The proposed measure is purely symbolic so we can feel progressive, but the Chamber of Commerce members were 62 percent against it, and an informal poll from Ace Hardware was 70-plus percent against it. This bag issue is very elitist. This proposal is a penalty on folks who can’t get to the grocery store every day, preferably by bicycle, or those buy more groceries than they can carry out in their pockets, as someone suggested. Listen carefully to the statistics touted about reducing plastic bag usage. People do buy plastic bags off the shelf and if they don’t have the grocery bags to re-use for trash, lunches and pet waste, they will likely buy more. I know I will, so my bag consumption will not change. Ask the council if it can prove that overall plastic bag consumption and landfill percentage is reduced in the cities they tout. They can’t because the data do not exist. I heard, many times, how people are just afraid of change and so we have to force it on them, and then they will be OK with it. But maybe, just maybe, they aren’t afraid of change, but do not like intrusive, symbolic actions that solve no problems. Maybe they aren’t just deluded or fearful or ignorant, but right. Maybe they would like the City Council to focus on real city problems, such as inadequate snow removal. Much was made about how it is not a city councilor initiative – “It was brought to us by a citizens group.” True. However, the city’s own task force did not recommend this tax or a ban; it recommended increased education. Period! So you have to ask yourself, who has been driving the process since then? Let’s put it on the ballot this fall.

MJ Ward

Durango