The Caterpillar, the Crow, and the Farmer

A caterpillar starts to climb a wooden rod and soon encounters straw. He thinks, "I'll have to remember this is here." He climbs further and soon is crossing a smoother material, faded blue denim. He likes how it is easy to climb so he goes on. He's not sure what to do with the leather strip that he finds next. It's too tough to eat so he continues until he finds more fabric, much smoother and thinner than before. This doesn't smell like cotton.
 
The view gets better and better as he climbs so goes further. The next thing he finds is harder to climb and he really has to hold on hard. He comes to a flat disk of felt that is black and dusty. If he is to keep going, he must crawl completely upside down. However, the felt surface is easy to hold so he continues. At the the disk's edge, he crawls into the sun and there is only a mount of the same material left. From the top, he has the best view of all. Later, he'll head down and look for that straw.
 
On a nearby fence, a crow doesn't notice the caterpillar and wouldn't do anything if he did. He just knows he doesn't want to get near that scary man in the field.
 
The farmer is watching from nearby and decides he is quite impressed with how well his new scarecrow is working.
 

 
When viewed piece by piece, the scarecrow is not even noticed. When viewed in gross, the psychological effect is quite different.
 
A lot of citizens have noted the discussion that has been underway about the code sweep on S Garland Ave. Parts of the sweep effort were discussed at Monday's Council Work Session. The rezoning recommendation from the Development Services Committee was shelved for the time being. Then the code sweep was discussed in the context of doing them citywide. For those that live near S Garland Rd or pass through the corridor regularly, they know there are even more issues. When these are all compartmentalized, the concerns toward each segment are limited, the caterpillar view. When taken together, the crow's view, the picture can be alarming.
 

 
I present this allegorical tale to convey perspective. S Garland Rd has numerous small areas like the photo above. [Ed. However, this picture is not from Garland Rd. Please see the next post.] I wasn't told who took it but it is a depressing scene. If your out-of-town cousin and his family were to see this along an entrance into the city, you'd be embarrassed. If a friend sees this across his back fence, you'd be embarrassed. You'd think, I don't want this to be representative of my city, my home. If this was a business next to yours, you'd think it was negatively affecting your livelihood.
 
The Building Inspections Dept, recently tasked with this type of enforcement, was asked by the district Council representative to address these situations. He says he was responding to concerns by residents in the area. It was also one of the greater concerns identified in neighborhood meetings as part of our Neighborhood Vitality process.
 
Meeting today with senior staff members and the Building Dept manager, I am confident that the inspectors have been professional. They feel there is a problem (and we all agree, including the businesses in the area) and they feel their actions have been proper.
 
Within that compartmentalized view, that is all probably correct. I know the businesses were grumbling about suddenly receiving violation notices after nothing being said for years, but they were making the required changes. Many were thankful for the cleanup, especially those that had been doing the best job all along.
 
They became alarmed when they learned there was an effort afoot to extend the Downtown Overlay District standards to S Garland Rd. Within the Downtown area, an automotive-related business can continuing doing business but no new automotive businesses are allowed. If they should go out of business for more than 60 days, the property owner loses that use of his land. In other words, that type of use in Downtown is capped and will probably slowing go away. Ideally, someone will buy the land and another use more directly related to Downtown will replace it. In the Downtown area, those restrictions are justified. The current automotive use is protected as long as the owner stays in business but the pedestrian-friendly environment that will be critical for economic success is protected, too.
 
No way can those conditions be justified on S Garland Rd. It is not a pedestrian environment and alternate developments have not even been contemplated, but are underway Downtown. The Overlay also contained a poison pill: If extended to S Garland Rd and the area were moved under the Overlay umbrella, any of those businesses could have said, "Enough! I'm moving Downtown," busting the cap to pieces.
 
That threat died but was immediately replaced by another one: a recommendation of the Development Services Committee to ask the Plan Commission to consider rezoning the area. As of Monday, that recommendation is on hold for several months because the city is in the process of updating and (hopefully) improving its Development Plan and Codes. So the issue could come roaring back.
 
The staff says they are only doing a code sweep and aren't involved in a rezoning effort. I'm sure that's true. It's all the other things that really gives the businesses the concern. There are too many people presenting and defending it merely as an enforcement action.
 
The crows don't see it that way. And no wonder.