I sat in on a city planning meeting this evening. If I had any hair, I would have pulled it all out.
A business on Rapids Drive wanted to put up a sign. Rapids Drive is a busy street with many businesses, many signs and no residences. However, there was a women there who lived on nearby Floyd Street but didn't want to be able to see the sign from her house. She wanted it moved down a bit so it would be out of her line of sight. I don't think city planners should set the precedent that people have a right to a particular view out their window. After all, the business may not like the look of that ladies house. This woman should have been told that the business has every right, per city laws, to have the sign there and that if she didn't like the view she could move or plant a tree. Next item!
Next item was a women who wanted to open a resale shop in a strip mall on Douglas avenue. Poor thing had to genuflect to the planners and agree to a number of conditions, some of which were outside of her control. Some of the conditions were landscaping, sign removal and consolidation, hours of operation and lots of other stuff. Now this woman does not own the property in question, she is a renter. The owner must make the adjustments that may well cost several thousands of dollars. My guess is that he/she will try to pass this cost along to his tenants. These additional costs will make it harder for this or any other business to survive. Look for more vacant buildings and fewer businesses on Douglas Avenue thanks to the city council and the planning department.
On a positive note, it looks like I will be able to put a deck on my building as I see fit. I happened to read the city ordinances and since my project will cost less than $5,000, I am exempt from having to prostrate myself in front of the taste police, er the downtown design review commission. What color should I paint the railings? I am thinking alternating pink and green railings would be quite a sight.
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23 comments:
My God, you are like the Hitler of capitalism.
I guess people should pay royalties to businesses just for existing...and I say this as one whose family had a business in Racine for 50 years.
...still no answer to the statistics regarding income mobility...how the US is behind Great Brirain...and both are wayyyyyyy behind Australia, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
...or all the stats on white v. black america with regard to income and wealth.
I guess these FACTS just do not play into the 'rightie' myth of america the great.
Ummm, Hitler killed millions of people. I am wondering why businesses have to undergo pointless and expensive hassles. Do you think, just maybe, the comparison to Hitler is innapropriate?
Re your income mobility article, and it is true, I have no answer as it is not my area of expertise. The best I can do is find one of the thousands of articles that say otherwise. I read one just yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. I will try to find the link if there is one.
Here it is anon: http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010855
To the owner of this blog:
1. Please change the automatic identity name from "anonymous" to "idiot"
2. I will no longer read ANY posts attributed to "anonymous" and ask that you not reply to any. While it is usually useful to converse with truly stupid and/or mentally ill people as an exercise, this is an absolute waste of time at this point. Please don't waste your valuable time on good responses that I will not read.
3. There is at least one individual who presents as "anonymous" who engages creatively and politely (I have not made this judgement simply because I agree). I ask this person or persons to pick a name so that I can read their comments.
Thanks for your comments PJ. I had hoped that my exchanges with anon would help expose the absurdity of the far left, but I have also been concerned that anon is perhaps driving people away from my site. Perhaps I should poll FreeRacine readers regarding anon and the worthiness (or lack thereof) of his/her comments
Dennis,
I think you can block anonymous comments. Check the settings on your account. If I was upset by your entry enough to compare you to Hitler, I might even put my name up.
The Wall Street Jounal is a right wing 'screed' (your words) of Rupert Murdoch...there is not much to be trusted in their editorial policies.
Try this on...
http://shrillblog.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html#7913600333336023039
Convenient Tax Cut Lies
Economist's View: A Convenient Lie: As soon as you read this from Pete Du Pont:
Inconvenient Tax Truths: Al Gore believes global warming is "an inconvenient truth." Here are some economic truths that America's liberal leadership finds too inconvenient to support. ... Tax rate reductions increase tax revenues. This truth has been proved at both state and federal levels, including by President Bush's 2003 tax cuts on income, capital gains and dividends. Those reductions have raised federal tax receipts by $785 billion.
There's no need to read any further, he's revealed himself (yet again) as a political hack. The saddest part is that some people actually believe these lies.
It's also too bad that under Rupert Murdoch the Wall Street Journal's editorial page has continued to print these lies to support an ideology, lies that helped to push through tax cuts that did not raise revenues by $785 billion or at all, but instead lowered revenues by hundreds of billions of dollars according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.
Pariah Jeep is Not ananymous?
I guess I will find THAT name in the phonebook.
Meanwhile, the poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer, and Jesus Christ still speaks on behalf of the poor.
Whose side are YOU on Pariah Jeep?
so how does this all relate to the City Planning Commission?
Let's fire the backroom boys. All of them. They are not elected and they are trying harder and harder to manage us.....tell us what we like, what is good for us, what is not good for us, what we shouldn't like.
