Miami Beach city officials reportedly told a 10-year-old girl who wanted to sell cookies and drinks in her front yard to raise money for tsunami victims that she could not hold the fundraiser because they could not grant her an occupational license.
"I feel bad for them," said Carolyn Lipsick, 10, of the people affected by December's devastating tsunami. "Some children have no clothes, no food, no water and no shoes and most important, that I want to help them, they can't find their parents."
But Lipsick's mother, Desiree Lipsick, said the city of Miami Beach told her occupational licenses could not be granted for such yard sales.
"I called the city of Miami Beach and they said, 'Absolutely not. We cannot issue you a license to have a lemonade stand, a coffee stand, a fruit stand -- any kind of stand,'" Desiree said.
The Lipsicks didn't know that they would have been able to sell food if they got a permit for a garage sale, but apparently no one informed them of that possibility. Instead, the mother and daughter contacted the Local 10 Problem Solvers.
Within hours, the Problem Solvers learned the Miami Beach Jewish Community Center offered to help by allowing a fundraiser in its Pine Tree Drive parking lot.
Okay, you have to have a permit to have a garage sale on your own property? Damn! Remind me never to move to Miami. One of the reasons I don't live in a gated community is because I don't want anyone else telling me what I can and can't do on my own property (yes, I know, goverment could step in and play havoc at any time). The libertarian in me wants to cry foul, but not knowing further circumstances really limits the scope of the arguments.
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