I saw Mayor Becker last night and took the opportunity to complain about the fact that the unelected Design Review Committee can effectively veto my idea of adding a rooftop deck to my building on the grounds that they don't find it attractive enough. Never mind that my wife and I, and many skilled tradesmen, have taken one of ugliest buildings in the city and turned it into one of the most attractive. We simply can't be trusted to make attractive additions.
Mayor Becker said this government intrusion is for my own good. "You can sleep at night knowing that your neighbor will not be putting ugly additions on his building" said the mayor.
It is not potentially ugly redevelopment that keeps me up nights. Intrusive and paternalistic governments on the other hand...
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I sleep better knowing that those ugly, disgraceful Civil War cannons are rusting behind a shed rather than being displayed on "Monument Square".
Wow - looks like the city's taking its cues from Caledonia. Our planning commission chased away Camping World ($50 million a year in sales revenue) because they didn't want the RVs displayed in public and some nonsense about not enough elevation variations in the roofline, among other things!
Ah, yes, Racine County - home of the largest unemployment demographic in the state and the death of common sense!
I think about Mount Unpleasant and the Dairy Queen that dared to look like a Dairy Queen.
What is this all about??
I refused to check in with the taste police when I decided to paint my building. I know and saw them lurking about, lying in wait to crap off on me....but they couldn't because I did a good job and the colors are terrific.
There are lots of terrible examples of taste policing recently:
The facade of Asiana couldn't look like a Korean restaurant. That would be in bad taste.
Ditto Wilbur's BBQ which doesn't look like an overdone Hollywood set, instead it looks like a comfortable BBQ. Not Good!
The Big Huge Jail...not a peep.
The Big Huge State and Main Monster...not a peep. Monument Square....oooooh so beautiful!
This is America. Each of us who have invested in downtown by buying a building should have some freedom. That would make downtown Racine more inviting because it wouldn't be so controlled and uninviting.
Story seems a bit embellished...
Kate, I couldn't agree more. The notion that government will decide such concepts as beauty is laughable except that the efforts to undermine property rights is not funny at all.
And to the omniscient anon, what did I embellish?
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