Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2016, Page 6

FOR
Recently, Reykjavík mayor Dagur B.
Eggertsson said that city council was
looking into the idea of putting a cap
on just how many hotels can be built
downtown. No one was happier than I
to read this, but not without reserva-
tions. Namely, I don’t think the idea
goes far enough.
A recent much-shared article in
the Icelandic media serves to prove
the point I want to make here: in the
article, two tourists from the US com-
plained that there were far too many
tourists in Reykjavík, and specifically
named American tourists amongst
the teeming crowds. Clearly, these
two tourists were amongst the Special
Ones: true elites who deserve to visit
Iceland far more than any of these oth-
er plebs. And if Iceland had some kind
of special filter in place, letting only
the Special Tourists into the country,
there wouldn’t be any need for more
downtown hotels.
Really, the problem solves itself
once you start screening who may and
may not visit Iceland. We wouldn’t
want people who clearly never read
about the country before visiting to
feel as though they were having an in-
authentic experience, after all.
AGAINST
Once again the nanny state is seeking
to glove, bind and amputate the invis-
ible hand of the market. Our bleeding
heart mayor has caved under pressure
from environmentalists and other
radicals by proposing that there ought
to be a limit to how many hotels one
can build downtown. The mayor has it
exactly backwards: downtown Reykja-
vík needs more hotels, not less.
As a hospitable people, we want to
offer guests to our country the very
best we can provide. Sure, maybe in
pretty much every major city in the
world you will find tourist-oriented
hotels in the suburbs as well as down-
town, but Iceland is a special country,
and we ought to keep it that way. If, as
the mayor says, it can take months or
even years to approve a plot for build-
ing a hotel, clearly the solution is to
make the approval process faster, pos-
sibly even automatic.
In my dream of Iceland, downtown
Reykjavík is literally nothing but ho-
tels. There, we can keep the bulk of
our tourists confined to a central area
while they can easily access goods and
service both uptown and in the sub-
urbs. Living downtown is a nightmare
anyway, so why would anyone fight to
live there? We need to exercise some
common sense and let the market de-
cide, as is right and natural.
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WORD OF
THE ISSUE:
The word of the issue this issue is nett.
Literally, it means “petite,” but all the
young hip kids use it to mean “nice” or
“cool.” Rap group Úlfur Úlfur has a song
entitled “#Nett” (no, the hashtag is not
a typo), probably the most 101 Reykjavík
song title in recent Icelandic history.
Used in a sentence:
“Djöfull væri það nett ef ríkið væri opið á
sunnudögum.” (Goddamn it would be cool
if the liquor store were open on Sundays.)
Nett
POEM
Son of a Flamethrower
his punishment was having a
throbbing penis,
a pulsating vagina,
a powerful libido
and terrible social skills.
Deathwish.
A Poem By
Páll Ívan
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2016
6
A POEM BY is curated by Grapevine’s
poetry liaison, Jón Örn Loðmfjörð
The number of parties
currently in Parliament
The number of parties running
for Parliament this October
(at the time of writing)
A Limit On Downtown
Hotels?
FRIENDLY
CROSSFIRE
The latest polled level of
support for the ruling coalition
The greatest level of support
the current ruling coalition
of the Progressives and the
Independence Party has had
this term
Photo by
ART BICNICK