I hope local behaviour is not a predictor of global behaviour. Otherwise mankind is not going to solve existential threats such as global warming. It reminds me of the tragedy of the commons.
> The solitary Ik, isolated in the ruins of an exploded culture, has built a new defense for himself. If you live in an unworkable society you can make up one of your own, and this is what the Iks have done. Each Ik has become a group, a one-man tribe on its own, a constituency.
> Now everything falls into place. This is why they do seem, after all, vaguely familiar to all of us. We’ve seen them before.
> This is precisely the way groups of one size or another, ranging from committees to nations, behave. It is, of course, this aspect of humanity that has lagged behind the rest of evolution, and this is why the Ik seems so primitive. In his absolute selfishness, his incapacity to give anything away, no matter what, he is a successful committee. When he stands at the door of his hut, shouting insults at his neighbors in a loud harangue, he is city addressing another city.
> Cities have all the Ik characteristics. They defecate on doorsteps, in rivers and lakes, their own or anyone else’s. They leave rubbish. They detest all neighboring cities, give nothing away. They even build institutions for deserting elders out of sight.
> Nations are the most Ik-like of all. No wonder the Iks seem familiar. For total greed, capacity, heartlessness, and irresponsibility there is nothing to match a nation. Nations, by law, are solitary, self-centered, withdrawn into themselves. There is no such thing as affection between nations, and certainly no nation ever loved another. They bawl insults from their doorsteps, defecate into whole oceans, snatch all the food, survive by detestation, take joy in the bad luck of others, celebrate the death of others, live for the death of others.
- http://biologywatcher.tumblr.com/post/119092283475/lewis-tho...
And if everybody else has to follow those laws, why should your friend's place be any different? Why should a competing business have to bear the expense of installing a filtration system, then sit idly by while someone sets up shop next door and flouts that regulation?
This is where part of the criticism of cabs is unfair. Cabs aren't allowed to maximize their profits through the perfect price discrimination offered by dynamic pricing. Stuff like Pool and $1 fares are illegal for cab companies to do. So why shouldn't they complain when Uber competes with them without following regulations they have to follow?
Your complaint sounds like those people who get mad when someone rats them out for cheating in class.
And, of course, it's perfectly possible for the laws to be wrong.
The legal system is so complex that we are all always cheating.
People only call for strict enforcement of the rules when they don't like you. It is a wonderful thing to get the government to attack your enemies for you.
OP's examples were not obscure subsection g part 4 item iii-type stuff. They are basic things you'd think about if you were considering the impact of your business on the public.
The computer science version of this would be some poor guy confused about TCP/IP and I could link to the precise part of the RFC that answered his question, with a sarcastic, "Right, that's so complex". I'd be an asshole if I did that.
Also invite the cops in. If you give the impression that you're connected, these things go away. Plus, a few hundred bucks means your phone call gets picked up.
For that matter, are you a member of any local social network thingies? I've on NextDoor, whatever that is, for the last few weeks, and I'm surprised to discover that every local business I knew about (and several that I've only now become aware of) are defined primarily by the random, petty (to me) seeming complaints they generate from the neighborhood.
I wouldn't be too quick to jump to the conclusion that complaints like these are "enemy action".
It is not unreasonable NOT to want these things in your neighborhood.
Anybody with a restaurant/cafe startup idea should have some kind of contingency plan to deal with the inevitable use of city hall to try and close you down.