Gee greek, where did you go???
You seemed so anxious to talk about the issues and were being so impatient waiting for me to respond to every single one of your comments, but now have disappeared without answering my question.
That reminds me of how our City leaders made their public attack against my family(instead of just addressing the individual problem causing the complaints) and then refused to answer back when I presented "proof" from our written laws that my family was not illegal.
It also reminds me of how our Mayor made his industrial zoning requirement to stop a business and then wouldn't answer my questions when I provided "proof" (from our written laws) that it is corrupt.
Don't you think that our City leaders dragging their feet on changing the ordinance that puts business owners under the threat of huge expenses or daily fines, while they take a look at just about every single ordinance (which could easily take years) is "proof" that the City of Streator creates their own perception of not being inviting to business?
I really didn't need you to tell me that it was my turn after you commented. I was smart enough to figure that out, just like I was smart enough to know that it does snow in Illinois.
However, since it seems that maybe you are having a hard time figuring it out....
Your turn!
In my opinion, Kyle didn't do much research on Illinois weather before moving from Arizona.
Tough lesson to learn, it snows in Illinois and it cost money for snow removal.
It appears he didn't budget the cost of snow removal into his "son's" resale business.
I fail to see where, when the City wrote an ordinance on snow removal from sidewalks located in the downtown area it only targeted KYLE's business. It seems he believes otherwise.
Am I right or not Kyle?
The newest ordinance on clearing the snow on the sidewalks did not just apply to your business did it?
How many other businesses in the downtown are whining about it?
Ahh, but you, in my opinion, feel persecuted, targeted, unwanted, unappreciated, etc.
In my opinion Kyle, nobody in Steator wanted you to fail in business.
We in business all have to comply with the same ordinances, code, and tax laws.
How is that unfair to you in particular?
I don't believe you have presented your case in even a public forum to gain credence to your whining, let alone enough to present an argument about your Constitutional Rights being trampled upon by the Mayor and City Council in Streator.
Do your homework Kyle, there are ways that will cost you nothing, if you have a valid point.
These options are available to every Citizen of the United States.
But of course you have chosen a different route, one that permits you to make unsubstantiated claims against our Mayor and City Council.
That of course is your right.
The Mayor and City Council, of course do not have to answer your claims at all! Although you seem to believe they should.
After all, you seem to believe if they don' address your accusations, your accusations are correct.
Sorry Kyle, that's not the way it works.
Interestingly, it seems the vast majority of the posters on the thread understand that concept.
Under our U.S. Constitution though people do have the right to remain ignorant.
Just my opinion though. I could be wrong.
g
Kyle, why don't you address this post in it's entity?
I believe I know why, I believe the whole forum knows why.
LOL!
g
Here you go, now please explain why you believed I didn't address the post in its "entity".
In my opinion, Kyle didn't do much research on Illinois weather before moving from Arizona.
Tough lesson to learn, it snows in Illinois and it cost money for snow removal.
It appears he didn't budget the cost of snow removal into his "son's" resale business.
I did research Illinois weather. It doesn't appear that you researched Arizona weather before posting your claims against me though.
Of course you knew I was from Flagstaff before implying that I wouldn't be prepared for reasonable ("common sense" as dog says) snow removal where it gets less than a quarter of the snow than I am used to dealing with. Had you of done your research, you would have known that making these type of comments to someone from one of the snowiest cities in the country is pretty silly(a polite term for not just saying how stupid it really is).
Of course you know that this ordinance was added just a few years ago, well after my son opened his business, but just very shortly after I pointed out to the Council at the Public Forum that we were heading into another winter with no ordinance allowing safe passage for shoppers in our downtown, even after years of them talking about it and even asking business owners for their input. I provided input similar to what I posted for dog and absolutely supported a reasonable ordinance. It was obvious at that Public Forum that I had irritated them simply by pointing out my insignificant opinion that they just do not address the problems. It appears that they expressed their irritation by responding vindictively with an unreasonable ordinance that they could use to selectively enforce as they chose. I suppose that maskedman would say that I had "tickled the nose of the dragon" and now business owners are getting burned.
You can see by the picture from the newspaper recently posted that indeed there was enough budgeted for reasonable "common sense" snow removal at my building. It is a shame though that now any perspective businesses would need to budget thousands and thousands of dollars each year or plan on being illegal and subjected to selective enforcement and paying daily fines should they say anything that our City leaders don't like.
