20150831 (democracy)

My lessons in democracy of late

Have not been inspiring I appeared

For meetings with the Board of Zoning 

Appeals three times only to learn the

Case was rescheduled a wearying tactic

Whether the delays were truly necessary

Or not is speculative but suspicious as if

Litigants were testing the resolve of

The opposition if they keep showing up

We’ll have to deal with them very like 

Our complaint about loose dogs 

Who had attacked Loki and me

On the street broken into a neighbor’s 

Rabbit hutch killed her children’s pet

Before their eyes the case was postponed

Three times once because the dog owner’s 

Lawyer was suddenly called away 

To a school where her daughter 

Had gotten into a fracas which 

Clearly could have waited in view 

Of the earlier postponements

When the BZA matter finally 

Came to a hearing the appellant 

Who was seeking one hundred 

Twenty-nine variances before he could

Begin building seventeen townhouses

On a corner parking lot opposite what

Once was a YMCA which itself had been

Converted into a development of several 

One-floor condos each quite nice without

Altering the character of the neighborhood

I’m not quite sure how much you know

About development architecture but there’s

A simple reason why all the houses in

Levittown look exactly alike—moola

Why pay for more than one plan if you 

Don’t have to the developer had made 

Several other projects here and about which

Sorry to say had that cookie-cutter look

Varied only in that the basic plan 

Was widened shortened made taller 

To maximize the number of units to sell

Understand each foot of setback can be

Quantified as dollars lost from the potential

Objecting I told the board I did not

Want to use the term Bauhaus monstrosity

But the proposal crammed too many units 

Into too little space aggravating its 

Miniscule turn-around area for residents

While adding to street parking

Problems already quite evident

If the city would not insist upon

Several residential single family with

Front yards and back yards the least

They could do was require fewer units 

Of more appealing design to keep

With the Victorian flair of the block

They didn’t have to place multi-family

Everywhere just because the city 

Wants more people to tax

No sooner than we heard the decision

That our objections were upheld by

The board talk arose of rezoning the whole

Block to be rid of all those nasty variances

Giving the developer what he wanted

Giving the neighbors a hollow victory

There are many ways ultimately 

To wear down resistance 

To defeat the will of the people

In a democracy

c. J.S.Manista, 2015