Winston-Salem City Council Needs to Be Aware of the Law of Unintended Consequences

6 Replies

According to this story on WXII's site the Winston-Salem city council is considering a new set of fees for Internet cafes.  From the story:

The city of Winston-Salem could stand to generate more than a $500,000 if City Council members approve new taxes on Internet cafes.

The City Council has proposed a $2,500 license fee and a fee of $500 per machine for the nearly 50 new locations operating inside the city. Currently, the businesses pay no taxes to the city or state.

"We're getting no revenues from these very rapidly growing businesses that are in our communities," Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines said. "Our budget is very difficult right now, so any revenue enhancement we can come up with that will not really impact a business, we're trying to look at. We believe these are very lucrative businesses and could easily afford this fee we are proposing." 

I haven't seen the actual proposal so I can't speak to the specifics, but what worries me about this is the definition of "Internet cafe".  If the definition is too loose then here are some of the businesses that could get sucked into this:

  • Any business that charges for wi-fi access – for instance Starbucks – could conceivably be charged for each person that pays to access the network.
  • Hotels that charge for internet access in rooms, or that provide internet access on computers in their business centers and lobbies.
  • Even coffee shops that provide free wi-fi could get hit for $3,000 – $2,500 for the fee and $500 for the computer/router.  They aren't making a dime off the wi-fi, but if the proposal isn't worded correctly they could get hit with the fee regardless.

It sounds to me like the City Council is trying to target a specific type of business (essentially legal gambling parlors), but sometimes when fees or ordinances are adopted to target specific types of businesses then other "innocent" businesses get caught in the crossfire.

I can guarantee you this: if every company that offers free wi-fi learns that it's going to be hit with a $2,500 fee then you can bet your bottom dollar that free wi-fi will disappear in Winston-Salem.  Paid wi-fi might survive, but you'd have to sell a LOT of daily access passes to justify it.  As for hotels that charge $15.95 a night for internet access in your room?  I'd like nothing better than to say "Hit 'em with your best shot!" since that's one of the most annoying business practices in the hospitality sector, but if you do they'll just pass it along as a higher daily rate.

That Winston-Salem is looking for additional sources of revenue is not surprising, and neither is the fact that the targeted industry is a "sin" business, but let's hope the City Council is smart enough not to tax itself.  After all, this is the city that just a few years proudly unveiled its own free wi-fi on Fourth Street.  The description of the free wi-fi service from the city's own website sounds to me suspiciously like what the rest of the world considers an Internet cafe:

Fourth Street Wireless Internet access is a free service provided by the City of Winston-Salem. Citizens in restaurants and businesses along Fourth Street can access the Internet through high-speed connections and enjoy browsing the Web, checking and sending e-mail, or chatting through instant messaging services.

Like I said, I just hope the City Council is very careful with this thing.  

One last thought: Can anyone think of other fees that are targeted at specific industries?  I'm sure there are some out there, but my fatigue-fogged mind isn't hitting on any right now.

ExtenZe at Hanes Mall? Really?

2 Replies

I know I've been distracted lately, what with three teenagers needing feeding and watering, the day job going on all cylinders and me being preternaturally distracted and all, but how in the heck did I miss this? ExtenZe opened its one and only store in Hanes Mall over the weekend! From the article:

ExtenZe has predominantly marketed to the male demographic in the past. Not only with a NASCAR Sprint Cup sponsorship of the No. 37 ExtenZe Racing Ford, but also through spokesman such as Jimmy Johnson, championship winning football coach, and porn star Ron Jeremy. Also with late night infomercials, featuring Bridgetta Tomarchio – actress, model, talking to people about their personal sexual performance levels.

But now one of the hottest products is ExtenZe Women, an all-natural blend to create a female libido booster. In addition to these enhance products, the store plans to capitalize on traditional mall products with the ExtenZe logo on and engaging slogans such as “Yeah, We’re Cocky” and 
“Growing Our Fan Base One Member at a Time”.

