Anarchists Back Lemonade Stand Girl, Get Into the Illicit Lemonade Biz
By now, you've probably heard the story of the little girl in Portland who set up a lemonade stand and was promptly accosted by health department officials who threatened her with a $500 fine for operating an "food establishment" without the required $120 temporary restaurant license. The girl wound up crying her eyes out, becoming a talk radio sensation, and eventually eliciting an apology.
But it's not over yet. The girl happened to have been lucky enough to set up shop next to a bunch of anarchists at the now-notorious Portland street fair. After advising her to change her sign so that she was asking only for donations—thus potentially dodging the health department fizz, the anarchists tried to rally the crowd to her cause.
Now they're going a step further, with a plan to stage an event on the last Thursday of the month. They've set up a Facebook group to celebrate and promote their "Lemonade Revolt":
We are proposing a lemonade bloc next last thursday. Get together with your friends and family and come up with a creative lemonade. Rosemary, lavender, mint, honey, agave, mate, carob, what the fuck ever you can come up with, show up early on alberta and 25th to 26th streets around 11 or 12 in the daytime, set up a table and offer lemonade for donation, or free. We should fill the entire bloc with lemonade stands! The state will come, but we will NOT leave. We will fill the streets with dance and revelry in the spirit of last thursday's origins, an autonomous, anarchistic freak show that reclaims the streets, the neighborhoods and our lives.
Those who are thirsty for justice—or lavender lemonade—should drop by.
Reason on other child entrepreneur crackdowns here, here, and here.
