Well, it looks like there are some opponents of the Sylvan Park Overlay not satisfied with just winning by forcing John Summers to capitulate last night. Such ugliness is why I felt so ambivalent about the whole debate in 2006 and why I now judge it to be one of the sorriest episodes that I have witnessed in local politics.
Some seem to be set on a more far-reaching, ideological agenda of marketing bias against overlays in general rather than treating them as pragmatic tools of benefit in some situations. In that battle, it is not the neighborhoods or the individual home owners who stand to win (although some will no doubt have some "trickle-down" benefits) because eliminating overlays on the front end means one less tool at their disposal in defense of their communities. Instead, it is the marketers and the investors who will gain the upper hand in neighborhoods, commodifying everything they can get their paws around.
Quality of life has a price, you know: it costs what they tell us it costs, and they struck a blow against overlays, so sit down and shut up.
I repeat as before: a pox on all sides of this debate.
UPDATE: A voice of reason in Sylvan Park.
I couldn't agree with you more. My wife and i just recently moved to Sylvan Park - and we love it - but when this whole overlay thing came about to rear it's ugly head once again, we found ourselves showing up to the party a little late. So in our meager attempts to get up to speed on what this all meant for our neighborhood - I felt I wasn't getting an unbiased opinion from either side. Granted - I haven't spoken with a single person (SP resident or not) that has had one good thing to say about Summers - without a doubt - he handled the process of the overlay bill very poorly. But as I spoke with more and more people were against the overlay, it seemed like more of a vendetta against Summers than an actual problem with the overlay. And a lot of the time the knocks they offered up on overlays was vague and overblown.
ReplyDeleteSomething else that I find interesting about this whole dramatic mess is that opponents of the bill are putting Jason Holleman in the same league with Summers. So it would be their collective belief that he would also be a proponent of the overlay. Well if so many people were against the overlay to begin with and this Holleman guy is apparently FOR the overlay....then why is it that an overwhelmingly majority of the yard signs i have seen in SP of late are for none other than, Jason Holleman....