortcomings of his overhaul (others did too, but Ryan “gets it” the most). The meeting turned out to be window dressing. On March 22, 2011, the owners of the New York Deli and a spokesperson from JBK made their case that the law as written would be impractical. As such, bio-bags were accepted, and the wordiness that defined a paper bag was erased. Didn’t someone say that “you” would carry the day in 2011? I digress.
There will still be people against the ordinance. Some reject it from a priority standpoint. I’d like to think that the Council can walk and chew gum at the same time (though we’ll explore this avenue soon). Other people reject the ordinance from an economic standpoint. One protestor vociferously declared that Acme’s change in bag orders, from plastic to paper, would be the equivalent of two part time employees being axed (death panels, anyone?). While the numbers may be true, it is correlation without causation. If a grocery store closes, one would have to go a few places down the list to get to bag cost. More over, if Super Fresh were to fall victim to A&P’s bankruptcy, it would seem that Acme would be the beneficiary of that outcome.
So where do I fall on the issue? I respect that Chestertown has sovereignty to enact ordinances. I respect that the town identified a problem. I respect that they chose to offer a solution. If you read my comments from the play-by-play on the issue, you know that I had a problem with implementation. That being said, Mayor Bailey laid out the issue nicely at the recent meeting. Plastic bags in the sewer system and trees drive up town DPW costs. All citizens share in these costs. In addition, the Council was amenable to the changes which were suggested on March 22nd.
I believe that the retail community did a good thing to help get this ordinance right. Chestertown is trying to trademark itself as an environmentally friendly town. Perhaps it’s a way to position the town against other towns in the State. Now the State has begun to weigh in on the topic. Next week, we’ll explore the ramifications of State action. Spoiler alert: It’s not as good as it seems.
Cynthia McGinnes says
Now that the Ordinance has passed, it becomes clear that people losing jobs is secondary to being “green”. Shame on Councilmen Gatto,Anthony, and Mayor Bailey for throwing all of the Superfresh employees under the bus, so to speak, in order to make Chestertown turn color. All of those early citizens of Chestertown who threw tea in the water rather than submit their freedoms to government authority must be turning over in their graves.
Has it never occurred to these Councilmen that businesses dont have to accept these regulations? They can just leave town…and they will. Chestertown may well have fewer plastic bags because there wont be any stores left to pass them out.
Stephan Sonn says
What century are you living in?
Apparently you have no concern for the planet your grandchildren will occupy. You don’t have to be tree lover or an Al Gore fan to recognize the damage already inflicted. You seem to be saying that reality is only how you choose to see it, not what presents itself by logical investigation.
If Chestertown is not viable because it can’t afford to clean up the mess, then it is by your misapplication of what freedom really means. Your comments are visceral, not reasoned and do not speak well for the future.
MBTroup says
@Cynthia – Your continued resistance is noted. I’m not gung ho for this ordinance. Put me in the tolerant column, with the caveat that this needs to turn into an opportunity. A&P is bankrupt. To blame the BagOrd would be correlation without causation. I suppose this is the new protectionism. What isn’t new are markets. Believe in markets. Either another chain that is profitable and embraces the strategy will occupy the space (Whole Foods) or Acme will pick up the slack.
@Stephen – I’m in the 21st, though to steal a line from Brian Wilson, “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.” I’m sorry you feel that way.
Gren Whitman says
Until good ol’ Bayview changes its policies, Cynthia McGinnes can shop in Rock Hall early and often and ask for all the plastic bags she wants. She can even buy a can o’ corn and request it be “bagged, please.”
A recent article about the environmental and economic dangers foisted on us all — and even Ms. McGinnes — by plastic bag manufacturers ended with a memorable question: “Do you want baggies, or grandchildren?”
PS: Bayview, an excellent store, also has shopping bags for sale, if you so choose.
Stephan Sonn says
Actually my century comment was directed at Tea-partier McGinnis not the editor.
