January
20, 2003
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Stephen Pape
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Email: Email Me. |
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It’s ok because our taxes won’t go up. Right?
Every one else is doing it. Why don’t you let us have any fun. I didn’t know I hit anybody. There wasn’t enough street lighting. If you don’t let them do it here, they will do it somewhere else. The speed limit is way too high. I was abused as a child. We live in a free country. All that money is going to be spent anyway, why not keep it for ourselves. We are all adults. Excuses we have all heard from our childhood and excuses we hear every day. Add another excuse to the reason things are the way they are in Glenn Heights. The City Council has now given it’s blessing for an effort to begin to petition for a wet/dry election in the City of Glenn Heights. This ok was given by a five to one vote. The effort involves not only Glenn Heights voters but for County voters as well. Glenn Heights is getting another black eye but this time it is self inflicted. A lot of people drink in South Dallas County but for years the sale of liquor, beer and wine has been banned from the area. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the difference between stores that sell these products and stores that do not. The same goes for areas in which the stores exist. That is why people have been willing to drive a little to get the alcohol and then return to their homes in their clean, low crime neighborhoods to partake. What is it that makes this City Council think they are smarter than the wisdom of the past? What do they think has changed? The sale of alcohol, ie: construction and operation of liquor stores, in Glenn Heights is not consistent with the very vision the current City Council claims to hold, nor is it consistent with the Glenn Heights vision planned by past City Councils. How do liquor stores fit into a family community with a balanced mix of housing, neighborhood parks, walkways, with low traffic, low crime, and a Country feel. Considerable effort has been expended to raise the image of Glenn Heights from a trailer park town where the police harass the traffic on the interstate highway to a full service, well balanced, efficiently run peaceful City. Has that effort been in vain? We have made our plans to be a family friendly community, but why don’t we just abandon these plans for the lure of more tax money. More money will make it all ok. So why don’t we build liquor stores on the edge of Cedar Hill, Lancaster, Red Oak, Ovilla and DeSoto and become the wino capital of Texas? Our past attempt to be a quality community that is respected by our neighbors is really not that important anymore. Does this make sense to you? It makes no sense to me. Either the current City Council members lack the backbone, lack the common sense, or just no longer hold the vision that I think the residents of Glenn Heights want to see. When I was an elected official, I was attacked and maligned because I wanted to allow single family homes to be built. “We don’t want development. We don’t want ghettos. The schools will not support growth. We want our peaceful community.”, were all statements made in public hearings. The current Mayor of Glenn Heights led a misinformation effort back then to cause the people to fear that their community way of life was soon to be lost. Can he not lead the Council to oppose this potential scourge on the community today? Step up and lead Mayor Humphrey. Every member of the City Council has had, or knows friends that have had, their lives severely altered due to the consumption of alcohol. In Glenn Heights, this past year, a little boy was run over and killed by someone most likely affected by alcohol. A Dallas Cowboy ran over and killed two men last week. He had been hanging out at places that serve alcohol. (Even though he denies he was intoxicated, by not stopping and claiming he didn’t know he hit anything, really makes you doubt his recollection and cognitive skills at the time.) Alcohol sales will lead to underage drinking. Alcohol sales will lead to more traffic accidents. Alcohol sales will cause more domestic abuse. More children will be traumatized and more homes will be broken. So a community that puts value on family, value on low crime, value on a country atmosphere is not a community that the large urban areas will go to buy their liquor. Glenn Height’s leadership has failed. I hope Glenn Height’s neighboring communities and loyal residents will stand up where their leaders have failed by not signing the petition that is now to be circulated. I think the citizens of Glenn Heights need to take a very serious look at who, if anyone, is representing their interest at City Hall. It is time that the voters paid serious attention, not to everything a slick politician may say he is doing between elections, but to what the slick politician is actually doing. As far as the petition? The people of South Dallas County are being asked the question: What type of City do you want Glenn Heights to be? Most of them don’t live here. They don’t know us and they shouldn’t have been allowed this choice. I hope they share the vision of the people of Glenn Heights and not the apparent vision of the elected leaders of Glenn Heights. Some things are not ok. A quality life is worth a little sacrifice. So to the answer of the title above. WRONG!
Footnote:
This phrase is listed on the City of Glenn Heights Web Site just above the page introducing the Mayor and City Council Members. (It can be found at www.glennheights.com)
"Glenn Heights is a pleasant residential community with low cost of living just minutes from Dallas. Ideal for those who want the quiet life with the amenities of a nearby metropolitan area. Glenn Heights is a home rule city...Crime is low and the city leaders are committed to keeping it that way."
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If you want to have a good neighbor you must be a good neighbor.
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