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04/28/2008 Archived Entry: "Local Politics Sucks"

I try to do the right thing for my community. Not in an extremist way, but as the leader of my neighborhood I want to address their concerns. Doing that involves dealing with lots of politics. Selling my soul is not an option. The line for that is already too long. The drama continues.

The neighborhood I live in is a lower blue collar neighborhood. It does not have manicured lawns and cookie cutter houses. It doesn't have fancy cars in the driveway. It does not have a guard at the entrance.

It is filled with people who do real work. Rooofers, drywallers, painters, landscapers, teachers, and other hard working people. Many of whom work way more than an 8 hour day and have spouses that work also. We have a mix of ethnic backgrounds and political beliefs. It is a neighborhood with all the pluses and minuses of most neighborhoods.

As president of the crime watch and neighborhood development I try to bring things into the neighborhood it needs. For that I have to deal with a lot of county employees.

Some of the things needed in our community are streetlights, sidewalks, speed bumps, and paved roads. The paved roads are supposed to be finished this year. The street lights on the west side are mired in government paperwork. The sidewalks, one of the most important items, is barely getting attention. Speed bumps I need to calm down before I go into that.

Now I understand government moves slowly and I have been patient.

Now communities can get together and file for what is called the Neighborhood Partnership Grant (NPG).
I haven't filed one because the grant money can't be used for anything my neighborhood needs.

Today one of my community police officers called me and told me that his boss was making him fill one out for our neighborhood. Now the problem is we had no idea what to request. Because the thing the neighborhood needs can't be funded by the NPG. However the NPG money needs to be spent so it shows the county is trying to do something to aid the neighborhoods. After discussion one of community police officers came up with the idea for a trailer and lawn equipment. That can be used for clean ups after a hurricane and for abandon lots that have become overgrown. So all in all in sounds like a nice idea. Except that to me all I see is my community police officer tied up with ugly paperwork. The NPG form is 35 pages of madness. You are required to get three estimates and a balance of sweat equity. So instead of dealing with any real crime in my neighborhood (not that we are running rampant with criminals), he is mired in ugly paperwork.

So we will spend $10,000.00 of taxpayer money if we are approved for the grant. For something that will sit and collect dust for the most part. But if I asked them to draw plans for sidewalks with the money, bureaucrats in the county would start to explode. Because we can't reallocate monies.

Politics is just so much fun.