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| 4001 Speedway | www.hydeparkmethodist.org | 453-4206 |
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From the Co-President's Desk
..continued from page 17
May not be used for rental/secondary unit without further permitting from City of Austin." This is a vastly different description than that given to me by the owner of the property. Sort of makes you question people's intentions, doesn't it? Interestingly, the next day I received an e-mail from an attorney who is a friend of the property owner and also an around-the-corner neighbor of mine. Although he did not claim to be representing the owner legally, he did say that she had ask him to intervene. In various lawyerly ways he tried to suggest that most of my actions were wrong, marginally criminal, and that the owner of the property was completely in the right. I found all of this rather amusing. In my response to him I pointed out to him that I had fully followed the law. I was not cited by the police for any crime. I was not arrested by the police for any crime. The fact was, I told him, was that his friend (the property owner) was the one that was completely in the wrong. She had not sought a proper permit to build. Her lot was a substandard size for the project she had in mind. Her description of this as being a rehab with two walls standing was totally incorrect. And, finally, her description of the use of the property (a "garage apartment") is in complete conflict with the allowable uses on the permit. Perhaps my view is biased, but I don't see that I did a thing wrong. I took a stand, and was willing to take action |
based upon what I believed was right. My neighborhood is
very important to me, and I will do what it takes to protect it.
It seems to me that most of the actions of the property owner
and her representatives were in the wrong.
When I replied to the attorney's e-mail, I explained, point-by-point, how I had done nothing wrong, and that it was, in fact, the property owner that was in the wrong. His reply to me: "I agree." Finally, I must end with this. At one point in the attorney's letter to me, he stated, "While some might enjoy the irony, do not put yourself in a position to where you have to list your own name in the police blotter that you write in the Pecan Press." To be completely honest, I would have been proud to go to jail under these circumstances. I love my neighborhood. This is where I live. This is where I have chosen to invest in a home. I love the Hyde Park quality of life. If a little peaceful civil disobedience is needed to preserve that, so be it. I encourage all of you to do the same for our neighborhood. Become active and take a stand. Fight the good fight.
(Editor's note: Dorothy Richter is Hyde Park's unelected, but undisputed, Mayor-For-Life.) |
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