Here is an idea: Let's have a new planning commission. And a new development department and a new public works. We can keep the elected officials because if we don't like them, we can elect new ones.
Let's rebel! Paint your buildings! Put a deck on your roof! Put up signage that is perpendicular to your building! (This is BOLD in Racine.) Say NO to New Imperialism!
Sounds like your calling for some civil disobedience CK. Easy for you, you're skipping town. As for me, I got my way, as I should have, so it won't be neccessary on this issue. But in the future, who knows.
I really, really hate you. I don't believe I've ever been so disappointed to have supported a local business. I'm glad you exercise your right to free speech, but reading anything you write leaves me with less and less faith in the goodness of humanity after every one of your poisonous words.
rightietightie, perhaps your flagging faith in "goodness" stems from your own hatred of others. I can tell you from personal experience, it is not good to harbor hatred of others. Never mind me rightietightie, I can take it. But hatred eats people up and poisons their releationships among other things. That you have hatred for someone with different views than yourself should concern you.
The reason I hold so much disdain for you is not that we have different views. It's because your clear disregard for other people's wants. You care nothing for others if what happens is good for you. You yourself admit this by saying things like "I got my way, as I should have, so it won't be neccessary on this issue. But in the future, who knows." When addressing making a change, you blatantly state that you don't care to put forth effort to make this change because you're staisfied with your sitiuation, even if you disagree with policy.
rightietightie, I had a situation with city officials that involved an ordinance that could have been interpreted in different ways. City officials ultimately agreed with my interpretation and the situation was handled amicably by all involved. As a result, I will not be getting involved in any civil disobedience, or lawbreaking, over a non-issue. I don't agree with the broad powers that government officials have claimed for themselves and I keep this in mind when voting. Presently, I am the only one that I am aware of that has spoken out on this issue, so I don't exactly see a groundswell of public support for my concerns. As such I am powerless to change this policy but I can and will bring to light any excesses that I witness from overzealous city officials. And you hate me for this sentiment? You have problems rightietightie.
By the way rightietightie, who's wants have I disregarded on this issue? Should my property rights be secondary to your wants with regards to my property? What are you saying rightietightie?
rightietightie, I think Denis managed to hang in and win a victory for the individual property owner. He challenged the taste police and won.
Denis is cerebral and, importantly in this one-way city, he is male.
He is also tenacious, articulate and definitely maddening. But he stimulates thought and he uses his own name and he blogs back.
I disagree with people who say we should not use the word 'hate' or feel 'hate' when we strongly disagree with something that is said or is done. When you do use the word 'hate,' it helps to clarify what it is you do like-love-want.
I like-love-want freedom and we do have it in the USA, even though it is endangered, and so I am Thankful, rightietightie.
Interesting views on hatred CK. Hatred can be useful in clarifying what it is you do like, love, or want? So can a pipe bomb.
Hatred is an aweful emotional cancer. It is harmful to the hater and hatee. It is helpful to nobody. We should try to root it out of ourselves.
love and hate
joy and pain
night and day
black and white
yes and no
"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."
"A time to love and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."
ECCLESIASTES 3
Example: since the issue of cannons is once again in our local news, hatred for slavery and for oppression of freedom for all is what motivated Abraham Lincoln.
I see your point CK. Yet there is a difference between hating a concept, such as slavery, and hating a person, such as a slaveholder. I am far from a biblical scholar, but the idea of hating the sin but not the sinner seems like a good one to me.
I am not a biblical scholar either, Denis. Ecclesiastes is a short 12 chapter book in the old testament that I go to for counsel because it is wise.
I don't know how you can rise up and fight the idea of slavery without fighting the slaveholder.
Passion exists and as I have blogged to you before, Freud pointed out that when reason and emotion compete, emotion always wins. It is this emotional connection that makes us human and energies and motivates change. Humans are not robots. Too much emotion, too much reason and we fail because we have taken ourselves to seriously. All is vanity. We simply cannot get around the whole picture - that is the human condition.
You do have to fight the slaveholder. But must you hate the person that you are fighting? I think it is very difficult to fight someone and absorb their hatred without hating them back. I am reminded of this difficulty on this blog on a daily basis. But you CK, I appreciate. While I am sure that you strongly disagree with some of my views, and perhaps even hate them, you do not exhibit any evidence that you hate me. And I don't hate you either. In fact, I like you.
I think the founding fathers had ideas on what do do when goverment no longer served the public.
Right now the City is just being foolish I feel we need to make an example out one of the leaders so the rest get the clue.
I was saving my time for Lehman but I am rethinking that.
The issues of Bid 1
Point Blue
Geting rid of the MIS (with a no bid contract yet)
The Fire Dept cut backs
The lack of Black owned bussness downtown yet the DRC being able to suck tax $$
all need to be adress I say rase the red flag.
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