Both Sides of the Fence

A Tosa resident since 1991, Christine walks the dog, cooks but avoids housework, writes and reads, and enjoys the company of friends and strangers. Her job takes her around the state, learning about people's health. A Quaker (no, they don't wear blue hats or sell oatmeal or motor oil), she has been known to stand on both sides of the political and philosophic fence at the same time, which is very uncomfortable when you think about it. She writes about pretty much whatever stops in to visit her busy mind at the moment. One reader described her as "incredibly opinionated but not judgmental." That sounds like a good thing to strive for!

Go find yourself a billionaire

Eschweiler buildings, TIF funds, charitable giving, billionaires, Anna Nicole Smith

A  friend's mother used to tell us "it's as easy to marry a rich man as a poor man." After all, it's what she did. And it worked until it didn't. She ended up divorced and penniless, at age 70 learning the skills of an adminstrative assistant to support herself, not in the style to which she'd become accustomed but with great pride.

I mention this because in looking for a last minute fix for saving the Eschweiler buildings, that's the offered final solution. Go find yourselves a billionaire, and make him fall in love with your idea..

Of course, competition for billionaires is pretty stiff, especially now that they have even more and the rest of us have relatively less.

It seems a little odd, this notion that the only way to get good and difficult things done is to find a charitable rich man and seduce him..

These generous rich men have often come around to building great things,  like Carnegie libraries, with the wealth they accumulated (I won't mention how other people's labors had a role in that).. Eventually. Toward the end of their lives. And often  related to the colleges they went to, Not that that's a bad thing but it does keep the crumbs on top of the table, not letting them fall to those of us sitting below hoping for a little nosh now and then.,

Historic buildings aren't everyone's cup of charitable contribution. Fortunately for the landscape, so many buildings that are beautiful, useful, and durable were built with public funds to contribute to the public good.

Are these buildings important enough to be considered worthy of more public funds? I don't know. Still, it's strange that we seem to have lost the ability to even think of coming to the rescue ourselves. The shrinking taxpayer dollars available aren't used to subsidize public projects but are used to subsidize the projects of millionaire and billionare developers. That's a sweet deal for them..

Meanwhile, we should probably keep our noses powdered and our high heels at the ready. Get our Anna Nicole Smith on.  Because you never know when you're going to need a bridge or a school.

"Hey there, Handsome. . ."

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