Virginia Flaggers . . .

[Wake-up!]

D- Do I hear the sounds of the hogslop the education and political systems spoon feed to us as Hoyle? After elections the last few cycles I think a lot of people are onto the smoke and mirrors. If government in this country started as 'of and by the people', it changed. It is no longer so. It is government of money. Those people 'elected' to government get there with huge sums of money from Foundations just like the Clintons', from wealthy people like Soros, from PACs, from special interest groups with lobbyists, from Wall Street, from International Bankers. It's unlikely it is even American money that elects people to government in our country, or in our more populated states. And 'our' elected officials do not serve us, they serve the sources of the money. And in that process we are enslaved a little more each election cycle; a few more coerced taxes, more homeland security rules, less government service for the dollar spent, more laws, more police, more criminal records, more penal institutions, more war machinery, student scores on standardized testing mostly decreasing on an annual basis, certainly on a generational basis, ad nauseam.

When government formed in this country, the House was set up on a 1:30,000 rule, one representative for every 30,000 people. That was considered reasonable representative government, government of the people and by the people. What do we have today, 435 people representing approximately 300 million people? That's about 1:700,000. Government of and by the people is a mirage, it's long gone, has been for years. Even representative government is a myth.

On a local level where much fewer dollars are involved, we have also lost government of and by the people. About a year ago, the elected officials of a little community in Elk County became worried when a new landowner was feared to be installing multiple trailers on six or eight lots, just a block off the main street, and across the street from one of the nicer homes in town. Without input from the residents, five people rescinded the old code and installed new code, allowing a second mobile home only to property that had more than 15 or 18 contiguous lots (I forget the actual number, but it is more than 14). Five people did that; one of those "I propose, I second, I second, all in favor say aye, all against say nay" situations. It passed five to zip and was codified and published within two weeks. So without a vote of the residents, without any input, five people passed a law that effectively bars a resident of a trailer from installing a second trailer on his/her property as rental/retirement income. Unless they have sufficient contiguous lots. And one look at the community plat map shows the sufficient number of lots is rarely possible with present land ownership.

That is NOT government of or by the people. It is government by the special interests, the community elites. It is government against the people. And it is the single biggest problem this country faces. And Trump will not make it any better.

[redcliffsw]

Good post!

We elect our overseers.  Been that way since the Republican military victory in 1865.  They let us vote but we live under their rules even though we have a good dose of Democratic Socialism for us to chose more government for them to command us so some of us can worship the nanny state for themselves.

By the way, planning and zoning is another socialist venture into America.  Fortunately, that has not been introduced into Elk County - yet. 

[proelkco]

Again Red, where did you receive your education?

[Diane Amberg]

Wake Up... do you have any codes or zoning to restrict mobile homes as to density? Perhaps due to septic system life and safe water/or systerns/ wells? Just interested, as I know how it is here.

[redcliffsw]

Again Red, where did you receive your education?

Government schooling - right there in Elk County.

[redcliffsw]

Charlottesville City Council Votes to KEEP Robert E. Lee Monument

Read on:
http://us13.campaign-archive1.com/?u=d4c1169382fd7792cd5d15e6f&id=4dd2de9d2d&e=4c543b6f2d

[Wake-up!]

Diane-
Kansas has a statewide planning and zoning ordinance. Interestingly, only 55 of Kansas' 105 counties have implemented it (as of 2009, the most recent data I could find). I tried sorting through all the legalese to see why the code appears to be voluntary, or only becomes required at a certain population or density level. I didn't find anything to explain why it is not, or not yet, uniformly applied in the State. Maybe another reader will know.

Elk County has not adopted the State ordinance, neither have Chautauqua and Crowley, but other counties around us have. Local communities within the counties may adopt the ordinance, apparently even if the county does not.

The trailer ordinance I was referring to says, in part, "No more than one trailer home, mobile home, modular home, or manufactured home may be located within an area equal to the size of fifteen contiguous city lots." The smallest city lot is 22' x 158'. Fifteen of those is 1.2 acres. So more than 1.2 acres is needed for two trailers. Now that is what might be called 'large lot' development. So large in fact, I doubt you will find that size of zoning in your neck of the woods in any city, unless it is an exclusive development.

The same little community that is biased against trailers also has a minimum housing code ordinance. It says nothing about minimum lot size, or minimum square footage for a stick frame home. From the publicly accessible city code I have seen, a builder could place a home on each 22' x 158' lot he owned. They could be stacked against each other like row houses, because the code does not make reference to lot line setbacks in any way.

The local code is an example of government run willy-nilly, with zero consideration for fairness to its residents, much less listening to what all the residents may desire. As an example, a family is moving a trailer next to an abandoned house on four city lots. The house is crooked and falling in. The trailer doesn't look much better. The city is allowing the trailer to be placed in the front yard of the house. Close inspection shows the trailer is overhanging the sidewalk, i.e., it is partly on city right-of-way. That's all good and well? But a second trailer on less than 1.2 acres is not?

When code cannot be justly and uniformly applied with the consent of all the community residents, it should not be implemented by the communities few elites.

[redcliffsw]

Planning and zoning is socialist,  Soviets had it.  Governmet planners should not be allowed, except to their individual business and with their own money.



 

[redcliffsw]

[Diane Amberg]

Thanks Wake- Up. Red, you are getting boring.