One phrase sums it up:
"We don't want them here."
"Ruling may force hundreds out of Cape Cod motels; Panel suspends owner's license"
YARMOUTH - At the back of the motel room where Kerri Blackwell, her husband, and four young daughters have lived for more than a year, behind the mounds of laundry, the cans sorted for recycling, and the crib where the 10-month-old baby sleeps, the family has posted a handwritten sign.
It says: "Blackwell's Palace."
"It's not much, but it's the best we could find," said Kerri Blackwell, 37, who works at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts shop and says she cannot find a more affordable apartment in the area. "There should be a better place for us to live, but we can't afford the first month, last month, and security deposit to get in. Or the utilities. The rents we've seen are up to 2,000 a month."
The Blackwells don't want to leave the Cavalier Motel, but they may have no choice. Yesterday, the Board of Health in Yarmouth, citing a year-old law that prohibits motel owners from renting units beyond 30 consecutive days to customers without a permanent address, voted to suspend the motel's license, potentially forcing the Blackwells and 250 other low-income people from the Cavalier and two other motels in town.
Board officials have rejected pleas from community members, some of whom shouted from the audience yesterday, "Shame on you" and "May God forgive you." They said they had no choice and were just following laws passed by the town's selectmen, some of whom defended the board's vote after the meeting.
"We're not pushing anyone out to the curb; we're just not going to issue motel licenses to those who aren't acting as motels," said Suzanne McAuliffe, chairwoman of Yarmouth's Board of Selectmen. "The living conditions of some of the people in these motels are horrendous. We want them to live in adequate places. This is about shutting down dangerous, substandard, health-hazard-inducing housing."
Yeah, they are better off on the street, right?
Town officials acknowledged there had been no health violation at any of the three motels.
What did that lying lady just say? Pffffffftttt!!!!
Harry Miller, owner of the three properties, said he plans to appeal the board's decision in Barnstable Superior Court. Town officials said the 150 residents at the Cavalier, 22 people at the Seagull Beach Motel, and 70 guests at West Yarmouth Lodgings will be able to stay during the appeals process.
At the meeting in the basement of Town Hall yesterday, Miller said his motels should be exempt from the new law, because he received town approval to renovate them in order to provide affordable housing to those who need a place to say for several months. He said that he has appeared before numerous town boards over the years and that everyone knew he was allowing guests to stay longer than 30 days.
"I will fight this as long and as hard as possible," Miller told the four board members, who voted unanimously to suspend his motel licenses. "I am not going to give in."
Now here is what Ron Paul is talking about!
Here you have a guy doing the right thing, providing homes to destitute people -- and the government comes in and fucks it up!!!!
I am really becoming a believer, and I can't tell you how angry I am at the left for lying to me all these years.
When Charles Kelliher, Health Board vice chairman, said the residents of his motels could find other places to live, Miller responded: "No offense, but what have you been smoking? It's May on Cape Cod. Where are you going to find them housing?"
And whatever you are smoking, share it, will ya?
At least one resident at the meeting supported the board's decision, saying Miller was keeping malcontents in town and forcing police to spend more time at his motels than in other parts of town.
"We don't want them here," said Tom Sullivan, a Yarmouth resident, who was shouted down from the podium by residents who called him a nimby, for "not in my backyard."
Afterward, Sullivan said: "My concern is for what goes on in those motels. There are drug overdoses and other problems, and I don't want to see any police officer get shot. We need to set standards. These people should move."
To where?
Deputy Police Chief Frank Frederickson said crime has been a problem at some of the town's 58 motels, but he would not single out the Cavalier or Miller's other motels. "They're on par with other year-round motels," he said.
Those who supported Miller said local officials were acting because they wanted to raise more money from the motels, which do not have to pay taxes for guests who stay longer than 90 days.
Oooooooooh, now we find out the REAL REASON for the EVICTIONS!!!!
$$$$$$$$$$$!!!
Yup, not the HEALTH ISSUE the town claims but $$$$$$!!!
How fucking typical!!!!
Ann Rebello, a Yarmouth resident at the meeting, asked board members how they could live with their decision, which she said would force out 80 children, several people in wheelchairs, and at least one woman who requires an oxygen tank to breathe. I'm sure they will live quite comfortably.
These assholes don't give a shit; it's the same in my town!
"Shame on you," she shouted at board members before they forced her to step away from the podium.
Afterward, she said: "What they're trying to do is unjust. It's all about money. They would rather have tourists."
With little space available at shelters throughout the state, it is not uncommon for homeless families to stay in motels.
