IJ's Freedom Flix

Chicago laws make it nearly impossible to sell tasty food on the go. The City Council is considering a freer regime, but the proposed law still bans entrepreneurs from selling in the morning or stopping anywhere near a building where food is sold. Food trucks and carts would be banned from business districts with the most customers. Call your alderman today to say, "Get mobile food rolling all over Chicago!"

For generations, street vending has been a classic way to succeed with only a strong work ethic and a desire to succeed. It is a path that cities should encourage, particularly in these tough economic times. But rather than fostering entrepreneurship and opportunity, Atlanta is doing its best to smother it. Larry Miller and Stanley Hambrick own two well-known vending businesses outside the Atlanta Braves stadium. Their businesses create jobs, offer inexpensive snacks and souvenirs to visitors, and make the sidewalks safer by keeping an eye out for fans who need help. But two years ago, Atlanta handed over all public-property vending to a single company—the first program of its kind in the country. Now that company wants to throw Larry and Stanley out of the spots they have worked for decades to build kiosks that rent for almost $20,000 a year. If it does so, Larry and Stanley's businesses will be destroyed.

Until 2010, sedan and independent limo services were an affordable alternative to taxicabs. A trip to the airport only cost $25. But in June 2010, the Metropolitan County Council passed a series of anti-competitive regulations requested by the Tennessee Livery Association-a trade group formed by expensive limousine companies. These regulations force sedan and independent limo companies to increase their fares to $45 minimum.

The township of Mount Holly, N.J., has been systematically destroying the Gardens—a close-knit community of over 300 garden-style row homes—for the past decade. Officials want to hand the property over to Keating Urban Partners, for luxury townhomes and apartments. This is what happens when eminent domain is abused for private gain. {enclose mt_holly_final.m4v}

A San Diego-area boxing gym that serves at-risk kids is showing what it takes to fight for what is right and to win. The Community Youth Athletic Center (CYAC) has had to endure a series of low blows by National City's local government in a case that time and again demonstrated how difficult it is for California property owners to defend themselves against tax-hungry governments and land-hungry developers bent on eminent domain for private gain. {enclose ijff_CYAC_National_City_ED_pod.m4v}

Should the city of El Paso, Texas, be allowed to turn itself into a No-Vending Zone in order to protect brick-and-mortar restaurants from competition?That is the question to be answered by a major federal lawsuit filed January 26, 2011 by the Institute for Justice and four El Paso mobile food vendors. The lawsuit launches a National Street Vending Initiative, a nationwide litigation and activism effort to vindicate the right of street vendors to earn an honest living. www.ij.org {enclose ijff_El_Paso_Vending_360p_pod.m4v}

Arlington, Va., entrepreneur Kim Houghton, owner of Wag More Dogs canine boarding and grooming facility in Arlington, wasn't looking for a fight. All she wanted to do was build goodwill with dog owners by creating a fun and whimsical mural on the back wall of her business, which faces the Shirlington Dog Park. Kim spent $4,000 to commission an outdoor mural of cartoon dogs, bones and paw prints to be painted on the back wall of her business. As a long-time user of the park herself, Kim saw the mural as her gift to the community.But now Arlington County officials are trying to turn Kim's mural into their government-issued sign. Represented by the Institute for Justice, she has filed a First Amendment lawsuit to defend her rights and the rights of all entrepreneurs to express themselves. http://www.ij.org/DogMural {enclose ijff_dog_mural_video.m4v}

http://iam.ij.org/9uFUX3 How can Americans create private sector jobs?The solution to America's jobs problem lies not with budget-busting federally mandated "stimulus" programs.Instead, what is needed are specific reforms that wouldn't cost taxpayers, would create a broader tax base for cash-strapped cities and states, and would provide opportunity for millions of Americans who worry where their next paycheck is coming from.As demonstrated by a series of eight new reports issued in October 2010 by the Virginia-based Institute for Justice, one of the principal obstacles to creating new jobs and entrepreneurial activity in cities across the country is the complex maze of regulations cities and states impose on small businesses. IJ's "city study" reports are filled with real-world examples of specific restrictions that often make it impossible for entrepreneurs to create jobs for themselves, let alone for others.Chip Mellor, the president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice, said, "If the nation is looking to the federal government to create jobs in America, it is looking in the wrong place. If we want to grow our economy, we must remove government-imposed barriers to honest enterprise at the city and state levels. Remove those barriers, and you will see a return to the optimism and opportunity that are hallmarks of the American Dream."IJ's eight reports document how irrational and anti-competitive regulations block entrepreneurship. More often than not, these government-imposed restrictions on economic liberty are put in place at the behest of existing businesses that are not shy about using government force to keep out competition. The Institute for Justice's city studies examine regulations imposed on a wide range of occupations in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Newark, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. {enclose ijff_City_Studies_Chuck_Pod.m4v}

On November 3, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the oral arguments in the case Garriot v. Winn. Arizona, like many states, offers tax credits to individuals and businesses for donations to fund scholarships for students to attend private schools. The goal of these programs is to give as many students as possible the resources they need to get a good education. The Dennard family has benefited from this program. Hear their story.http://www.ij.org/winn {enclose ijff_winn_pod.m4v}

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Kelo was the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that became the property rights shot heard 'round the world. Wednesday marks its fifth anniversary. In the merely five years since that infamous ruling, the vast majority of state legislatures, many state supreme courts and the public itself have acted to limit Kelo, which took away the homes of seven New London, Conn., families for private development and sparked a nationwide backlash against eminent domain for private gain. {enclose ijff_Five_Years_After_Kelo_Pod.m4v}

Washingtonians from both sides of the political spectrum filed a lawsuit today to stop their state from monitoring, collecting and publicly disseminating information about the political activities of private citizens who do nothing more than urge their fellow citizens to take political action. They seek to vindicate the belief that if the First Amendment protects anything, it protects the right of all Americans to speak to one another about the issues affecting their lives without having to first register with the government. {enclose ijff_Protecting_Grassroots_Activism_Pod.m4v}

Farmers should not be threatened with 90 days in jail and $1,000 in fines for selling pumpkins or Christmas trees grown outside city limits. Yet that is the law in Lake Elmo, Minn. On December 1, 2009, the Lake Elmo City Council declared that it would begin enforcing a law that forbids farmers from selling products from their own land unless they were grown inside city limits. The citys politicians argue that they are protecting Lake Elmos rural character. In fact, they are destroying that character by making it impossible for their farmers to earn an honest living and making it more likely that family farms will fail. http://www.ij.org/mnfarms {enclose ijff_Freeing_Small_Farms_Pod.m4v}

Under a Dallas law enacted in 2008, businesses are prohibited from putting signs in the upper two-thirds of any window or glass door, and no more than 15 percent of any window or glass door may be covered by signs. {enclose ijff_city-of-dallas-bans-window-signs.m4v}

Eyebrow threading is a booming industry in Texas. But state bureaucrats are making it impossible to continue practicing this ancient art.   Ash Patel shouldn't need to close his business to take 1,500 hours of beauty school classes that don't even teach threading.   Please subscribe to our YouTube channel.   We appreciate you watching, rating and sharing our videos. {enclose ijff_Hanging_by_a_Thread_TX_Threading_Pod.m4v}