I never thought I'd live to see the day that Hanes Mall was mentioned in the same article with Ron Jeremy. Seriously, is this a hoax or can someone confirm that there is indeed an ExtenZe store at Hanes Mall?  I go to the mall once a year (Christmas Eve, 3:00 p.m. in a panic) so I have no way of knowing for sure.

Governor’s Volunteer Service Award

Leave a reply

Remember a couple of months back how I wrote, incessantly some would say, about the Labor of Love project the Triad Apartment Association (my day job) was doing at The Children's Home?  Well, the folks at The Children's Home were kind enough to nominate us for a Governor's Volunteer Service Award and a bunch of us will be attending a breakfast for the Forsyth County nominees on April 29.  The project was highly rewarding in its own right, but the award process is very exciting too.  We're very grateful to the folks at The Children's Home for nominating us and hopefully we'll do them proud!

Jon’s Social Media Rules (as if the world needs ’em)

4 Replies

My family and friends know I'm a pseudo-geek.  I'm not a real geek because I may know about things like Facebook before they do, but I couldn't fix a computer if my life depended on it. Anyway, as a pseudo-geek I fill the role that all consultants love: I'm no expert but some people think I am because I know more than they do.  Lately most of the questions I've gotten have been about things that could loosely be defined as social media.

As an example I get asked: "What's this Twitter thing? How does it work? Why in the heck would anyone use it?"  Inevitably the questions evolve into conversation and culminate with the ultimate statement-question: "I'm too busy to pay attention to this crap, but (insert name of someone they respect/fear here) thinks its important so I guess I have to.  How can you tell which one of these things really matter and how do you keep track of it all?"  That's when I lay out my own rules for the road:

  1. Find your sage. To determine which cool new thing to pay attention to I track people whose job it is to know these things and test the products/services they seem to be high on.  My number one resource is Fred Wilson and not too far behind him is Rex Hammock.  They don't know me from Adam, but I read their stuff religiously and pay close attention.
  2. Be patient. Usually the things that techies are high on don't seem too relevant at first.  Facebook and Twitter seemed pretty useless to me for quite a while because no one I knew was using them, but when more friends/colleagues started using them, and the network effect kicked in, they became as valuable as any online tool I have with the exception of that insipid creature known as email.  Still, it took a long time and I essentially just monitored the services until they took off.
  3. Use appropriately. I'm reminded of this by an article in Fortune about LinkedIn.  I've always thought of LinkedIn as useful, but somewhat stodgy in terms of my social media universe and that remains true.  So what?  It functions very well and does what it's supposed to do and I use it for all the tasks I need to accomplish when I'm wearing my "professional Jon" hat.
  4. Don't be afraid to cut the cord or limit your menu.  I've abandoned more of these things than not.  Off the top of my head I can name FriendFeed, Tumblr and MySpace and I'm certain there's ten times that many that I can't remember. I'm not saying that these services don't serve lots of people very well, they just never reached a critical use point for me and there's nothing wrong with that.  Do this relentlessly or you'll soon be overwhelmed.
  5. Try not to be the last one at the party.  Time really is our most precious commodity so don't waste it on something that is bringing you minimal returns.  I actually used MySpace quite a bit a few years ago because there were friends and family members using it and I found it a great way to stay in touch.  But they started leaving and all MySpace seemed to offer were really ugly pages managed by local escorts and so I said "adios." 
  6. Don't be afraid of the rebound.  Sometimes you stop using a product or service because it seems fairly useless and then out of nowhere everyone seems to be talking about it.  Before you dismiss it as simply uninformed n00bs talking out of their nether regions go back and check it out.  You might find that the service has been vastly improved, or has added a component that makes it more useful, and you shouldn't let your ego get in the way of using it.  I know this sounds a lot like 'be patient' but really it's about rediscovering something you actually abandoned (truth be told I did this with LinkedIn).
  7. If your boss (customer, significant other, kids, etc.) uses it then use it too.  You may think it's stupid, but if someone whose opinion truly matters to you is using it then you probably need to at least be up to speed.  You may not give a rats you-know-what about Facebook, but if your kids are using it don't you at least want to know how it works?  Same goes if your boss keeps spouting off about the great research potential provided by LinkedIn.  Nothing says you have to be an uber-user, but it doesn't take too much effort to get enough of an understanding to keep from looking like the kid who still had an 8-track player in his car in 1991. 

