Since this approach worked last time, let’s open this final installment with more reader feedback.
We’ll start with my gratitude towards the progressive responders who went way out of their way to prove that they really are a few clowns short of a circus. Two of the Fisher Farms variety somehow managed to bring subdivision’s collective IQ down by at least 27 points.
And the fact they’ve figured out how to reproduce is even more terrifying than a scantily clad Walmart shopper. It makes you want to move to Emma’s Landing.
On the bright side, an expert weighed in on the Burton Foundations’ public finances, which can only be described as works of fiction. They own at least nineteen similar Illinois housing developments, yet they bring in just $2 million a year? Right! Then there are all the coded slush fund accounts likely used to funnel those government grants directly into Manning family bank accounts.
Perhaps one of our local newspapers will get off of their fat journalist asses long enough to look into that.
But the most important response came from the slain boy’s family. They reached out to confirm my version of this tragic event and further commented on Emma’s Landing’s gross negligence. They’d been trying to get custody of that child for years, but his mother would file false police reports and make co-parenting as difficult as possible in an attempt to make them look bad.
Despite her criminal track record, the State somehow determined this boy was better off with a multiple felon. I offered to help them find a reasonable wrongful death attorney and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
With those stipulations entered into the record, let’s move on to the affordable housing initiatives that actually work, because they are out there. Much to my progressive critics’ chagrin, I’m not nearly against the possibility. Illinois has endured more than enough public housing debacles to know what works and what doesn’t.
What works is small scale projects that fall under the auspices of a charitable organization, a church, or a reasonable social service agency that can support the residents through those inevitable cultural transition difficulties.
To wit, if you head on over to Peter Audet’s Emma’s Landing “fiancé’s” Facebook page, she’s quite clear about “hating” Geneva. She rails against her feelings of isolation, not belonging, and being far away from her family.
Really? Who could’ve predicted that?
Think about it! Imagine what would happen if, eliminating potential crime from the equation, we took a group of twenty-something white Geneva kid and dropped them into an apartment in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood. It would rapidly turn into an unmitigated disaster. The culture shock alone would probably kill them, and if they survived, they’d have absolutely nothing in common with any of their neighbors.
But because that progressive prejudice primarily consists of knowing what’s best for everyone else, particularly the minorities they purport to support, they fervently believe that whatever they’ve been thinking for the last five minutes is the truth. And they somehow manage to do this despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
On the other hand, Habitat for Humanity is a perfect example of an affordable housing organization that succeeds. Their mission statement, “Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope,” says it all. And they deliver on that promise for three essential reasons:
- The economically disadvantaged families they help have an ownership stake in their own progress. It ain’t charity. Those small home inhabitants aren’t detached renters, they’re provided with low-cost mortgages enroute to owning those homes.
- They work with municipal government and local churches to create the foundation for that difficult progress, and their smaller, lower-density, developments are integrated directly into the neighborhoods, not isolated from them.
- Once local government and churches are fully invested, they coordinate and provide the support necessary to counteract the deleterious effects of a poverty mindset entrenched by their previous experience.
It’s not too terribly difficult when you take a little time to think about it.
But of course, the Mayor and his loony left wing city council minions know better than everyone else, and now their vast stupidity is about to make any future Geneva affordable housing possibility exponentially more difficult than it already is.
The one thing you can say about progressive is they always manage to bring about the reality they so ardently rail against. How else could they so sanctimoniously feel they’re better than everyone else?
The bottom line is, until and unless the City of Geneva realizes their current “strategy” doesn’t work, with more affordable housing yet to come, these Emma’s Landing incidents are only the beginning.
Author’s Note:
Per a previously considered possibility, this will be my last regular First Ward column. I may drop a monthly opinion or two, or perhaps insert some short paragraphs going forward, but 19 years at this game is more than enough for anyone.
That said, before my beloved Kane County judges hit the bar (the drinking kind) at 1:30 (they never work a full day) in celebration, should one of them misbehave, I’ll come out of semi-retirement faster than Agent Orange can lose a war to Denmark.
And if past history is any indicator, their already suspicious self-control has a very short expiration date.
Meanwhile, I want to thank all the readers who actually did provide financial and emotional support over the years. Not only did you make this gig worthwhile, but you made it fun!
It’s been a great ride. Ward out!