Stephan Sonn says
Is there an Alan Troup in your family who would now be about 70, my age?
MBTroup says
@Stephan – Ah! Teapartier Troup misuderstood. If there is an Alan in my tree, it’s in a branch I haven’t seen. My lineage runs to the coal country of central PA.
Cynthia McGinnes says
In our own version of March Madness, the Environmental Pelicans nosed out the Chestertown Economy in a great battle in Town Hall. I would advise all who fail to understand to read Atlas Shrugged…(it should be released in a movie this summer for those who dont read.) As for another store replacing Super Fresh, I doubt it would be Whole Foods, which is closing unprofitable stores across the country…and even if the company was doing well, the prices for their products are much too high for them to make a go here. (Shades of Marie Antoinette’s famous “if they cant afford bread,let them eat cake”) Secondly, if all the grocery shopping is forced to Acme, that store will be too small and too crowded, and many will flee out of town, taking shopping dollars with them that would have been spent in other stores in the shopping center.
I am proud to belong to the Taxed Enough Already Party…having lived in Chestertown for 40 years, I feel a real kinship with the original Tea Partiers,who founded this country on freedom from government edict. But hey, this ordinance will work…when businesses close or leave, when banks foreclose on homeowners who cant get a job, when high school graduates move away to find work, with fewer people shopping, fewer people working,fewer people making a living, there WILL be fewer plastic bags…MISSION ACCOMPLISHED 🙂
One last question… why do people who move to Chestertown immediately begin working to change Chestertown into the place that they just left?
MBTroup says
“One last question… why do people who move to Chestertown immediately begin working to change Chestertown into the place that they just left?”
Is this directed at me? Is it rhetorical? I’ll tackle it either way, if I can be provided with a focus.
Cynthia McGinnes says
There was a woman at the Town Meeting who stood up and described how she had never seen a plastic bag at the stores where she “used to live”, and she always bagged her own groceries in cloth bags (although the checker had to stand there waiting to help the next customer while she did so), and she was the immediate reason that I asked the question about people wishing to turn Chestertown into the place they just left…..however,upon reflection, it could be rhetorical as well.
Stephan Sonn says
I’ll take it….
Bagger McGinnes needs to footnote her comments with Chicken Little quotes.
I came to Chestertown 15 years ago to avoid urban life which had become quite ‘ taxing.”
I don’t have a problem picking up my own litter and others along the way to the trash can. Also I can pay a bag fee of pennies, for better methodology..
The supermarkets are ducking out on the mess they contribute to. The plastic companies did not start out to pollute the earth with bag sandstorms. So who cleans up?
Seems like Tea Party folk never met a government they couldn’t hate, even one as close to them as their own town council. I was a great fan of Ayn Rand when I was young in 1964 but I remember President Dwight Eisenhower referring to the rabble that Goldwater incited as dangerous…. I never voted for Goldwater.
Would you rather a healthy grandchild or a 100 year old baggie.
Stephan Sonn says
Editor Troup:
The Alan Troup I knew in Miami was an urban transient from Boston so it is unlikely that there will be a match. Also there is a limit to what one can say about personalities in our town in print, but I wonder how Kevin Walsh ever got the mantle of Freedom Fighter?
MBTroup says
@Stephan – It should be noted that I authored the initial piece, but Dave Wheelan is the editor who has allowed me to scratch this creative itch.
You bring up an interesting subject, though I am imposing a limit to how much time I would like to spend on it. I was at the farmer’s market with the family, and saw his antics first hand. These are folks who need this marketplace for half the weekends of the year. There’s a line to be drawn between community activism and community agitation. What’s the greater good? Everyone can discuss where this line is, if they wish.
Stephan Sonn says
A lot of time and effort has been spent trying to help Kevin by people who have other things to do.
He is chronically contrary and deliberately destabilizing, determined to burn his libelous brand on the town, and his malice seems to run very deep. While his antics have been bothersome, his intent may be quite worry-some.