Yes, it is a tough lesson to learn that the City here is so vindictive that it costs just too much money for snow removal in Streator for many businesses to even be able to survive here.
Yes I knew before moving here that the real problem with the weather is the brutal winter cold. Although Flagstaff may get some snow, temperatures there are more moderate. However I still know that water freezes, expands, damages plumbing systems, and then when it thaws, leaks. I would think that natives of this area would understand that even more. The Burke/Troccolli theatre duo who solicited $130,000 in donations to save the Majestic but then boarded it up, I believe are natives to the area.
Learning about the freezing properties of water by running 285,000 gallons of water through their Charleston theatre seems like a tough lesson too, don't you think? On top of the $3400 water bill, I wonder if they had to pay for the City staff to walk around town fro days looking for the leak, so they could be able to maintain the water level in their tower. Wow, wouldn't you think that threatening the water supply of a city is a very major negative impact on the community?
An Aquaponics facility on the other hand, would have to have some heat and would be monitored several times a day for feeding, checking levels, etc. It would have been a closed loop system, not even connected to the City's water supply, and would be a series of smaller tanks. Any leaks would be limited to just a few hundred gallons and would not go unattended for days. An Aquaponics facility would have less negative impacts than these vacant buildings that our Mayor likes so much to keep.
I fail to see where, when the City wrote an ordinance on snow removal from sidewalks located in the downtown area it only targeted KYLE's business. It seems he believes otherwise.
Am I right or not Kyle?
The newest ordinance on clearing the snow on the sidewalks did not just apply to your business did it?
How many other businesses in the downtown are whining about it?
Maybe you should take a look back. I clearly said that I think it makes most businesses in Streator illegal and subjected their daily fines, making you wrong. Contrary to what you say, I don't think there are very many businesses in town that were not illegal this winter. Just last week, I saw snow on the sidewalk of the Silver Fox that shouldn't have been there. Isn't it a shame that such a relatively new and very nice business like that is violating our laws.
I didn't see any businesses in Streator that seemed to be complying this winter. Any of them could have started receiving their daily fines, should they have "tickled the nose of the dragon" to be burned by the City of Streator.
Obviously the City of Streator has no problem with selective enforcement, I have heard others who talk of their experiences being fined, whiled their neighbors are allowed to do the same thing, and saw it first hand with the ordinance that made sidewalk sales illegal without a Special Use Permit. Willy made it very clear that the City of Streator is willing to "turn their heads" to major life safety issues as part of their selective enforcement of our laws. He said that heads should be turned, but then complained that he didn't get enough out of his head turning, so he made sure that people knew that it was "obvious" to the City that my family was illegal.
Clearly any business could be targeted by this ordinance, if the City doesn't like what they are getting from their "head turning" arrangement.
I don't see any businesses whining.
I am just talking about a problem that I see and asking my City leaders to correct it. Gee greek, with all these posts and trying to demand that I respond to it in its "entity", right away, it really seems that you are the one who is whining, andjust because I am using my Constitutional Rights that people sacrificed their lives to provide me.
Ahh, but you, in my opinion, feel persecuted, targeted, unwanted, unappreciated, etc.
In my opinion Kyle, nobody in Steator wanted you to fail in business.
We in business all have to comply with the same ordinances, code, and tax laws.
How is that unfair to you in particular?
Yes, I do feel persecuted, targeted, unwanted, and unappreciated by our City leaders. I have been in many Council meeting and had many interactions with our leaders. Being interrupted at a Council Meeting Public Forum, told that they don't want to hear what I have to say and to just sit down, is one example of what I think has created that. Being told to just leave Streator if I don't like the way they do things is another. Of course being declared illegal when we were not, not being allowed to use City Park based on the subject to be discussed, and having a business stopped with a requirement that goes against our laws are all reasons too. Some of the best though, are when a Councilman asked my opinion at Public Forum and then threatened legal action for me giving it and Willy implying that I need some physical violence inflicted upon me because he doesn't like what I have to say.
Yes, I think those are very good description of the feelings that people can expect to get if they ask our City leaders to provide better for our community.