Simple, huh?  Feel free to disagree, add or delete.  

No Fumar

2 Replies

The first Forsyth County biz to be hit with a fine for violating the NC smoking ban is:

Breaktime Billiards on Jonestown Road.

To get fined they had to have been cited at least three times so I guess they've been thumbing their nose at the state for a while.  It'll be interesting to see what effect, if any, the fine has on the behavior of Breaktime and other businesses in Forsyth.

Pretty Soon the Journal Could Be a Home-Based Business

Leave a reply

More bad news for the Camel City's last major tree killer:

A corporate consolidation initiative by Media General Inc. will result in the elimination of two newsroom operations at the Winston-Salem Journal by Oct. 31, company officials said Wednesday.
 
The copy-editing and page-design departments will be shifted to larger Media General publications –the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia and The Tampa Tribune in Florida. The consolidated operation is expected to start up in the third quarter, said Media General, which is based in Richmond.

The consolidation will involve job cuts.

 "It is undetermined how many jobs and where," said Ray Kozakewicz, a spokesman for Media General. The Journal has 18½ positions in those two departments, representing 20 percent of its newsroom staff.

A design coordinator will be based at the Journal, Kozakewicz said.

From what I can tell it sounds like they'll be losing about 16 people from the 92-ish that are currently there.  Sure, some might be able to get jobs in Richmond or Tampa if they want them but that's still a job loss as far as Winston-Salem is concerned. 

At this rate I might be able to rent the Journal space in my house as the kids move out over the next five years.  I can easily accommodate the five of them and their computers.  I might even be able to fit in the high speed copier (with collator/stapler!).  


Gaudio Stepping Down (Found via Twitter?!)

2 Replies

Just saw a Tweet from WXII that Wake Forest head basketball coach Dino Gaudio is stepping down.  Supposedly there's a 4:30 press conference today so I guess we'll know more at 4:35.

Update 2: The Journal's Wake Forest beat reporter Dan Collins blogged it.

Update: Now WXII site is saying Gaudio was fired. 

A Little Tarnish for BB&T

1 Reply

Winston-Salem based BB&T has enjoyed a very strong, positive public image especially during the last few years as other "local" banks like Wachovia painted themselves as evil-banker-villain people.  Well, it looks like the sterling image is in danger of being tarnished.  To wit, two stories in the last week (h/t to Ed Cone for lead to first story):

Visions of Profits Gone, Lot Buyers Sue (News & Observer)

Attorney Wes Hodges, whose firm filed the suits against Saunders, said that buyers were subjected to high-pressure sales tactics. He said they were told it was certain that they would reap big profits by the time the two-year loans came due and that the subdivisions would be finished by then.

He said prices of the lots were artificially increased via fraudulent appraisals and that the lender – BB&T in most cases – signed off on the loans knowing the prices had beenhyped. The frontline bankers approving the loans were paid bonuses of up to 100 percent of their annual salary for hitting targets for the number of loans written, he said.

BB&T is a defendant.A spokeswoman for the bank said it doesn't comment on ongoing litigation but that it will vigorously contest the allegations.

Whistle-Blower Ordered Re-Hired in a Ponzi Scheme (Associated Press)

The BB&T Corporation must rehire a former company investigator who said she was fired after exposing a $100 million North Carolina development scam, an administrative law judge said in a ruling released Friday. The decision, made by Judge Jeffrey Tureck, said the investigator, Amy Stroupe, should be reinstated to her position with back pay because of protection afforded by whistle-blower laws…

Investigators say the development, known as the Village of Penland, was a Ponzi scheme, and Judge Tureck said in his ruling that the bank was assisting the fraud by making loans to investors in the community.