02:29 - 12.08.06
space crunch
We had more weather warnings yesterday - the words tornado and plow winds cropping up. Around here there was a short hailstorm and the rain sluiced down steadily all day. Cleans up everything very nicely though and it is definitely cooler. One could almost say autumnal.
My computer had another hack attack today, so I lost some of the surfing history that I use as a reference when writing about the events of the day. You get a break from my editorial comment as a result, dear diary. That problem was disturbing enough, but even more so was another incident with the neighbours. My youngest wanted barbecue sauce on his steak when he arrived home from work to put in his order. I've forgotten to buy any each of the last two visits to the grocery store. Freudian slip I think, since I don't like it. Waste of a good steak. Anyway we decided we would take a quick walk over to the general store, since the lottery tomorrow is up to $42 million. Can't win if you don't play. I had a ticket from a way back that had enough numbers from the draw to give me a free play and some cash too, so it paid for the barbecue sauce. Bonus. We were out of sight of the house for 30 minutes - half an hour. As you know, I am paranoid about that door and check two or three times before actually walking away from the house. That door was unlocked when we arrived back home.
I called number three son - the electronics whiz - to see if he had any old broken video cameras I could put over that door. His read on the incident was that it was a continuation of the intimidation coming from the neighbours or maybe that landlord of theirs. He's probably correct, because our provincial government is now saying they will lift the restrictions on developing rental suites on properties not zoned for that, in order to answer the demand for more reasonably priced rental housing.
Neither the width of our street for parking nor the services necessary to support more residents, are adequate even now. As it is, we are constantly seeing city repair crews trying to shore up the crumbling infrastructure that wasn't adequate at the time this community was developed anyway. This community had originally been zoned for mostly single family homes and duplexes, like mine, when it was built. Because it was built during the last boom in city growth 27 years ago, a similar scenario was played out. The city changed the zoning after the services had already been installed and the narrow design of the residential streets had been set. Instead of streets of the original style of housing, huge multi-family developments were inserted instead. Instead of providing facilities for 20 people the infrastructure was required to service 100 - times twelve - additional multi-family buildings. There were about a dozen approvals for townhome, condos or apartment complexes inserted into the area development plan, increasing our population density until it was at about 3 times the average population density of the existing city communities. There was an instant drop in our property values over which we had no recourse at all as a result; while at the same time the developers and city were pocketing huge sums of money from the inflated house prices. The banks were charging mortgage rates of over 20% too, by the time the boom finally went bust. Not only was the existing infrastructure over-taxed, but both the city and the province refused to accomodate the increased need for things like extra schools and community services. How dare we ask that our taxes be reinvested in our community. "Be grateful you have roads." Yes well. The comment that we regularly heard about being a lower income community and therefore unworthy of the services we needed, is what really fired me up finally in terms of getting involved in all the volunteer projects. As far as I was concerned our taxes were the determiner, not our income levels. As it was, my friend who had a 3000 sq ft home in a very trendy upscale neighbourhood was paying less taxes than I was at the time, yet her community was overserviced in all ways and was receiving even more while we begged for basics. In addition, the commercial and industrial businesses clustered along our major shopping corridor bound by 36 St were all paying rural tax rates while soaking up enormous profit from all the extra residents shoe-horned into the area - shopping or working in their businesses for minimum wage. Nice chunk of baksheesh for the local politicians at the time at the expense of our families'welfare and safety, was the conclusion of a lot of the volunteers, like me, who weren't willing to be fleeced without protesting. Umm - see I can editorialize without linking to any other source, eh dear diary. End of rant. The crux of the essay, though, is that another dump of people into the community is really going to strain our existing facilities. Probably well beyond the point that it can be sustained for any length of time. I don't know what the solution is to those housing needs, but this isn't it. If I had the money - dear lottery please - I think now would be the time I'd pursue that dream I spoke about nearly four years ago when I first started posting to you dear diary.
As we were talking, number three son was showing a lot of stress. Apparently the mandatory safety inspection for his van was done incorrectly - wrong paperwork provided to the vehicle registration office. So instead of joining the world of "wheels" he is forced to continue taking transit instead. That impacts on his new job, which of course requires that he have a vehicle available to him. The office is also located in an area that means he has to make several transfers before he can report for work. Long hours wasted travelling because someone else messed up. It could also mean that the large amount of money he has already sunk into the vehicle to bring it up to inspection standards might not be enough. More unanticipated costs at a time when his training wage means he doesn't have the cash reserves to cover any more charges. To add insult to injury, the garage owner that was accredited to do vehicle inspections that messed up his paperwork has told him they can't even reinspect and rework the paperwork until the middle of next week. Not happy, my son.
Anyway the cats are jumping all over the keyboard so I guess I'd better go be an accommodating pillow for now. Good night.
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