Ballpark Commons rezoning brings out a NIMBY crowd
While there’s no question that passions can run high when people confront changes near their specific backyards, the Common Council meeting this past Monday – a marathon lasting almost six hours – exposed some interesting rhetoric and approaches.
The topic was the Ballpark Commons development, which faced a vote regarding a required zoning change (which is just one of many votes to come as the project progresses). Predictably, residents of the neighborhoods closest to the area where a baseball stadium and mixed-use development may be created are against any development near their homes.
A large crowd was expected, so the meeting was held at a packed room in the library. When Public Comment Period opened up, a long line formed, and the follies began.
One of the unique aspects of Public Comment Period is that people can say almost anything they want as if it is a fact, and not face correction or rebuttal. So, if you want to question why the developer plans to use a workforce made up of mutant cyborgs to build his development, that statement will just lay there uncorrected until everyone has had a chance to speak.
The very first speaker went after Alderman Steve Taylor, asking him to recuse himself from any vote regarding The Rock or Ballpark Commons because of his “close friendship” with developer Mike Zimmerman.
There was applause; the mayor took time to request that there be no more reaction from either side.
The very next speaker, a doctor, read from notes. He mentioned Steve Taylor once again in reference to Mike Zimmerman, claiming there was a conflict of interest. Then he took flight in an impressive leap of logic:
“If I were to do this in my medical practice, I would lose my license.”
Which, of course, begs the question of how many times a physician is asked to vote on zoning changes. (However, I think we could have a lively discussion about pharmaceutical reps buying lunch for doctors who prescribe their great new deluxe purple pill rather than the generic, right?)
Two people then spoke, one for and one against, before an orthopedic surgeon got up and slowly intoned:
“I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed for you council members, that you have to put up with Mr. Taylor…”
The mayor interrupted. “We’re not going to engage in personal attacks.”
“It’s pretty hard not to when I see his performance here. He’s like a child…”
The next speaker against the development was a mom. We know that because she brought up a toddler in each arm. “I couldn’t find a babysitter tonight, but then I thought, this is good because you can look into some of the faces of the children affected by your development, sir.”
Nice!
Later a woman came up to talk about how she’d read an article on Facebook that talked about those opposed to the development like they were “bad guys” and that this was just another case of “not in my backyard.”
Regarding possible luxury apartments: “No luxury is luxury in ten years. Luxury means ‘new,’ and that’s not gonna always be the case.”
OK…
After further talking about how she, um, didn’t want this in her backyard, she took a not-at-all-a-bad-guy swipe at Steve Taylor and returned to her seat.
But the rhetorical crowning moment was yet to come. The very next woman to speak came out of the box bare-knuckled:
“I love Franklin, my husband grew up in Franklin, I grew up in Greendale, but I feel like it’s a communist regime right now.”
Then, the tax angle:
“I feel so saddened by this, I feel like if we move nobody cares because somebody’s gonna have to buy our house, pay the taxes; we’re the highest paying tax…you know…this area, we pay the most taxes. My kids don’t even use the school district.”
And lastly, the closer:
“And I think the love of money is the root of all evil, and if you’re going to go through with the plan, because of other interests, you may not listen to any of the citizen here…”
Wait for it….:
“…But you’re gonna have to face God.”
Boom.
Then a lawyer for the neighborhood association got up to speak. We know he was a lawyer because he brought a briefcase, and the mayor let him speak for ten minutes. Because, you know, he had a briefcase.
Could it get better? Yes, it could, and did. The next speaker came up and carefully read the following from notes:
“These guys are some of the grimiest, backstabbing businessmen you will ever….”
The mayor interrupted. We’ll never know if the speaker was going to go into Yosemite Sam territory (“…the rootin’est, tootin’est, candy-grabbers…”).
Finally, city stalwart Casper Green rose and played the adult, scolding the behavior of the speakers who’d come before.
“I am so upset that I hardly know what to say…”
Were the offenders chastised? No. Not at all. A particularly vocal woman in the audience – incredibly, she’d kept up a running monologue of grunts, guffaws, epithets, and exaggerated sighs throughout the meeting – actually booed.
When it was time for council members to make their statements, Alderman Kristen Wilhelm addressed the issues as the audience felt free to audibly mock her.
Alderman Dandrea took time to address an email he’d received from a constituent accusing him of “back room politics” because he had to recess a Plan Commission meeting he was chairing in order to take a phone call regarding his mother’s health - - or so he “claimed,” according to this email writer.
“Mr. Dandrea, do you really think we are so stupid to believe that your mom was calling from the hospital at 10pm?”
Well, it turns out that it was actually Mr. Dandrea’s sibling calling to tell him their mother had just passed away. The email-writer communicated her accusations to Mr. Dandrea a full 12 days after an obituary was published.
You hear some strange things at city meetings.