Author: Paris Chamber

 

Ron White declared, “You can’t fix stupid.” 

The comedian had to come up with that line somehow from some thing or some place. 

He’s made a lot of stops along the way. 

The only thing you can know for sure is that if he did stop in Paris, Texas, he wasn’t here long.

And while Paris may not be IQ city, it is, however, a brilliant place compared to, say, California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Chicago, or Nutland, D. C. 

Or, Austin, Texas  –  even if the Legislature is not in session.

Some say you can also add-in the Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce, where the bulb glows dim most days. (Some of our worst friends and best enemies usually say that that we’re so dim that even on a bright day at high noon we think its midnight and there are no stars at all).

We, of course, know of no reason why some people inside the city limits should be so unkind.

Lamar County citizens –

 – who don’t live inside the Paris city limits, demonstrate that they are smarter than most of the in-city residents. The reason is that they don’t breathe the same air. There is some concern about those who do live close-in, however, as a few of them don’t know how to drive either.

Most folks believe that the community of Paris was built on a small hill, the highest elevation in Lamar County. But its not a hill; its just two or three small swellings of the earth over the top of a few large underground caverns. These are where the stupidity goes when one of our citizens die.

These caves contain a tremendous volume of stupidity.

Over the years, the expanding pressure has forced cracks to form between the caverns and up to the surface ground. These cracks release a constant supply of stupidity into the air inside the city limits, which create problems for residents, as well as for residential and business foundations.

Geologists say the largest cracks seems to be under City Hall and what used to be the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce.

Once you breathe in stupidity it lodges in the mind and cannot escape until the body kicks the final bucket, and then the stupidity stuffs seeps down into these caverns and it’s recycling time again.

Its a cycle that’s been going on for the last 75-or so years.

As fumes escape thru the cracks, by the time a new baby is seven months old it has breathed in enough stupidity to last the rest of its life. It takes an adult newcomer who moves here about three years or so, depending on how smart they were when they first got here. They show signs, that they’ve adapted to citizenship and love Paris, by beginning to litter, letting weeds grow, parking their vehicles in the front yard, and storing their junk along the side of their house and the overflow in the back yard.

After a decade or so, you can’t tell an oldtimer from a newcomer.

Old timers in Paris, who have accepted their fate, bet on how long it takes one of the new ones to show the second sign of increasing stupidity; the first sign being they obviously weren’t too smart or they wouldn’t have moved here.

But not as much money is changing hands on bets as it once did. Over the last two decades, not too many of the newcomers chose Paris. Instead, they settled in Lamar County to getaway from the stale smell of high humidity stupidity.

Amounts that city residents don’t inhale escape; drift off, and eventually create active members of the new Socialist-Democrat Party. That’s why it is growing so fast.

All this proves that not only White was right (you can’t fix stupidity), but it also proves you cannot contain it, either.

return to The Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce

 

Links:  On Organizational Innovation    –     Local Government    –    Amenities vs Essentials 

A CONSPIRACY REQUIRES EVERYTHING BUT A BACKBONE.


A conspiracy allows the participants to slide up sideways to something they know they shouldn’t be doing.

Some things the Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce do know, but we never claim to know everything.  There is a whale of a difference in the two. And one of the things we do know is that a conspiracy may require everything but a backbone.

We also know when infringement on our name is evident (as seen above). 

We realize, as do others, that on  another front,  more then one someone approved the name, design, and decision to deliberately use a Paris Lamar County Chamber of Commerce logo for the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce webpage, stationery, advertising, etc.

We’ve known it since it first started in 2016. It’s amusing, in a pitiful sort of way. But what does it say about the membership of what-used-to-be-the Lamar County Chamber?  

Basically, the Paris Texas Chamber cannot or does not want to believe that the majority of that organization’s members approve such behavior.  IF they do . . . .

Since 1922, the year socialist author Sinclair Lewis’ book, Babbitt became a national best-seller, the “booster clubs”, chambers of commerce, and other such community organizations, have had to fight a bad reputation.

Like most things public, some do deserve a bad reputation; most don’t.

The good ones work to bring their communities together. They are responsible, honest and dependable organizations with their own self-defined objectives for the community they serve. They know their role: They establish goals to try and meet their objective.

They succeed when they are not trying to be both fish and fowl, but just the sizzle on the steak they’re cooking.

Those community and economic organizations, wiggling like an earthworm trying to escape the hook, that claim they are the first rose of spring, the needed rain on summer’s hottest days, the painter of fall colors, the designers of the winning snowflake of winter, trying to be everything, while promising they are the only way to salvation, are the ones with questionable identities. 

            They are the Walter Mitty’s of community organizations.

. . . .  a conspiracy can be identified as a continuation of social traditions that work to the advantage of certain groups and to the disadvantage of certain other groups. If the intent of a conspiracy exists for the purpose of perpetuating the advantage, then there is a conspiracy even if the details are never agreed to aloud by all the participants.

It’s why a conspiracy doesn’t require a backbone.

Name infringement, of course, is a “no-no!” Not only is it unethical, but illegal in some cases. So are Domain Squatters (when people knowingly use your brand name with other extensions).

Throw in the “conspiracy theory” to deny everything, and it is still fairly decisive that a conspiracy has – and is – actually producing political events that those engaged in the conspiracy cannot begin to reasonable claim are false.

                                                          return to Paris-Lamar County Chamber of Commerce  (tsk-tsk-tsk!)

 Links:

Affordable Housing

The Objective

 

 

 

 According to a circulating report (one of many) ON the city of paris verses Alarid . . . .

. . . . the apparent stoppage of work on the downtown properties owned by David Alarid is the fault of the City of Paris, Texas, as – either thru’ deliberate ignorance or stupidity – the city is still riding its high horse.

