Looks like the govt is doing everything in it's power to dish it to the little people that start and run small businesses, thinking every business is a big Mac shop and that can afford this.

Another feel good law without fully understanding the ramification of it. Such is the liberal mentality.

Just the other day this newspaper mentioned another small business decided to fold here in Mt. View.

"This is a good time for us to look at different models for businesses.", says Abe Koga who has oh so much experience in running businesses... Not.

I have personally spoken with over a dozen business owners in downtown. While I freely admit that this is anecdotal, as it stands, I was surprised at how many of these people are making shockingly little money for the time and effort they invest in their businesses. There is no question that quite a few will be driven out of business - The margins are simply not there, and the reality is that for every dollar increase in price a certain percentage of business is lost.

What was equally disturbing to me is how many of these same owners were fearful of going before city council to plead their case and express their viewpoint for fear of backlash. I guess that is the price we pay for our wonderfully liberal and tolerant (as long as you agree with and endorse their ideas) community.

Bookmarking this story to link to when MVV publishes the next article about a MV business going under

I'd much rather pay a little more when I eat out than have people living in poverty serving me. I'm appalled by the growing number of workers in our city living in trailers or driving hours per day to work here. The last time I ate out on Castro St the waiter had just moved from Mtn View to Tracy after living here almost 20 years. That's well over a 2 hour drive per day in commute traffic. Not good for him or his family. Also not good for the environment when the service jobs are here and the affordable housing is farther and farther away.

Meanwhile my house and those all around me are worth over a million dollars and selling as soon as they come on the market. People eating in restaurants in Mtn View can afford to pay a little more for dinner. Here's an estimate of how much it might cost, and it's not that big a deal: Web Link Restaurants raise prices when commercial landlords demand more rent and we can certainly pay those who serve us as well.

The minimum wage is a dreadful and cruel policy that exacerbates inequality by making it hard for the young and low-skilled to start out in a career.

Thrilled to see the City Council taking steps to supporting our most vulnerable workers. I am sympathetic to the impact this move has on business owners, let's work together to support them as well. Mountain View residents want to support businesses that treat their employees well. If that requires higher costs to accurately reflect our values then I'm happy to pay an extra few cents for a meal Web Link

Oh wow! $15 per hour! What a shockingly ignorant response by the ultra-libs on the MV City Council. Will minimum wage workers now afford to live in MV except for messing up our streets with illegal cars and RVs? NO. Will there be as many minimum wage part-time jobs for middle class students? NO. Will local businesses lose customers due to higher prices? YES. Will there be any net benefit to anyone who are truly useful citizens of MV? NO. Ultra-libs are not known for having any economic common sense. They are known for messing things up with too much "bleeding heart compassion" and not enough real-word practicality.

This is the important Message:

"Those who are old and on fixed incomes that previously could afford them will find that they no longer have the spending power to buy them. Then social security has to get raised. Eventually, everything is the same except our money is worth less as we have to pay significantly more for everything. Those who were counting on retiring will have to keep working.....but we don't care about those people do we? "

With this man made inflation, guess what, your savings will be worth less.

As for the millionaires sitting on million dollar houses, probably don't have the money until they sell and then of course have to move out of the area. And for those that can afford to by a million dollar house won't be able to afford it since they probably pay big time on their mortgage and other bills.

The prices goes up and the size of the product goes down.

Nothing more amusing than to see our usual group of right-wing and ultralibertarian posters beating up on lower-wage workers.

Of course, these are the same people who have clue as to anything dealing with economics. But when one lives in an ideological bubble...

I posted the comment below and it magically got deleted. Of course "@Ignorance, Anyone?" can freely post despite attacking whole categories of people, but posts rebuffing these attacks are not allowed. I'm reposting this after having removed the last clause of the last sentence in the original. I should add that it didn't include any profanity, vulgarity or name calling. Clearly it offended the tender sensitivities of the wonderful moderators at Pravda... um I mean the Mountain View Voice. I will keep posting this and removing parts until the moderators deem it acceptable. Perhaps I will end up with a one word post. Isn't censorship a wonderful thing

@Ignorance, Anyone?

How you can find it amusing to watch people beating up on low-wage workers is both shocking and horrifying.

Having said that, I salute you on your superb use of the ellipsis