Yesterday, 128 families in Massachusetts were staying in motels at state expense, according to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Some are staying at the Cavalier.
Mary McGowan, who has lived there since Dec. 31, 2006, after losing her home and allegedly becoming a victim of domestic abuse, said she is comfortable.
"Allegedly?" How often do they categorize that one?
WTF is with the MSM's elitism, readers?
"The staff here are unbelievable," she said.
Yeah, therefore the city has to shut it down!!!
"The owner has done very well in maintaining the property. If the town wants all of us living out on the highway, it's not going to help their publicity to attract tourists. They need to know that the Cape wasn't meant just for the wealthy."
No, the whole world is their oyster (see story immediately below)!!!
Peter Stravinski has been at the Cavalier since May 1, 2007, and fears that his only other option is to return to the shelter in Hyannis.
"This is one of the nicest places I've ever stayed," he said. "It's very scary to imagine having to go back to the shelter, very scary, very scary."
They don't care, Pete. Not when they can get more $$$$ for the room!!
Of course, if you are rich, you get whatever you want:
"Sox owner Henry cuts a deal to tear down Brookline house"
BROOKLINE - Commodity trader and principal owner of the Boston Red Sox John Henry has won town approval for a long-awaited dream.
The town's preservation commission has approved a deal that will let Henry tear down a historic 13,000 square-foot mansion that was recently renovated by another sports impresario, in order to make way for a new mansion more to Henry's liking.
Are you shitting me?
Where are the environmental and preservationist groups on this?
Being done so it is more to John Henry's liking?
Maybe he could put up some of those homeless folk above in his MANSION!!!!
In return, Brookline gets archival-quality photographs of the houses, along with tiles from the fireplace and bathrooms and outdoor lights. Henry also agreed to a conservation restriction on a portion of his land that will mean that no structures may be built there.
"It's always sad to see something go, to see the original fabric of Brookline gone." said Greer Hardwicke, the town preservation planner. "We got something of benefit, so it's not a total loss."
But still a loss? Yup, richers want so richers get!!!!
The approval caps months of negotiations and hearings about the 7-acre property that Henry purchased for $16 million in August. The existing mansion, along with another 5,000 square-foot house on the property that is also slated for demolition, were some of the first built on the subdivided estate of Charles Sprague Sargent, first director of the Arnold Arboretum, in the 1920s and 1930s.
The homes are set in an exclusive neighborhood of stone-walled compounds, many reached by winding private drives. The larger house, a red brick Colonial revival with ivy-covered walls, contains seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and two half-bathrooms. A separate wing houses the pool, a media room, a playroom, and staff quarters.
Town officials said they were pleased with the outcome.
"What he's done is to prevent future overdevelopment on that site," said Robert Allen, a Brookline selectman. He said that Henry has been active in a number of fund-raising efforts in the town. Henry could not be reached for comment.
Joseph Geller, a landscape architect who is acting as Henry's spokesman on the matter, said that it made more sense to build a new house rather than to try to add one to the site of either of the existing houses, both of which sit on either side of a ridge. Henry wanted his house atop the hillside.
Oh, well, let's not disappoint John Henry then! Wanted a house on the hill.
Geller said plans for the new house are incomplete. He said it would be "shingle style," but that its dimensions have not been determined.
The existing houses on the property, Geller said, held little historical value. The larger one's valuable elements had been diluted when the property's previous owner, Frank H. McCourt Jr., the former Boston-based developer who now owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, renovated it in the 1990s. The other house is in disrepair and had never been renovated, Geller said.
Hardwicke said the houses are notable for the architectural firms that designed them. One oversaw restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, she said, and another designed a number of buildings for Harvard University. She said the smaller house, because it has not been renovated, retained a number of quirky features, such as the call boxes used for summoning servants.
But there was no historical value -- not unless the town fathers had wanted to stop the idea, right?
The town had few options to prevent demolition of the houses, Hardwicke said. It had imposed a 12-month moratorium on demolition, but that was winding down, and the town would have had no recourse once it did. Instead, the town chose to negotiate with Henry and elicited the conservation restriction and the promises of the archival material.
John Henry had them over a barrel then, didn't he?
Neighborhood reaction has been largely positive, town officials said.
Would the paper tell us any different when they love the Red Sox so much (front-page)?
Chobee Hoy, a local real estate agent, said that while few residents spoke out, some privately voiced concern.
"I've heard a lot of people remark about a home of that stature and that worth and about tearing it down and feeling pretty negative about it," she said."But who gives a shit about what they think?
What John Henry wants, John Henry gets!
