Tomorrow night the Shawnee City Council will again
consider the rezoning request for this proposed project.
I’d like to address the attitude of many of those
homeowners in the area who have been objecting to the construction of the
project. First, they do have every right to object. This is America.
What bothers me is what appears to be the negative stereotyping of apartment residents by these protesters. They seem to feel that apartment residents do not have a stake in Shawnee (a philosophy once endorsed by Councilmember Jeff Vaught. Has he now changed his mind on that?).
Apartment residents have just about as much of a stake
in Shawnee as individuals who reside in private homes.
Let’s look at a few things:
1. Apartment residents comprise approximately
25% of the city’s population
2. Apartment residents pay property taxes.
They are included in their rent (no landlord is going to be so magnanimous as
to waive them)3. Apartment residents pay city franchise fees on utilities (and taxes)
4. Apartment residents pay city sales taxes on their purchases in the city.
5. Apartment residents pay personal property taxes when they buy vehicles, a portion of which comes back to the city
6. Apartment residents pay fuel taxes when they “gas up” a portion of which comes back to the city.
Some other bits and pieces. The State Representative
for the 17th District, the area where Vantage would go is an
apartment resident. Does he not have a stake in Shawnee? I’ve been
writing this blog for a long time. Do I not have a stake in Shawnee?
I have attended more city council and committee meetings
than six members of the governing body, The only three who have attended
more are Mayor Distler and Councilmembers Pflumm and Sandifer. I’ve been
going to these things for about ten years now. Have these homeowner
protesters ever attended any other council and/or committee
meetings? There are lots of subjects that are important to Shawnee, not
just this rezoning request. How about the budget sessions for one?
Where are or have they been? What about civic involvement? Let’s
try the Citizen’s Police Academy and/or the Community Emergency Response
Team. How many of these protester folks have attended these? If
they had, then they might be volunteering to assist our PD at various events,
or learn how to help folks in case of an emergency and/or disaster. Nahhh,
it’ll probably be some apartment resident who bails their butts out of an
emergency.
Now let’s get to one of what I call a major indicator
of involvement and stake holding in the city. Voting. How often do
these protestors vote in local (city elections)? I’m not talking about
voting for president or governor. I’m talking about voting for city
council and mayor. Shawnee, in the last election had less than 15% of its
citizens vote for mayor/council. Which category do most of these protestors
belong in? The 15% who voted for somebody for city government, or the 85%
who sat on their asses at home. Guess what? The information
is available. Not who they voted for but whether or not they voted.
All one has to do is get a copy of the protest positions (public record,
available by KORA) and match that up with the voter lists which show historical
voting (also available by KORA). Could prove to be interesting to see how
these “civic minded” individuals participate in the process. We know they
hardly ever, if at all, other than this subject, get involved at city hall.
So,
now it’s my turn to stereotype. These protestors, when stereotyping
apartment residents are, IMHO, arrogant, self absorbed hypocrites. For the
record, I personally preferred the original project for that area,
“Cobblestone”. Now, I’d like to see this project go in just so they have
the opportunity to learn to live “with their neighbors”.
DTJVSD
