Saturday, circa 12:00 p.m.
Accidental 3rd district councilman and full time landlord Steve Price, as he stomped out of the room after the first meeting of the council's rental registration and code enforcement committee, of which he is also a member:
"This is all a bunch of fucking bullshit."
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Saturday, circa 10:30 p.m.
Iamis, just before their set in conjunction with a viewing of German U-boat film Das Boot:
"Hey, people. Das Boot is about to start. We're gonna play along with it. So we're gonna sing all our songs in German. We are iamis. You are iamis. Beer drinkers unite. We've been drinking all day, too."
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Saturday, sometime during the set:
A new acquaintance:
"New Albany? Hey man, I was over in New Albany a while back. Are you guys trying to get some alternative going over there?"
And where is the press when we need them most???
ReplyDeleteI heard your baritone at the library, pleading for coherence. We drove back along Main from Wild and Woolly and saw the uber-throngs, alas I didn't catch your profile. cheers!
ReplyDeleteO-MI-GOD! Did Price actually say that?!
ReplyDeleteWe need some yard signs that say "Rental property code enforcement now!"...of course, they'll probably be stolen like my Obama sign, my friends Obama sign, my Baron Hill sign...(sigh)
ReplyDeleteThe funniest part to me is Price's unintentionally revealing (and ever elastic) definition of "business," which goes something like this, paraphrased.
ReplyDelete"It's a business if you're making money. I'm barely making any money off my rental properties, therefore, they're not a business."
Me thinks this state of affairs has more to do with business expertise than the nature of business itself, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding him. That's easy to do. Listening to Price speak publicly is rather like trying to read a goat path map of Tibet -- upside down.
Yes, G, he said it, apparently right after he told Lloyd that he'd do whatever he could to fight it.
ReplyDeleteHe played most of his in-meeting comments to the landlords in the crowd, bemoaning what a tough business rental property is, which I'm sure you saw.
It's paraphrased but here's the gist:
After the meeting, an already angry Steve interrupted my conversation with another committee member.
"You're wrong. Rental property ain't a business", he said.
I told him that it is and asked what he did for a living.
He then went into a semi-intelligible tirade about how it wasn't. I asked him what he did for a living.
He told me my house (which serves as a family residence only) was a business. I asked him what he did for a living.
He hollered that he didn't want to pay any more taxes. I asked what taxes he was talking about since there hadn't been any additional taxes discussed. And then I asked him what he did for a living.
When he started to say something else unrelated, I told him to answer the question about what he did for a living.
"I'm barely breaking even", he said. "I'm living off my council salary."
"Just because your business is struggling," I said, "it doesn't mean it's not a business."
With that he turned for the door, repeated some of the stuff he'd said earlier about people wanting guys with clipboards running around, and then finally pronounced "This is all a bunch of fucking bullshit" as he headed out.
I believe Price's rant needs to be posted on the marquee. Headline:
ReplyDeleteSteve Price on rental registration: "This is a bunch of (expletive deleted) (expletive deleted)."
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ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that both as rental property "manager" and city council "member", Price isn't earning his pay.
ReplyDeleteCapitalism is a demanding mistress, indeed.
Wonder how much that table was really worth, anyway?
You can throw his tantrum up top if you want.
ReplyDeleteI'd initially planned to do that myself but, after enjoying Volksfest so much, my mind wandered off to other possibilities.
What happened on Clay Street last night is very doable here.
Getting Steve even more pissed off at me is admittedly somewhat satisfying as a function of returning one of the many favors he dishes out to his constituents, but creating something like Volksfest NA to make him mad at several hundred people would be a lot more fun.
Steve's sold out his district and the neighborhood association he represents making nonsensical arguments to save himself a few bucks. The more volks we get here, the closer his tenure as council misrepresentative is to being over.
Yeah, I noticed that slippery use of the definition of a business the Harrison group employed along with Price. That was telling enough, but what most freaked me out was the seeming total lack of a problem-solving mind-set displayed by Price and Sub-standard Housing Vortex Ron Hartman. They obviously are intellectually unable to PROBLEM SOLVE. What's left? Reaction. Ignorance. Irresponsibility. Be-hold: city government.
ReplyDeleteI am hopeful Gonder and company will finally introduce the concept of problem-solving. Gonder stopped by our house this morning to make sure he knew which house I referred in the meeting. I for one appreciate the work he's trying to do.