There are a lot of op-ed writers I like, and I’ll share plenty of their work in the “Other People’s Sheet” section of this website. Then there’s Jon Caldara.
I don’t just like Jon. I admire him. Greatly. He has an uncanny ability to boil away the bullshit and get to the bottom line, and his latest column in The Denver Gazette, “Going after the wrong butts,” does exactly that. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston says it is time for Big Tobacco to clean up cigarette-butt litter. Caldara asks the rather inconvenient question City Hall would prefer everyone skip: what about the people dropping the butts, and what about the government already being paid to maintain public order and clean public spaces?
I wrote about this absurdity earlier, but Jon nails the larger point so perfectly that I had to share it. The city has filed suit against major tobacco companies, seeking damages and other relief tied to the alleged costs and effects of discarded cigarette filters. The legal claims will now have to survive the legal process, and I’m not going to pretend the outcome is already decided. But the political dodge is sitting right there on the sidewalk next to the litter: Denver has found yet another way to make its own inability to manage basic civic order somebody else’s fault. (the-independent.com)
The Bullet Point Brief
- Denver has discovered cigarette butts. Apparently, among all the visible disorder one encounters in the city, discarded filters have rocketed to the top of the emergency list. Caldara notes that in his own daily cleanup around the Independence Institute, cigarette butts are hardly the most memorable debris. (denvergazette.com)
- Mayor Johnston says Big Tobacco created the mess. That is a wonderfully convenient sentence if your goal is to remove the smoker who tossed the butt, and the city responsible for enforcing litter laws and maintaining public property, from the accountability equation. Adults buy cigarettes. Adults smoke them. Some adults throw the filters on the ground. Somewhere along the way, personal responsibility seems to have fallen through a storm drain.
- The lawsuit is real, but its outcome is not predetermined. Denver alleges cigarette filters create costs and damage involving streets, parks, drainage systems and waterways, and it is seeking recovery from tobacco companies. Similar litigation has been pursued elsewhere, and tobacco defendants have disputed the theory that manufacturers should be liable for customers improperly discarding their products. (the-independent.com)
- Caldara follows Denver’s logic to its hilarious conclusion. If manufacturers own the bad behavior of the people who buy their products, start warming up the lawyers for automakers, liquor companies, tool manufacturers and retailers. Why stop with cigarette companies? At least consistency would make the stupidity easier to admire. (denvergazette.com)
- And here is the question Denver taxpayers ought to ask: if cleaning public spaces, enforcing litter laws and maintaining civic order are responsibilities that can simply be invoiced to whoever manufactured the offending object, what in hell are taxpayers funding City Hall to do?
My Bottom Line
Jon has the disadvantage of writing for a big, reputable newspaper, where there are certain phrases editors understandably prefer not to splash across the page.
I have no such handicap.
This move by Mayor Johnston is grifting bullshit. Not because cigarette litter is acceptable. It isn’t. Throwing your cigarette butt on the sidewalk is trashy, inconsiderate behavior. Fine people for littering. Enforce the laws. Clean the streets. Maintain the drains. Do the basic work of municipal government. That is what citizens are already paying Denver to do.
But Denver’s political class has perfected a remarkable little trick: preside over visible disorder, excuse or ignore the human behavior producing much of it, then locate some corporation with deep pockets and announce that they are responsible for cleaning up the consequences. It turns accountability into a shell game. The taxpayer pays City Hall, City Hall points at somebody else, and politicians hold a press conference announcing leadership.
That habit matters far beyond cigarette filters. Colorado’s largest city keeps trying to sell outsourced blame as governance. Jon Caldara sees through it because Jon Caldara usually sees through this stuff before most people have finished reading the press release. Thanks, Jon, for being you. You nailed it. Perfectly.
Source: Denver Gazette
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