It seems that I used a forbidden word the other day and so had my comments section locked, So I will be nice and try not to use it any more.
I was going to use the C-word to describe the widespread, semi-legal exploitation of trailer park residents all across the United States and possibly other countries but since I can't use it I will have to find some other word instead. Actually, the C-word is much too polite a word to describe the situation that I and my allies in this fight are uncovering. It is mind-boggling. It is incredible. And I feel like I am in a Ghostbusters movie, there is so much slime out there.
We have uncovered who the owners of the trailer park are--we think. We know where they are--we think. The village lawyer is suing the company for blight and according to him the owner must come to Michigan from California. Good. We want to see him face to face. But I am not so sure he will come, at least not right away. I think he will send one of his representatives instead.
What the lawyer for the village discovered is--if I understand his legalese--my park is owned not by one company or two companies but layers and layers of companies all like one of those Russian dolls. It is not in Summerland after all. It is in LA. That is, if he's got the right people. I am beginning to learn that this industry (trailer parks) is made up of numerous firms like this, owning thousands and thousands of parks across the country. And that the little legislation that exists is written to benefit them, not us. They have indeed built a firewall and a damned good one it is too. Can I say "collusion" without being shut down? Because that is what they are all about.
Our manager is off-site and unreachable. Even the police chief could not reach him. He does not answer his phone or return his calls. (And you want me to believe that health officials can contact every person that has been near the people who have come down with Ebola?)
These nameless, faceless people who hide behind anonymous PO boxes that aren't even in the same city as their business headquarters, who get others to go along with their--oops, can't say it--"chain" of silence, down to the park manager--this is a huge, huge industry. When I told the village lawyer about the electricity rate gouging, he said, "All too common."
He seems to think and my ally from the interfaith alliance seems to think that if we go to a certain state government agency and present our case that they will help us. Another person I spoke to who has spent several years trying to organize the park in her community was not so optimistic. "If I were you," she said, "I'd focus on getting out." According to her, the law allows trailer park owners to set their own utility rates above and beyond what the utilities themselves charge. She said, these people are bottom feeders. They are feeding off the poor, taking what they can get from them, scraping off the bottom, then moving on and letting another group do the same.
Trailer park residents supposedly have rights. But rights are just words on paper if there is no one willing to enforce them. And this problem is so very widespread, and there are so many other issues demanding attention, that it is not always possible for those in power to defend all the powerless. Maybe my group will get justice. And maybe it won't. Already one person has given up. He says he's sick of talking about it, he's sick of the drama--but I suspect the real reason is he feels intimidated because he is poor and uneducated. He told me, "You go speak to them. You know how to use words. I don't." But the reason I can speak and use words is because I am an outsider. I am not really one of the community. I did not grow up in that socio-economic environment, and if things had gone differently for me, I never would have moved there in the first place. I was raised middle class, and it shows. Ultimately, my fellow residents are going to have to do some of the speaking for themselves. It's not something they are used to or educated for. And that is what the owners are counting on! Little do they suspect that some of us are using our computers for more than playing Candy Crush or looking at porn.
I fully expect to be taken to court within the next few weeks for not paying the full amount on my rent statement. From what I've heard, they will want me to sign a statement settling out of court. I am not signing anything. I will not pay their extortion and I will not sign. And if they want to try to evict me--a tenant who has never been in any trouble with the law, who has never been late on their rent paymen, not once in over 20 years, never missed a rent payment--I say bring it on. Because I will go to the media, social or otherwise, I am done caving in. I am standing my ground.
I was going to use the C-word to describe the widespread, semi-legal exploitation of trailer park residents all across the United States and possibly other countries but since I can't use it I will have to find some other word instead. Actually, the C-word is much too polite a word to describe the situation that I and my allies in this fight are uncovering. It is mind-boggling. It is incredible. And I feel like I am in a Ghostbusters movie, there is so much slime out there.
We have uncovered who the owners of the trailer park are--we think. We know where they are--we think. The village lawyer is suing the company for blight and according to him the owner must come to Michigan from California. Good. We want to see him face to face. But I am not so sure he will come, at least not right away. I think he will send one of his representatives instead.
What the lawyer for the village discovered is--if I understand his legalese--my park is owned not by one company or two companies but layers and layers of companies all like one of those Russian dolls. It is not in Summerland after all. It is in LA. That is, if he's got the right people. I am beginning to learn that this industry (trailer parks) is made up of numerous firms like this, owning thousands and thousands of parks across the country. And that the little legislation that exists is written to benefit them, not us. They have indeed built a firewall and a damned good one it is too. Can I say "collusion" without being shut down? Because that is what they are all about.
Our manager is off-site and unreachable. Even the police chief could not reach him. He does not answer his phone or return his calls. (And you want me to believe that health officials can contact every person that has been near the people who have come down with Ebola?)
These nameless, faceless people who hide behind anonymous PO boxes that aren't even in the same city as their business headquarters, who get others to go along with their--oops, can't say it--"chain" of silence, down to the park manager--this is a huge, huge industry. When I told the village lawyer about the electricity rate gouging, he said, "All too common."
He seems to think and my ally from the interfaith alliance seems to think that if we go to a certain state government agency and present our case that they will help us. Another person I spoke to who has spent several years trying to organize the park in her community was not so optimistic. "If I were you," she said, "I'd focus on getting out." According to her, the law allows trailer park owners to set their own utility rates above and beyond what the utilities themselves charge. She said, these people are bottom feeders. They are feeding off the poor, taking what they can get from them, scraping off the bottom, then moving on and letting another group do the same.
Trailer park residents supposedly have rights. But rights are just words on paper if there is no one willing to enforce them. And this problem is so very widespread, and there are so many other issues demanding attention, that it is not always possible for those in power to defend all the powerless. Maybe my group will get justice. And maybe it won't. Already one person has given up. He says he's sick of talking about it, he's sick of the drama--but I suspect the real reason is he feels intimidated because he is poor and uneducated. He told me, "You go speak to them. You know how to use words. I don't." But the reason I can speak and use words is because I am an outsider. I am not really one of the community. I did not grow up in that socio-economic environment, and if things had gone differently for me, I never would have moved there in the first place. I was raised middle class, and it shows. Ultimately, my fellow residents are going to have to do some of the speaking for themselves. It's not something they are used to or educated for. And that is what the owners are counting on! Little do they suspect that some of us are using our computers for more than playing Candy Crush or looking at porn.
I fully expect to be taken to court within the next few weeks for not paying the full amount on my rent statement. From what I've heard, they will want me to sign a statement settling out of court. I am not signing anything. I will not pay their extortion and I will not sign. And if they want to try to evict me--a tenant who has never been in any trouble with the law, who has never been late on their rent paymen, not once in over 20 years, never missed a rent payment--I say bring it on. Because I will go to the media, social or otherwise, I am done caving in. I am standing my ground.
