Air-Conditioned Businesses Face Fines for Leaving Doors Open ... (Bloombergs NYC)

NY Sun ^ | August 13, 2008 | GRACE RAUH

[IrishMike]

Business owners who leave their doors open while an air-conditioner is running are about to face a fine for the offense.

The City Council is poised to approve new legislation on Thursday that would bar stores from keeping their doors open when air-conditioners or central cooling systems are in use. Any store or restaurant in violation of the new rule will first be issued a written warning and charged fines for subsequent violations.

The second time within an 18-month period that a business is found to be violating the law, a fine of $200 would be charged by the city for every open door.

That fine would increase to $400 a door for any subsequent violations during the same period.

Council Member Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side, said she introduced the bill after receiving a steady stream of complaints from constituents who were frustrated with stores that kept their doors propped open in the summer, allowing cold air to flow out of the building onto the sidewalk.

When Ms. Brewer first introduced the measure, critics argued that businesses should be asked to comply with the rule voluntarily and said it would create another layer of bureaucracy for businesses.

The Long Island Power Authority found that by leaving doors open, retail shops waste as much as 20% to 25% of the electricity they consume.

[DB]

So how are you going to keep the doors shut at a CostCo???

[Gorzaloon]

Business owners who leave their doors open while an air-conditioner is running are about to face a fine TAX for the offense.

[rawhide]

Why would business owners even do this? Aren’t they paying for the electricity?

[Sacajaweau]

Not the government's business.

Goes to Obama's...You can't keep your thermostat at 72.

[GBA]

Next they’ll be fining us for running with scissors or telling us we can’t have dessert unless we clean our plate.

[Koblenz]

I'm confused. I thought that when you ran the a/c, that made your electric meter run faster, so you have to pay more when the bill comes. Is there some problem with NYC electric meters in that they don't record excess power consumed by an A/C when a door is left open? Why should the city care if a shop wastes A/C? Will the city now prosecute offenders of other non optimization techniques as well? If a store has five people working when they only need four, should the store be fined? After all, they're lowering their profits just as if they left the door open with the A/C on. How about if a store doesn't turn its inventory fast enough? How about if a store doesn't optimally invest its cash balance in the best interest bearing account possible? What if a store is open during hours where there is not much traffic to the store, and is closed during times when there are a lot of potential consumers?

Why do people care if a business wastes electricity? Well, if they were shareholders of the store, maybe they'd be upset because their investment would not be performing as well. But otherwise?

[IrishMike]

Yes the business owners are paying for the electricity,
so leaving the doors open in the summer, allowing potential customers to enjoy the AC, if some customers enter the store, the government figures a business can share the wind fall profits.

[Adder]

I am thinking Costco uses an air curtain which effectively keeps condidioned air in pretty well.

[LearsFool]

"she introduced the bill after receiving a steady stream of complaints from constituents who were frustrated with stores that kept their doors propped open in the summer"

Democracy in action.

If a store has five people working when they only need four, should the store be fined?

Depends on the number of complaints, apparently.

[decimon]

...she introduced the bill after receiving a steady stream of complaints from constituents...

As an old NYCer I have to ask, who would complain or know where to complain? If Ms. Brewer is not FOS then Ms. Brewer is hearing from the same small set of people who complain about everything.

[PubliusMM]

Why does the government think they have anything to do with this issue? The business owners are paying the electric company for the service. Oooops...this is from the People’s Republic of New York... That explains it.

[palomonte]

not very difficult to extrapolate -

next is homeowners - idling cars - size of houses - limits on power consumption.

time to stop these bozos.

[Izzy Dunne]

I am thinking Costco uses an air curtain,

You know, a lot of grocery stores have refrigerator units with air curtains.

It's about time for Hizzonner to fine them, too, isn't it?

Oops.... maybe I shouldn't have said anything...

[Gay State Conservative]

I wonder what Bloomie’s “carbon footprint” looks like.Is it ten times as large as mine? Twenty? Fifty?

[Gay State Conservative]

next is homeowners - idling cars - size of houses - limits on power consumption.

No limits on house size or power consumption for Bloomie and his ilk,that's for sure.

[RoadKingSE]

First they came for your cigarettes....and we said nothing.

[WayneS]

More proof that Mayor Bloomberg is a totalitarian freak.

[WayneS]

CORRECTION:

More proof that the entire government of NYC are totalitarian freaks.

There, that’s better.

[HiramQuick]

Gubmint ..... the model of efficiency (sarcasm) Koblenz you make a great point ... the nanny state like Minnesota can tell me I cannot idle my vehicle for over 3 minutes. It is my fuel that I paid for. But let the minimum wage be increased forcing me to lose employees and all of a sudden I am the guilty one. Business is forced to squeeze the efficiency factor to the max .. it’s result is profit.

Raise the taxes on cigarettes so high that people have no choice but to curb their habit. A good thing? Yes but it was the unitended consequences .. in so doing the tax base disappeared. Use less fuel, tax revenues disappear, and the nanny state (who never does with less) raises taxes once more.

Efficiency and Gubmint? An Oxymoron. An elephant is a mouse built to millspec.

To bad we can’t figure out a way to eliminate the deficiency of 545 congresscritters that are morons in the federal level ... it starts at the local level. The useless start in local gubmint .. those with rectal cranial inversions .... by the the time they get to the federal level their plexiglass bellybutton is so clouded over they can’t see where they are going. Efficiency is for those do not those that say.