“What
is your vision for Lindsay?” asked the new editor of this paper, Paul Myers, last
week when I met with him and former editor Reggie Ellis, now publisher. It was a fair question, and one that made me
think, especially as I prepared to make objections to the new (same old) Dollar
General site plan review that was presented to the City Council for approval at
the August 23rd meeting.
My first words in reply were, in
fact, objections to the vision of Lindsay’s past and present administrations
and the forces of urbanization. Call me
crazy, but I wish we could retain something of what it means to be rural: a local economy generated by and serving
those who live here, with authentic social and political structures that
encourage and teach the newcomers to this country how to be members of this
place while embracing and serving those who entered long ago. I wish we could re-envision the value of the
lives of those who make their livings growing and harvesting the fruits of this
land, and celebrate those things in our cultural events. I wish
we could respect the limitations of this semi-desert land we inhabit and not
just mine its groundwater and the government programs offered in the spirit of
equality.
Despite the odds, what I wish we
could become is true community, with an emphasis on the “true.” Falsehood is one of the things we have been
fighting since the triple-stacked loans were discovered around 2009, those
loans intended to get 50 or more low-income buyers into homes of their own that
went instead to 13 city employees. What
stunned us most were the lies the city staff had told themselves justifying the
stacking, staff who still hold paid positions there now. I can’t even remember the term they used for
this “creative” packaging, the self-deception was that appalling.
Lest you think something’s changed,
let me dump a few dates on you. On July
12, Councilman Mecum resigned. On July
18, the application for the Dollar General site plan review was signed by
property owners Serna and Llewallyn, complete with unsigned engineered drawings
and maps and a categorical exemption from the CEQA process which addresses none
of the concerns we raised in our lawsuit two years ago. This past Friday, when I walked into the city
clerk’s office to find out the status of the new Dollar General plan, Brian
Spaunhurst, the planning assistant working under Bill Zigler, was preparing the
document for this week’s council agenda. Two years ago, after the developer pulled out
of that project, we had requested that we be informed if that project was
resumed, a request which obviously had been ignored.
Let me say that I’m not opposed to having Dollar General
in town, except for the fact that the profits will be siphoned off to DG
headquarters, there will be few employees with non-existent benefits, and their
building designs are straight out of the 1960’s, complete with no windows. I’m also a little concerned that it will
drive its main competitor out of town, which in my mind would be Rite Aid, and
that would leave us with no pharmacy.
I am opposed to having Dollar General at this site. Located
on the southeast corner of the roundabout, the blank backside of the building
will be turned toward Hermosa, a major thoroughfare. Located there, the increased traffic is a
potential threat to foot traffic and other drivers, including the Dollar
General delivery trucks, which will be making left-hand turns across Hermosa
where cars are just exiting the roundabout.
I am also opposed to the way the CEQA process, which in a true community
would allow us to consider these factors publicly, is being violated. But Bill Zigler wants it there. He’s worked hard to make this happen, and
that’s what he’s going to get come hell or high water.
“In true community,” wrote Parker J.
Palmer, that Quaker sage on community and education, “we will not choose our
companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives….Community
will teach us that our grip on truth is fragile and incomplete, that we need
many ears to hear the fullness of God’s word for our lives.”
In true community, it matters what
other people think, especially those who live there. Someone hired to manage the interests of that
community should work to reconcile the conflicting interests of its members,
not override them – especially someone who does not live there and thus does
not personally bear the consequences of his actions. So call me crazy, but I’ll keep working for
true community, thank you, despite the odds.
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Trudy
Wischemann is a rural community researcher who writes. You can send your stories of community
bravery and betrayal to her c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a
comment below. Thanks to Nancy and David
Vega for their friendship and feedback.
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