Well,
it has been quite a while.
A lot has happened in 4 years, new lives created, old lives came to their inevitable end, young lives tragically lost, bodies bruised, minds changed, hearts broken, goals abandoned, goals exceeded, marriages, and more.
There have been many good times, but it has been hard and I have just not felt up to writing things fit for public consumption.
For those of you that are old friends, be forewarned, much of what I write in the next few months will be specific to my neighborhood on Galveston Island. And to those of you that are new friends, hold on. I am not sure how regular my posts here will be, but I am pretty pissed off about the events that have unfolded over the last few months and this is a vehicle for redress.
The City of Galveston obligated my property to permanent public access without notifying me specifically of their intention to do so. They have created a sidewalk plan that places 5' wide sidewalks literally inches from resident bedrooms and they have been hostile and almost non-responsive to questions from residents.
City employees have shown complete disregard for or hostile communication with the truly handicapped, disabled, and elderly residents along 43rd st. They have threatened these residents with property seizure through eminent domain if they were uncooperative and suggested that the improvements that the handicapped residents had made to accommodate their disability were not to code and would probably be quite costly for the resident if they were not co-operative.
Other residents were told that portions of their homes were actually on city property and that they had nothing to say about the sidewalks planned because the property was not theirs! WTF! Please excuse my "french", but who pays the taxes for the property? Who is responsible to maintain the property and all the improvements to it? Who will be liable for injuries sustained on it? Whose property will suffer wear, tear, vandalism, and theft as a result of the public being invited onto our property by the city?
Shall I get started about all the dishonesty concerning city Master plans? Officials are promising "connected" residents that their homes or streets will not be required to have a public sidewalk placed on it by virtue of their "nice landscaping" or supposed historic nature of the street.
Residents on 45th st, which runs from Broadway to the seawall and is a main N-S travel route, are being promised that their properties will not be encumbered by a sidewalk, while millions are being spent to provide a sidewalk from Broadway on 43rd St. to what is essentially a dead-end into very busy vehicle traffic on U Ave. and a walk of nearly a quarter-mile on that unprotected street before arriving to the seawall.
I could go on and on blowing steam on all the ways the City of Galveston has screwed it's residents with a project we all should be happy over., but I am probably just going cap it right now. I will, however, be directing all that steam into more posts.
REB
