Nothing Better to Do

Once again, silliness grabs hold of the City Council:

• Call off the dogs. Or rather, the Felony Franks.

  Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) is more than a weenie bit mad over the name and logo of a new hot dog stand that will be opening in his ward in a few weeks.

  Fioretti said he fully supports Felony Franks’ mission of providing ex-convicts with jobs, but he thinks the moniker and paintings outside the West Side eatery of googly-eyed hot dogs behind bars are in bad taste.

  “This, no matter what anybody says, is not that cute of an idea. It’s a great concept for ex-offenders, but it’s a poor theme for a restaurant,” Fioretti said, emphasizing that the business’ slogans, “Food so good, it’s criminal” and “Home of the misdemeanor wiener” only glamorize criminal behavior.

Once again, let the market determine what works. If people like the advertising and the hot dogs, then "Felony Franks" will sell a million of them and the city will rake in tax revenue and maybe a few felons leaning toward recidivism won't go down that path where they are a drain on society. But an aldercreature actively working against a new business in his ward? Has anyone noticed the city unemployment rate hit a new high this week? Something on the order of almost 10%.

Even a minimum wage job is a job. And it's someone off the streets working instead of going through garages and homes looking for money.

UPDATE: Spelling corrected