Monday Musings...
Ah, Springtime...things are blossoming in the garden at long last, birds are chirping, rabbits and squirrels come by daily for eats, and what was once covered in a chilly, snowy pallor is looking a lot more ALIVE. 
And, if you believe this post will be all about the niceties of the season, you're barking up the WRONG tree today, my friends.
I wish it only were.
Ah, Springtime...things are blossoming in the garden at long last, birds are chirping, rabbits and squirrels come by daily for eats, and what was once covered in a chilly, snowy pallor is looking a lot more ALIVE. 
And, if you believe this post will be all about the niceties of the season, you're barking up the WRONG tree today, my friends.
I wish it only were.
Sadly, such Springtime nuances, which bring a smile to one's face is NOT the case around the Ghettohood Abusement Park and Discount House of Pharmaceuticals. Around HERE, Springtime means a few "other" things, all brilliantly performed by every single sideshow freak that lives around us.
Take the plethora of NEW tags on cars (paper plates as the local police call them)...the Indiana BMV must be having a SALE on them, or perhaps even GIVING THEM AWAY! Every third car seems to be sporting one.
Maybe the auto dealers are merely GIVING AWAY CARS?
(thank you, government assistance)
Seems THIS is the time of year when everyone plays "musical wheels" and all the pieces of crap once owned by ONE asshole now belongs to yet another asshole.
And all this means is that within a month, we'll have a NEW crop of tags to get numbers (and those god-awful miniature letters) from. 
I've been accumulating "suspect" vehicle tag numbers for well over SEVEN years, and have amassed QUITE a number of them (must be several THOUSAND by now...and growing every single day)
Some are even "fortunate" enough to have their picture taken (sooner or later, I WILL capture them in the digital realm).
Now, THESE are the vehicles that are either LOUD (the highest number of them), have been doing driveup drug deals, park the wrong way...well, you get the idea.
They have ALL been involved in doing something they're NOT supposed to BE doing - i.e. breaking the law.
But, that's only ONE facet to the otherwised highly flawed stone called the south side of Fort Wayne.
But, that's only ONE facet to the otherwised highly flawed stone called the south side of Fort Wayne.
We also have the blooming of "bloomers" as in exposed underwear from all the taxpayer-supported minority males.
(who are ACTUALLY living off the taxpayer-supported welfare queens aka the "baby-mamas" on the block...helluva setup, isn't it?)
Naturally, the baby-mama "babays" are running all over, wonderfully UN-supervised, providing for interesting driving patterns, should you ever wish to come through the area and get a laugh or two.
Yes sir, YOUR tax dollars (hard) at work...and for all the wrong reasons.
(thank you, WELFARE SYSTEM)
And that brings me to another "rite-of-(Springtime) passage"...that being the yearly PROPERTY TAX STATEMENT!
And that brings me to another "rite-of-(Springtime) passage"...that being the yearly PROPERTY TAX STATEMENT!
Since we OWN the house, WE get the "bad" news, which really isn't so BAD, depending on one's POV. This house was purchased back in the late 1960s by my in-laws for around $12K (and change)...not bad for a corner property then.
My row home in Philly cost my parents around $16K and was a lot smaller, but it WAS in Philly.
Since my in-laws purchased this house, they added on a two-car detached garage on the property as well as a "family room" addition on the back.
When they left us the place back in 1997, we got it for $40K (through them).
To us, that was a bargain, but after a time, what can be a bargain can also become an albatross around one's neck.
At one point, around 7-8 years ago, the house was assessed at about $76.4K, and we paid the proper amount of taxes for the place (around $800+ a year).
Last year, I mentioned (here) about how LITTLE our property tax had become ($89 and change...for the ENTIRE YEAR).
The house was assessed for 2010 at about $25K...!
Yes, you can now say out loud:
"WTF?"
I did likewise...many times since then.
But Saturday, we got the 2011 numbers...
The GOOD news (?) is that the taxes are EVEN LOWER than last year (around $55 for the entire year)...
The BAD news is that our property has been devalued to around $19K...!!!
Now, as far as I'm concerned, our mayor can RAISE property taxes 100 PERCENT, and I wouldn't break a sweat or piss a fit one damn bit.
Now, as far as I'm concerned, our mayor can RAISE property taxes 100 PERCENT, and I wouldn't break a sweat or piss a fit one damn bit.
We can "afford" that...LOL.
What is VERY disturbing is HOW LOW the propety has dropped...and in LESS than TEN years.
(thank you, HUD)
This area USED to be nice...and worth a HELLUVA lot MORE.
So, what has really changed IN those ten or so years?
(yep, you guessed it)
...All together, Gang...
THE PEOPLE!
Almost ALL the places are RENTALS (thank you, section 8) filled with some of the WORST that supposedly civilized mankind has to offer in the way of bipedal life forms.
