Quote of the Day
“To improve is to change. To be perfect is to have changed alot.”
From Matthew Yglesias, on a lunatic proposal for a liquor license moratorium in the neighborhood where I lived before I got married:
People sometimes seem to have this fantasy that if they reject enough liquor license applications they're going to magically recreate a 1950s local retail ecology out of The Death and Life of Great American Cities but you can't actually do that without reverting to 1950s technology and demographics. Nobody's giving up Amazon, and nobody's giving up their ability to take a Zipcar out to Ikea. What you get are empty storefronts, lower tax revenue, and fewer employment opportunities.
I grew up with that retail environment. I would love to still live in it. But unless you've got a secret plan to outlaw not only Walmart, but also Amazon and the internet, you should probably start thinking about viable plans for second-best. And in the District of Columbia, that's food, alcohol, dry cleaning, and a very limited number of high-end goods distributors.
About the Author
Megan McArdle
Megan McArdle is a special correspondent for Newsweek and The Daily Beast covering business, economics, and public policy. A former senior editor at The Atlantic and writer for The Economist, Megan has a diverse work history including three small startups and a disaster recovery firm at Ground Zero.
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