Crossposted to the Wild Wild Left, and Docudharma.
Alright, I’m an anti-blight type of gal. I’ve watched buildings slowly collapse over the last six years since I returned into piles of rubble. Most of the ones I’ve been watching for years still stand, and the City ain’t done Jack concerning them. (Many are owned by churches, Black non-profits (?) and “little people”. The usual suspects.)
Back in ’04 I was trying to purchase a blighted building to create a Trans shelter and education house. Whenever I approached a member of the City with this concept, there was a sputtering sound, accompanied with the sounds of crucifixes banging against the walls. All I was doing was to locate some property and then it was up to me to get support from the Trans community to make it whole. Bingo! One less blighted property in a neighborhood. One gem amongst a block of bits of coal. (not a Racial statement, but one of a geological nature, thank you very much.)
So today, our “Chocolate City” Mayor springs a 39 page revamping document changing the city’s anti-blight rules on the City Council. Needless to say, as a homeowner, I didn’t get a copy, and neither did Betts. I don’t know of anyone else who has seen this document. So we are to just be mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed shit until you decide to “use” us? To fine us? Fuck you Bro! And fuck you with a hayfork.
I am not against many of the prohibitions on the list of offenses, but I am against a wholesale overwhelming of the City Code covering 170 chapters. This “feels” like a takeover and a Disneyization, especially when it comes to the poorer neighborhoods which are primarily Black and poor.
Per the “unknown, and therefore invisible document”: “owners of unoccupied buildings would have to maintain in good repair such decorative features as cornices and trim, keep insect screens on open windows and doors, and repair cracks in foundation walls .” If the place is unoccupied, what’s the point in this? I know many folks who own homes here and there are cracks in their brick foundations. Screens on windows of an unoccupied home? FUCK me now! (There’s no one living there.) Cornices? Shit you fuckmooks, the costs of recreating the cornices and gingerbread could easily pay for 25 sheets of wallboard to make the interior whole and livable. Is Disney trying to require us to keep things looking nice so it won’t cost them too much when they do a corporate takeover of the city as an amusement park?
Will “No-See-Um” Ray become the Mayor of the new Wonka-ville? Will he wear a funny hat? Is there going to be a flowing chocolate river where Bayou St. John once flowed?
Inquiring minds would like to be clued in.
Here’s another one: “unhealthful biological growths” . We have eliminated the two greatest threats to Humanity from our yards: kudzo and St. Augustine grass. I fail to see where theses are “unhealthful growths”, just unsightly pains-in-the-tushes.
Here comes the killer: “Other possible penalties against owners whose properties harm the “public health, welfare, morals, safety and the economic stability” of their neighborhoods could include fines of as much as $500 per day, or foreclosure to collect outstanding liens.” . MORALS? Sweet Zombie Mother Freakin’ Jesus! We are going to legislate morality in this housing shit? Dammit! Most of the offenders of this part of the Code can’t find a trashcan for their McDonald’s shit… they do like at home: drop it on the floor. Morality? Fuck babies, clothing is optional in our courtyard (I’m the only one who will go sky-clad in the side yard for my morning prayers). If some purient cross-wearer peeks over our security fences and sees naked bodies running around and reports it, we’re in violation of this new Code? Fuck you again Mr. “Shouldn’t Be” Mayor. “Morality”? What about your dealings with folks that do not involve prior information (like more than a 24 hour heads up) before you bulldoze their homes? “Morality”? Does that mean anything that would upset the Disneyites visiting our Sacred City?
I want that 39 page report in my inbox in the morning Mr. Nagin. (Your minions can pull that one off, right?) I want a copy of that document in every homeowners’ hands by Monday you massive whack-job. We are the constituants, the Council are our representatives, and you aren’t God passing down the Golden Tablets about how things will be here. It’s OUR city you congenital idiot. (You can run back to Dallas when the shit hits the fan, but we live here.)
The Council will consider this on March 21st… okay, I want copies of this document in all homeowners’ hands by the 7th. We are the homeowners of the City, so we should get some say on this shit… savvy?
Or do you have a hidden agenda with these kinds of pronouncements?