No One Cares

The other night I went to a Zoning Board meeting at Town Hall. The illegal then made legal school across the street from my house was looking for variances (changes to the existing zoning code to allow them to do some work on their property that gives exceptions to the rules in place regarding how much open space is needed on all side of a structure/driveway, and the neighboring property and how much landscaping is needed)) to put in a circular driveway. I asked a lot of questions, and knowing it was a fait accompli before anyone had even stepped in the room I appealed to the board, on the record, to remember that this was a residential neighborhood, and removing all grass and trees is not in keeping with that. (I kept thinking about the semi-legal shul next store to this barely legal school, and how they may experience some flooding once all surfaces are turned to blacktop-surfaces which  they are downhill from).

The saddest part of the evening was not that I would need ten feet from my neighbors property to put up a shed, and this house/school can have almost NO setback off the street. No, the saddest part was the diner owner who stood up, and in an impassioned speech talked about what he went through when he put up his diner, how the board limited him to a small facility, with a specific amount of parking, and now the board was  being asked to approve a 225 seat family style restaurant (as the lawyers said, an Applebees or Outback Steakhouse) in a shopping center that happens to cross over into their jurisdiction.  It broke my heart to hear him, in his Greek accented English beg the board to do their duty, the way he swore to protect the Constitution when he became a citizen. Compounding this travesty was when the usual suspects (read: developers of other projects) sat there shmoozing or laughing, or when members of the advisory board (Town lawyer, Town buildings people) were obviously not listening. (they are not the main board, just the advisory board who basically tells the board what to do).

The room was full of badly dressed lawyers, sleazy lawyers, and maybe six or seven people there to try to ensure that their neighborhoods or livelihoods not be destroyed. I don't think the people who are in that room once a month realize what they can do, what they have done to neighborhoods all across this town. Aside from the diner owner there was the gas station owner concerned that the Super Walmart attached to the restaurant strip mall would put him and all the other gas stations out of business. "What they sell it for is lower than my cost." There were the group of neighbors trying to stop a two family house from being erected on their quiet street with single family homes (that case was pushed to next month).

The boards, planning and zoning, are clueless. But at some point, even for the dumbest people a lightbulb must go on and they must SEE what they have wrought. I guess they enjoy being in the inner circle, knowing Mr. Sleaze Lawyer and his cronies, knowing the buildings guys, knowing the corrupt Town Supervisor. It's the lowest level of power and they relish it.

I have to believe that these people are just stupid. Dumb as posts and unaware. The alternative is that they just don't care.

That's the saddest of all.