power to the people

Tonight, Tom and I went on a date to a city council meeting. Hot, right? Actually, we had a very good reason for being there.

Over the past few months, we have been watching helplessly as the ugliest storage shed complex possible has been being built adjacent to our neighborhood. Its main access is on a major city road, Antelope Drive, but it goes all the way back and borders one of the smaller roads that leads into our neighborhood and borders residential property along its west side. We knew when we bought this lot that one day storage sheds would be built there. What we didn't know was that the property would change hands and end up with some developers who would not only build the tackiest storage sheds in the city but also that they would not stick to the building ordinances required by the city. Thus, our dilemma.

As they have been being built, we have had many conversations with neighbors about what an eyesore they are and how terrible they look. But nobody was doing anything about it, perhaps because we felt that the situation was a foregone conclusion and that the chance for us to voice our opinions had long past. Well, a couple of weeks ago, my husband had an nagging, uneasy feeling about everything so he paid a little visit to the city planning commission. He found out several disturbing things, the biggest being that the builder had been granted an exception to the fence requirement and could put up a vinyl-coated chain link fence with vinyl slats and--prepare yourselves--barbed wire across the top. What?!? Yeah, we didn't know we were going to live next to a prison either. It was a shocking discovery and only the first of many things we (mostly he) found out after a little digging and crack investigative work. Tom immediately set to work informing neighbors, building a website, starting a blog and putting together a petition to get people up to speed on what was literally happening in our backyard.

Needless to say, once the neighborhood heard about the shenanigans, everyone was pretty outraged. As if it couldn't get worse than it already was. We all have some pretty major concerns about aesthetics (obviously), safety, increased traffic, property values, integrity of the neighborhood and consistency of enforcing standards in the city. So, about 50 or so of us gathered up our pitchforks and torches (well, almost) and headed down to the meeting to present our findings and list our demands. Some of the city leaders seemed as shocked as we were that this has been allowed to happen--they are hearing us loud and clear and have assured us that the problem will be rectified. We're crossing our fingers and are determined to keep making noise until the builders are held to the standard that everyone else is and that is required by the city.

So, I guess my point to all of this is that if you see something happening in your neighborhood or community that you're not happy about, speak up! It really is true that little people can make a difference and neighborhoods will rally around a cause that they're passionate about. I'm so proud of Tom. When he addressed the city council, he was well-prepared, articulate and impressive. He's worked so hard and spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks on this project and what he's accomplished is making a real difference. Check out the website and link to the blog at www.LetsKeepItNice.com.

What can I say? My husband rocks.