More in the album at my Flickr site
Archives for September 2012
The rules, vs. how they are applied.
I knew that I was in trouble when the white car pulled up too close to my back bumper at the stop light. One too many antennas on the roof; the driver poking at the dashboard to his right. I thought about pulling over first, but drove on a block: inevitably the red and blue lights came on behind me.
The officer was in full battle gear. You’re not from around here? I resisted the impulse to reply in Dutch, shook my head, gathered my Hertz agreement and US driver’s license.
This is a rental car; you know we require seat belts in this village? <sigh> I’d unbuckled to get pen out of my pocket and jot down a note a few lights back.
It’s gonna be $35 – you can pay cash at City Hall before you leave. 15 minutes of our time for $35, and an hour finding City Hall and waiting in line the next day.
Yes, I was in the wrong. But I wasn’t being a hazard or a burden to anyone: I was carefully driving on the correct side of the road well within the 25 mph speed limit. It was a sunny clear day with dry pavement and I was driving a well maintained and properly licensed car. There was light early morning traffic, and I was watching for children, cyclists, and jaywalkers. I wasn’t texting or talking on a phone; I am fully insured.
Yet the literal reading of a well-intentioned law encouraged the police to pull me over and collect $35. It wasn’t corrupt as the times when an officer in Wyoming or another in Bratislava took cash and then drove away without giving me a , two cases that actually were shakedowns. But I admit to feeling that city finances are being served rather than safety or justice.
And I don’t like that feeing. I want to feel like the authorities and I are working together on the same side of public interest. I remember the beat policeman that was part of the neighborhood; the patrolman who came to the schools to discuss crime prevention. But speed traps and spot checks feel adversarial and unjustified; patrolmen glimpsed behind a windshield or within riot gear feel distant and removed.
It goes beyond police: ordinary life suffers daily friction in the name of safety and security . The unmotivated searches by security screeners, the random detentions at customs, the admonishments against mp3 players at take-off and landing, the occasional bag searches when entering office buildings , all done for safety and security. But they often seem to add friction and cost to people’s everyday lives without visible benefit. And that undermines respect for both laws and authority.
A lot of the backlash against government is that people perceive laws, taxes, and regulations to be arbitrary, costly, and ineffective. A lot of this comes from how they are applied rather than how they are conceived. I don’t disagree with the safety intent of having a seat belt law. But that morning it felt applied in order to raise money or to let everyone know that the police ere doing their jobs.
And ultimately, for authority to have people’s backing, it has to follow it’s own rules and improve people’s lives.
Years ago, a cold winter night in Chicago, there was a knock on my door. It was a precinct worker for my alderman, asking f I could move my car for a few minutes so that they could remove the snow around it so that the streets would flow better in the morning. There was a small army of city workers out cleaning up the neighborhood. And, if I was so inclined, could I remember the alderman at the election next year?
I did: that was visible legitimacy The Machine was working, making my life easier and better.
Open and shut
The past few months have seen a lot of turnover among businesses along the ‘skade. The Dutch economy officially tipped into recession months ago, doubtless accounting for some closures. Others are victims of government policy or bad business ideas. But the dying shopfronts are quickly replaced by new ones, and the Maastricht waterfront still feels healthy and prosperous.
Downstairs, restaurant El Pica Pica has closed: it went bankrupt literally overnight, the bar neatly waiting for the next day’s opening that never arrived.
I chalk this one up to bad business planning: it was a high-end 40 euro per person tapas bar that never attracted sufficient high-end clientele. In contrast, the new Asian place next door seems to be doing well.
My main worry is that the landlord will raise the rent to compensate for the lost business.
De Nacht, the pole-dancing club up the street, has also shut down, unlamented. Ironically, the straight-faced Wiener Kaffee, next door, remains. Local businesses and residences fought this club, only ever open from midnight to 5 am.
People can do what they will do, but it never seemed like a good idea to draw out and concentrate the people who would attend strip clubs onto public streets at 4am. I don’t have a shred of evidence to back that feeling, but I’m not sorry to see it go.
The drug boats and coffee houses are shuttered, protesting the drug policies of the local government. The law was aimed at stopping drug tourism but, not so subtly, also tried to force the closure of the businesses. It forced users to show a residence card, then to obtain one of a limited number of membership cards (wietpas) available for entry.
A couple of US friends were in town in mid August and went to down to see the shuttered Mississippi drug barge. They found the forlorn owner out front, surveying the empty gangways. He gave them a tour and some perspective (although no drugs),
happily answering questions about the business economics and legal arguments. It made for a great story back home and put a human face on it all here.
Anyway, the businesses took the city to court and, today, Maastricht’s mayor backed down. Residence cards will still be needed, but the mayor hopes that this will reduce the number of street dealers who have appeared since the ban was introduced.
Indeed.
However, the marijuana pass system is is still planned for the rest of the country, including Amsterdam, in January 2013. The coffee houses are, of course, campaigning for parties opposed to the wietpas.
‘imagine this platform anywhere else.
‘Closing with two more curiosities, encountered while wandering to capture photos for the day.