And since THEY don't own one damn house, guess what THEY don't give a rip about?
(yep, you guessed it AGAIN)
EVERYTHING...!
Let me show you just a few of the reasons OUR property has been devalued over the last decade.
Pretty heady stuff, hmm?
But don't worry, it COULD well be coming to a neighborhood (very) close to you, and a lot SOONER than you might think... (thank you, HOUSING VOUCHERS)
All you have to do is look at MY neighborhood (or Phil Marx's) and see what might be YOUR future. And Phil is someone who TOOK a HUD house and made it look like it's worth more than the WHOLE BLOCK COMBINED!
The bad thing about renovations under such deplorable conditions, is that it's money you will NEVER see again...as in it's not gonna matter one damn bit in making the area BETTER, or your property worth a lick more...!
We're looking at a new roof, and that's gonna cost a THIRD of the entire assessed value of the damn house itself!
Tell me we'd be better off using the money to start our grill (as kindling). Seems it's going close to the same place, right? 
Sad to say, stories like ours that DO manage to make it to some media source are the only ones reported, sad to say.
Sad to say, stories like ours that DO manage to make it to some media source are the only ones reported, sad to say.
When the media (and the police) are NOT around as much as they could be, it's a whole other ballgame. There is so much that "gets under the radar" down here, it's no longer amusing. Everything from after-hours "clubs" operating from houses, gambling, prostitution, drug dealing and using, and naturally, the alcohol-infused obligatory LOUD music coming from what appears to be EVERY OTHER house in the damn area.
Imagine yourself TRYING to deal with all this crap...every day (and night) for the last TEN or so years.
Then, imagine yourself STILL being able to NOT go postal in the process on all these aboriginal bastards.
Yes...it's here every day, thanks to YOUR "donations" from the paycheck, or as I LOVE to say:
"YOU work...so THEY don't have to."
Like to see some local media source touch THIS one, because there are SO many stories down here that NEED to be told.
Trouble is all that "blind-eye" syndrome going around these days. Well, that's why I'm here, I suppose.
Someone has to be in the trenches, speaking the TRUTH about what goes on down here, and if I were to trust anyone (other than someone with a journalism degree who KNOWS how to report the news) with such events, I would want it to be ME.
I don't mince words, shoot from the hip (unless I'm target shooting, or ambushing a potential burglar...lol), and what you see and hear is what you get...NO pretentions, and NO BS!
(be nice to find someone in a few city departments that felt likewise...like the POLICE CHIEF, or a city COUNCILMAN)
It IS an "election" year...never know what might happen here in "Sodom City" aka Fort Wayne.
Well, all I can do is stay the course, keep doing what I've been doing, and keep tossing ENOUGH sh*t at whatever wall presents itself, in the hope that SOME of it might STICK...!
Be thankful you and your families are not exposed to such depravities where you live, and know that there are those out there in the lion's den saying what needs to be said. Have yourselves a great week.
Be thankful you and your families are not exposed to such depravities where you live, and know that there are those out there in the lion's den saying what needs to be said. Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.
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4 comments:
Ah, the evidences of Fort Wayne's master plan for the south side... "If you ignore it, it will fade away..."
CWM:
God Bless you, my friend...
YOU "get it"!
And isn't IGNORANCE such "bliss"?
(ask the mayor, or the FWPD chief, or the 5th & 6th district councilmen...some of THE MOST BLISSFUL people in the whole freakin' MIDWEST)
Sorry, I could NEVER feel THAT blissful, nor would ever WANT to.
Thanks so much for stopping on by today.
Stay safe up there.
Bob G:
Do you have personal property tax on cars in your city/county/state?
Perhaps the plethora of new tags is owner switching to avoid paying (some) of the taxes--or at least making it harder for the tax man to find them, plus keeping the cars legal for the moment.
Sneaky...
The Observer (who HATES paying property tax on cars--who'd heard of such a silly thing? Not this easterner, until settling in Missouri...)
T.O.:
If we DO have ay sort of property tax on vehicles (in Indiana) they keep it well hidden from THIS former Treasury Department employee...lol.
That sounds downright ridiculous to enact such a tax.
And believe me, TAXES are the LEAST of the worries with THESE people...most have NEVER paid any, and wouldn't do so, if their lives depended upon it.
That's just the way they shake.
(stop that dancin' in the street)
I think they do it because they get "bored" with the old POS and want a newer POS.
Or, they want to stay a few steps ahead of the INSURANCE companies (most drive W/O it), the POLICE, or the Indiana BMV (keep that paper trail as confusing as hell).
They often allow the paper tags to EXPIRE as well...nice.
Either way, you can bet that they've got "someone else" footing THAT bill.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Stay safe out there.
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