California City News reports that San Francisco’s own planning department lampoons city requirements to open a small business in a You Tube animated video. According to California City News: The Planning Commission created such a video because it wanted to call attention to a “fictional but accurate portrayal of the current restaurant controls in the City’s Planning Code.”
The satire reportedly stems from the nationally reported plight of small business owner, Juliet Pries, who struggled for two years and had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in rents and fees while waiting for the proper permits and approvals from the city to open her ice cream shop.
However, Pries’ plight made headlines this year. The video was uploaded onto You Tube last May according to the date on the You Tube site. Apparently, the city planners have recognized the problem for a long time.
Those in the business community who have argued for years about an unfriendly business environment in California now have a unique ally in the San Francisco bureaucracy.
The video can be found on You Tube here.