Even if one were to use available data about him on the internet as a basis for action, remedy is elusive since even public ranting is allowed under free speech. In fact it is hard to distinguish his tirades from those of a typical Tea-Bagger or liberal counterpoint beating the drum to loudly.
We are all a little crazy and sometimes have to contend with those who teeter at the edge of a cliff and would pull us all over.
MBTroup says
“One last question… why do people who move to Chestertown immediately begin working to change Chestertown into the place that they just left?”
1. The moment one puts pen to paper on a promissory note to take possession of a lot in the Town and fund the local schools, is the moment that one obtains the right to opine on local matters. For the most part, people move to an area because they like it.
2. Because of #1, people typically assimilate into the area they chose. Life is easier in a new area when people accept that noone is living their lives waiting to be saved by the evangelical element of the right or the intelligentsia of the left.
3. Despite #2, people don’t get to say “Area ABC needs 123,” then reject sensible solutions to that bring 123.
Anything in those three principles that can be applied to recent events? BagOrd? Waterfront project? In any event, C’town is the first to enact this ordinance. So if people want this place to be like “where they lived” they would take all of the plastic bags caught in trees (Ellicott City I’m looking at you) and place them on High Street’s trees. I don’t see any rush to make that happen, so I think people will adapt.
“As for another store replacing Super Fresh, I doubt it would be Whole Foods, which is closing unprofitable stores across the country…and even if the company was doing well, the prices for their products are much too high for them to make a go here.”There is something to be said for targeting, segmentation, and differentiation. The existing stores are two sides of the same coin, and have more to do with SF’s struggles than their bag expenditure (which one could argue would be no net effect as they would order paper bags in a third of the plastic quantity to account for people adapting to the ordinance). This explains why Luisas and Procs safely operate in the same town. One appears to cater more towards families, the other to WAC students.
“Secondly, if all the grocery shopping is forced to Acme, that store will be too small and too crowded, and many will flee out of town, taking shopping dollars with them that would have been spent in other stores in the shopping center.”
Or Acme finds a way to expand in Kent Plaza, which given the vacancy rate, Cordish would probably be amenable. Believe in markets. As an apparent conservative, it would seem you agree that free markets are designed to reward those businesses that maintain relevance with the times?
Back to the original intent of the article – is this an overreach? Is this a takeover of the Town’s bag industry? At first, I would have said yes. But I think the town listened to the commerce sector, and made the necessary changes. The Council did their job, decided not to govern against the will of the people, and softened the Mayor’s agenda. Now that it’s here, commerce has a choice as to whether it will adapt. It’s about SWOT and turning opportunity into strength.
Keith Thompson says
Cynthia asks, “One last question… why do people who move to Chestertown immediately begin working to change Chestertown into the place that they just left?”.
This is not as dismissive a question as it appears at first glance. This does get into the whole “come heres vs. from heres” debate and leads me to ask the question if a plastic bag ban is something they would try in Rock Hall. Chestertown is different and different in fascinating, perplexing, and sometimes frustrating ways. I don’t live here but my job here has me woven into the fabric of a lot of what goes on here. I’ve lived and worked in several different places in my radio career and Chestertown is the location that far and away has the most character; for both good and bad.
Stephan Sonn says
Your well reasoned answer to Ms McGinnes depicting dogma leaning right or left as default background chatter in any matter of community policy debate, rings true. Hardened opinion smothers change and compromise as the same process. All you have to do look to Washington DC to see that.
Some people would rather be irrational than uncomfortable.
That means that they believe that ONLY they have the right to mark the slate. The only acceptable change must see to their comfort no matter what the outcome. The example of that is in her statement that personal tote bags slow up the cashier at checkout… so plastic is better i guess..
So it is time for me to move on to the deep end of the pool.
God bless Ms McGinnes and those who think like her. I am sure she is held dearly by those close to her.