A poor animal that should have died of old age 30-years ago.

Seems the city recently “red tagged” the First National Bank building. But before any restoration effort started, the city reportedly said a red tag did not exist. (A building is normally red-tagged because it doesn’t have a permit or has structural issues or violates building codes.)

The Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce is told that a person cannot legally enter a building that has been red-tagged, unless they have a special permit.

So, here we are today: The city has red-tagged the bank building (and other properties) in order to cut-off utilities to Alarid’s residence. A sneaky and odious harassment.

The report is that while Alarid was in Austin for extended specialized medical care, he missed paying electric bills mailed to his residence. So the provider switched power off for non-payment.

After Alarid’s return to Paris, the bill was paid. The company saying the energy would be on the next day. Then they called, saying that they could not turn power back on, as the city reported the building was in violation of city codes, and stating it would not approve the meter, unless it was removed from the interior of the building (where it has been for years), and re-attached outside the building.

Local Political Fluff

All this, according to Alarid, is just another excuse to prevent restoration of his property.

It does seem to rank as another harassment. Without electricity, he’s limited on what can be done. All he can do is sit on the sidewalk: The one the 2012 Paris City Council approved repairing – stop its draining of rainwater into the bank’s basement area and damaging the structure – years before Alarid purchased the building. Now, the city has blocked access to the sidewalk and allows it to continue to do more damage, as the water continues to pour in — 

In 2012, twelve years ago the city admitted its responsibility for the sidewalk, but now claims it’s Alarid’s responsibility – and has blocked his access to his property, which means he cannot even pump the water out — ?

Currently, the city

  • wants the electric meter moved from the basement to the facade of the building ( which seems to violate state and federal historical regulations, which prohibit anything that cause the facade to be different than historically accurate).

  • It states the meter is not safe in the basement, and that Oncor does not want it there in case of a need to turn the power off. But Alarid points out that Oncor does not care and turns the power on and off on the roof of the building.

But cutting off utilities at Alarid’s residence is just a tie-in to his other still-to-be-restored properties, which amounts to an estimated 141,000 square feet (an estimated 83,500 in Rodgers-Wade, 52,500 in the FNB; and 5,400 in the Varner building). By claiming “code violations” the city will not allow utilities to these properties.

Does anyone at the City of Paris consider that when doing re-modeling or construction, code is only a factor when the work is fully completed? Only then can it be determined as upgraded or acceptable? Using ‘code’ as an excuse to prevent bringing things up to code is not how things are accomplished in the real world.

Putting the cart in front of the horse is not the best way to get results . . .

The Paris Chamber doesn’t care if Alarid is an aggressive, arrogant, dumb as part of a smart horse, one of the nicest guys on earth or crazy as some of your relatives. Its his money being spent for improvements. Not the taxpayers. Not the city’s.

His money.

These on-going years of the city demands of  “meeting code” and demanding permits and other mickey mouse jumping thru hoops, and later changing demands, revoking permits and requiring new ones … simply is wrong.

Its also bone-deep stupid; especially, when you’re giving money and other incentives to others to build low-income slums.

You don’t brag about doing the best for the community when you stop someone from spending their own money to improve over 140,000 square feet of downtown buildings.

And no one asks, “Why would Alarid want to destroy the value of his own property?”

BOTTOM LINE

It seems the city is demanding that Alarid “…must comply with all zoning ordinances.”  But, no, what the City of Paris is saying is, “YOU do what we tell you to do!”  And if those demands fail state and national historical restoration standards, “that’s your problem.”  Its political nonsense gone mad (not angry, crazy).  Some of the city’s reported previous demands have been outside any existing ordinances.

And all ordinances are not enforced equally. Period.  Surely, the city realizes that not all ordinances are enforced? Consider:

  • grass and weeds are growing far taller – some of which have not been cut for 4-years or more – on properties all over Paris, including around utility poles, street signs, right-of-ways, and some city-owner properties in violation of ordinances

  • Autos and other vehicles are parked in front yards and on or in non-designated parking areas in violation of ordinances

  • City planned and approved street intersections that do not meet ordinance requirements

  • Commercial businesses in zoned residential areas (without ordinance required permits or without approved zoning changes)

  • Single-family homes permitted and constructed in retail and commercially zoned areas

  • Historical District (homes and buildings) city permitted that do not meet national historical accuracy

  • Buildings, commercial and residential, that fail regulations and codes on health, fire, litter and junk.

As exemption after exemption are permitted on other ordinances and zoning, if this all goes to court, how can the city justify its demands?

What kind of stupidity tells a property owner that he or she cannot spend their own money to improve their own property, when the city is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to try and improve the property for others in the same downtown area? 

But, is putting zigs-and-zags in downtown streets improvements?

It certainly does not improve traffic safety.

The city wasted more than a decade trying to improve the Grand Theater, a downtown historical-designated building, but failed to do so after spending over a half-million dollars ear-marked for that purpose, and has recently handed it over to another group to try and accomplish it.

IF the city can’t improve its own historical property, how can it demand the right to tell others how to do it. . . ?

The City of Paris can talk about “must comply” all it wants but, as a servant (supposedly) for the public, it cannot selectively enforce a demand that does not meet the test of “equal treatment.” Or demand others to foul-up as much as the city has in improving its own properties.

To be correct, government can do anything it wants to – until someone says, “NO!” (And means it.)

The way things are going, it’s likely to end up being the City of Paris vs Alarid, and whatever happens will cost taxpayers more money to pay for the stupidity.

Surely, adults, regardless of personalities, can find common ground to do what is best for Paris?

IF not, why not?

 

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