I would say that all of Kyle's complaints are biased due to his personal interactions in Streator. He is against the sign ordinance because there was a problem with the Majestic's marque. He thinks the city is not business friendly because of a failed business attempt, yet other businesses have started up here. He thinks that bar violence is out of control because he lives across the street from a bar that has a problem, but yet the majority of bars are trouble-free, and he wants to prevent others from opening. He says people are moving away, probably due to the fact that his son couldnt make it in this town. Houses arent sellling because either his son lost money on his house or has been unable to sell it. The list goes on and on. He complains that our city leaders are corrupt and deny him his civil right, but wont run for office himself, or take them to court over it.
Yes many of my complaints are a result of things that have happened to me personally.
Do you think you really know why I am against our sign ordinance? The Majestic's marquee is allowed by it, so why would that make me against it?
Haven't you heard me say before that I was against it because I think it is too restrictive for a community where I feel businesses need to be able to get attention?
Do you think the Majestic sign should be forced to come down because it makes our community look bad? Would it make our community look bad even if it weren't so old and needing some attention?
If the answer of either of those questions is no, then what would be the reason for not allowing that kind of sign?
Don't you remember me saying that I think if someone wants to spend huge money here to build a business with a brand new grandiose sign such as the Majestic has that I think we should allow it?
Since the sign panel with the many decades old architectural trim around it on my building is not allowed to be a sign because it is too large, should I tear it off to expose what ugliness might exist underneath?
Why wouldn't we want to allow businesses to have the advantage of more signage?
Yes, Aquaponics was a failed business attempt.
However I base my claim of an uninviting attitude towards business on many different personal interactions:
Seeing business owners publicly declared illegal residents when they weren't (not just us).
Perspective new business being made to wait several months to find out what the City's requirement would be.
Giving a requirement that goes against our ordinance, and then ignoring requests for justification.
Giving more respect to an out of town drunk that exposed himself in the middle of the street than a business owner who had invested a lot.
Seeing the attitude given to the owner of one business when she was wanting to open another, now neither exist.
Information from other business owners.
You can pretend to know why I have the opinions of our City that I do, but it just gives me more opportunity to talk about the real reasons.
I have said before that I know that there are some good bar owners. I have also said that the one by me is not one of the worst, as verified by the newspaper article, but I am glad to hear you say that it does have a problem.
When did I say that I wanted to prevent bars from opening?
Are you referring to my complaints that despite not recognizing the bar violence problem or providing any solutions for it they increased the number of licenses available for bars, without any advance discussion or even allowing the concerns of the public to be heard?
If they aren't even going to take the concerns, questions, or opinions of the public into consideration when they make decisions like this that do affect the entire community, who are they representing?
Yes my son did leave, but is it because he couldn't make it, or does he still have a business open here, creating tax revenue, employment, and shopping and selling options?
Should we just move your post to the cesspool thread?
What house did my son ever own here? I happen to know that he was one of the business owners that I saw being called illegal for their downtown residency.
We did a lot of research for the Aquaponics project, I think he decided before the Mayor even gave the unjustified restriction, when we were made to wait months without an answer, that he didn't want to be in such an economically depressed community that didn't want to even provide a perspective business the information required. I don't think that his personal interactions here showed him any type of inviting attitude towards business.
I don't have a count, but I could list names of many people that have left and others that say they are planning to leave. Are you going to list names of people that have moved here? Is there any guarantee they will be happy and how long they will stay here? It seems to me that many of the people that I know that leave have lived here just a few years.
You were wrong on both of your speculations about my son. Did you bring him into this just because it irritates you so bad that I use my First Amendment rights to talk about my personal interactions with our City leaders without employing an attorney or running for office?
They are talking about amending the Constitution to get rid of the Second Amendment in another thread. Maybe you could join in and convince them to include the First as well?