Clearly there are people right on here who did want us to fail. Don't you remember the calls for boycotts and meetings to organize protests in front of Flips because they didn't like that I was asking for less violence. I was almost looking forward to seeing what their signs would say, but it seems that they decided not to protest for more violence.
Clearly businesses do not have to comply with the same ordinances and codes here. Some business were allowed to display merchandise outside while others were not. Some businesses are allowed to have illegal gambling while others are not. Some businesses are threatened with fines for laws that don't even exist, like not getting a permit for a 4' high fence.
Do you think that if someone was not shoveling their sidewalk at all, leaving a couple of feet of snow for weeks, with no passage for shoppers to access other stores and a big icy spot where people were falling and getting hurt, that they would use their ordinance that requires "all" snow and ice to be "removed" and then would go around the City and fine every business owner who was in violation of not removing "all" of the snow?
Since it really does appear that they had selective enforcement in mind when they wrote this ordinance, I would have to disagree with your claim that all businesses have to follow the same laws.
Their practicing targeted selective enforcement against me in the past, their obvious intention to use selective enforcement for snow removal, and the fact that it would just be too costly to adhere to this ridiculous ordinance is what makes it unfair to all businesses, but particularly to me.
I don't believe you have presented your case in even a public forum to gain credence to your whining, let alone enough to present an argument about your Constitutional Rights being trampled upon by the Mayor and City Council in Streator.
That is because it is not a "case" or an "argument", it is only me using my Constitutional Rights to talk about what they do, the problems I see, my insignificant opinions, and the better I would like to see for our community. I don't need to "present" anything to you or any forum to be able to do that.
Do your homework Kyle, there are ways that will cost you nothing, if you have a valid point.
These options are available to every Citizen of the United States.
I have done my homework and am quite familiar with the way that is available for citizens across the country, even in Streator (as long as Mayor Lansford agrees with the subject though), that doesn't cost anything, it is called Free Speech.
But of course you have chosen a different route, one that permits you to make unsubstantiated claims against our Mayor and City Council.
That of course is your right.
I believe that my claims are more substantiated than their claims that my family was illegal, that Mayor Lansford gets to decide what subjects can be discussed in City Park, or that industrial zoning is a proper requirement for Aquaponics. Since they didn't bother having anything substantiated (as required by law) before making a public declaration that my family was illegal, how could you or they expect me to make sure anything is substantiated by a court before I use my Constitutional Rights that don't even require substantiation?
Yes, I do know my rights.
The Mayor and City Council, of course do not have to answer your claims at all! Although you seem to believe they should.
Of course they don't have to, they have shown that over and over again. They have also shown that they don't have to follow any laws either. It appears that they can do whatever they want.
Yes, I do believe that they should follow the laws and answer claims of the public. I feel that they would if our government was really "for the people", but that doesn't appear to be the case. I do not think that it is good for our community when they do not answer the questions from the public or respond to claims. I don't think they should let me keep saying that there is no justification for their industrial zoning and calling it corrupt, if they did have a justification in our laws for it. If they don't have a justification for it, I think they should admit that, apologize, and assure people that they are changing things so that it doesn't happen again.
However, as we seem to agree on, they don't have to do anything and can do whatever they want, but also that I can keep talking about it.
After all, you seem to believe if they don' address your accusations, your accusations are correct.
Sorry Kyle, that's not the way it works.
Interestingly, it seems the vast majority of the posters on the thread understand that concept.
By them not addressing my accusations, that does allow me to just keep on talking about them as if they are correct, because they have given me absolutely no reason to think otherwise. If they were to address my claims and explain their justifications (if they had any) then I couldn't very well keep talking about my accusations as if they are correct.
Because they don't answer my claims with any justification, I can keep talking about what they do. That is the way that it does work and it seems like their are some posters on here who really do not understand that.
Under our U.S. Constitution though people do have the right to remain ignorant.
Just my opinion though. I could be wrong.
No greek, you are correct, you absolutely do have the right to remain ignorant.
Since this public forum does display people's usernames. I think it is pretty silly(again, being polite) that you routinely put an initial as if you think that we are not smart enough to figure out who it is posting.
There, I believe that I have addressed your post in its "entity". How about explaining why it was that you thought I wouldn't, after all it certainly is something that I do enjoy.