Zoning laws & Chain Letters

GET OUT OF MY TOWN!

Thankfully the City Counsel tabled the rezoning plan. A really basic look at the zoning issue is this. Most of Baraboo is zoned R2, which means that homes in the R2 zoned area can be single family dwellings (aka a house) or multi-family dwellings (aka homes with apartments attached, duplexes, or apartment buildings). The City Counsel wanted to re-zone Baraboo so it would be almost exclusively R1 or R1-A which would make it ALL single family dwellings and make most of the multi-family dwellings in the rezoned area Legal Non-Compliant. Homes that are Legal Non-Compliant would have their mortgage notes called (No lending institution will carry a mortgage on a Legal Non-Compliant home) and be next to impossible to sell or buy. The only way to use the property would be to bulldoze the existing structure and build a new compliant home or restructure the current building to make it a single family dwelling. While there are several converted residences (structures that were built as single family dwellings and converted into multi-family dwellings) there are just as many homes that are over 100 years old that were built as multi-family dwellings. These are Victorian apartment complexes and Duplexes and would most likely have to be torn down under the re-zoning plan.

While I oppose this rezoning plan on principle (property owners rights WHAT?) the thing that really ticks me off is a little group of nimrods from right here in my own neighborhood. These people (I am trying REALLY hard not to swear) are upset because they bought homes (3-5 years ago) across the street from and next door to multi-family dwellings and they blame all the social ills in the neighborhood on the renters. They support the rezoning because “Renters are transient and don’t care about the neighborhood they live in.” This irks me because I am now a renter in their neighborhood (or I should say MY neighborhood), which is the same neighborhood I have lived in for more than twenty years. I think the best expression of this is one event that one of these twits singled out as an example of the problem with renters. A while back one of the renters in the neighborhood was threatening suicide with a gun. He wandered the neighborhood (which includes a school area) and went home to kill himself. The police were called, the neighborhood was locked down. That “horrible man” went to jail/an institution. I am not saying having armed, emotionally disturbed people wandering around is a good thing BUT being new to the area this twit missed out on a few facts that transients like myself know: 1. That man had lived in that apartment for FAR longer than this stupid woman has lived in the area which meant that 2. Those of us who are not new have been aware of this man for some time. We watched out for him. He is a Vietnam Veteran suffering from extreme PTSD. He would sometimes go off his meds. It was a sad situation so when a neighbor noticed he was off his meds they would notify the local VA who would sort him out. THAT is community. These new people who are decrying a lack of community and are blaming it on renters not only failed the community but are vilifying the poor man. They complain of drug houses on the corner well … 1. The drug house was a single family dwelling and would be unaffected 2. Zoning is not how a community deals with criminals. Dealing drugs is already illegal. They should be arrested not re-zoned 3. We didn’t have drug houses on the corner until this little crew moved in … hmmmmm
Once again their complaint about community comes into play. Looking around the room prior to the meeting my mother, husband and I were greeted with hugs, jokes and requests to see the wedding pictures. We saw former neighbors and had a nice chat. We knew a good 60% of the people there on sight. We didn’t know these twits. They whine about neighborhood stability. Most of the apartments in the neighborhood house one of three types of people 1. Those who choose apartment living or cannot afford to buy a home and remain in their apartments for many years, raising families and growing old. 2. Former home owners from the neighborhood who, due to age and changing finances in their elder years, can no longer care for a house but do not wish to leave the neighborhood. 3. Young couples who can not afford a house right now but are looking to buy that house down the block in a couple of years. They are in the revolving door of new-comers; they are just too new to realize it.

I say to them, You don’t like MY neighborhood? Feel free to leave. We don’t want you here.

CHAIN LETTERS

So to add to yesterday’s excitement I got a real life honest to goodness paper chain letter in the mail. I didn’t think such things still existed! It was like holding a bit of history in my hands. This one is perfectly legal though, it says so right on it! (yeah, right) I reported it to the authorities so hopefully little pensioner grandmas wont get scammed. It was just amazing in this internet age that someone is still sending paper chain letters. My mother asked, “Well, how can you e-mail someone a dollar?” “Pay-pal” I responded.