This began as a comment in response to a March 2nd post at the New Albany Eyesores blog: “You are all fundamentalists with a top dressing …
His post coupled with a re-emergence of conversations about a unified co-operative voice within the various group thinks in New Albany led me to throwing it up on the marquee.
“If we were to set property value issues aside, and tax base issues aside, should we, as a community, at least not “stand together” against the practice of renting out homes that are known to be infested with rodents and/or insects?”
In reference to your last question, the answer is an unequivocal yes!
Unfortunately it leads directly into another question–how do we go about doing that?
And that splits off into at least three questions.
How do we convince the city to act?
How do we convince the “landlords” who are doing it right that we are not “out to get them” personally?
How do we get the various groups to come together, hang together, and present a unified front to be dealt with?
Everyone knows the problems mentioned are not specific to one block, one street, or one neighborhood.
Yet the turf wars wage on! Not in a violent way but in a passive/aggressive manner that does nothing but nullify any effort mounted.
If it’s not boundary lines, its historic preservation!
If it’s not on the other end of town, it’s too political!
If it’s not political, it’s too personal!
And on, and on, and on ad-infinitum!
News flash! It’s all political! It’s all personal! It affects us all in one fashion or another!
I agree it is time to join hands, share a common kettle of soup and sing “Kum By Ya”!
However, for it to amount to anything we are going to have to agree to disagree on some of the specifics of how we get there and hang tough on the goals we want to achieve.
For those of us who have been self motivated, self employeed, independent thinkers all of our adult lives, that is a tough nut to crack.
But crack it we must lest all of our homes implode in on themselves and our grandchildren be taxed with this self same conversation thirty years hence.
We are blessed with a limitless cadre of varying talents to bring to the table.
How we get to the table is the 64 thousand dollar question!
Answers anyone???
