Curb Your Hostility

Dear Hostile Real Estate Investor,

You publicly embarrassed yourself after last night's Salemtown Neighbors meeting by flying off the handle at our president for merely disagreeing with you. There was no need to get out of your seat and stand up over him slurring his good name and cussing him out when all he did was attempt to tell you how he believed that you should be treating the people who actually live in this neighborhood; this neighborhood, which you merely visit once and a while to see how your latest construction project is progressing. There was no need to threaten him with a physical assault when he merely suggested that you retake your seat and show him the same respect that he was showing you.

That's an interesting way of doing business: hearing something you don't like and trying to intimidate association members as if getting support for real estate development is nothing but a brawl that you can win by force and intimidation. As if public relations can be grabbed by the collar and held up at the end of a clinched fist. I've got news for you. That's not how our association operates. You can't push your way around and think that people are going to roll over and submit to you if you get up in their faces and yell loud enough.

You, Mister Investor, gave Salemtown residents every reason not to believe you care about their concerns last night, even as you supposedly showed up (unannounced and uninvited) to address their concerns. You already had a PR problem; one that should have been dealt with from the beginning. You failed to spend enough time going over the details of your build with neighbors and getting their feedback. You wanted to do things strictly your way; now you don't like it that some here are not on your page. You've got no one but yourself to blame.

Part of your steam-rolling performance included screaming that you've put a lot of money into your Salemtown properties. But which of us who live here has not put a lot of money into our properties? And which of us has failed to put more than just our money, but our lives and the lives of our children into this community? On that latter score, you haven't invested a damned thing. You don't live here. You're an absentee landlord who invests nothing in the neighborhood that doesn't personally benefit you. The fact that last night you lost all sense of restraint and good judgment, and that you lashed out violently at the public face and the elected head of Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association, merely confirms my worst fears about your intentions.

In all seriousness,
S-townMike