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“Summertime
When the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy’s rich
And your ma is good-lookin’
So hush, little baby
Don’t you cry” 

                                                      –  George Gershwin

                                    It’s Summertime. Again. Time for the Paris Chamber’s annual rant on “Paris Texas – where weeds reach higher”:

The Widow’s mite is often greater than a rich man’s thousands.

The City of Paris codes regarding grass and weeds:   

“It is a violation for any person owning, claiming, occupying, or having control of any property within the city to permit weeds, brush, vegetative growth, or any objectionable or unsightly matter to grow to a height greater than 12 inches.
“If the property is five acres or more, the owner or person in control is required to mow at least a 100-foot perimeter from the property line. 
“If a person fails to comply with these requirements and is convicted in the City of Paris Municipal Court, the fine could be as much as $2,000 for every day the violation exists. The city can also correct the violation at the owner’s expense and assess an administrative penalty of $220. If the costs of the work are not paid within 30 days, a lien will be filed against the property.”

 

A draconian approach – if you’re not one of the who-you-are or the who-do-you know crowd.

                                                But it’s June, and weeds are bustin’ out all over. Again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are weeds – no, grass – all over Paris that’s higher than 12-inches. In some places, weeds are already three feet fall. Some even taller. Many, as they sing in Oklahoma, are as tall as an elephant’s eye.

 

 

Regardless of the policy, there are places where weeds three feet tall (and taller) are still standing from last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                               

 

 

Pitiful.  

 

 

(There’s no excuse for it.)

              We’ll see what tomorrow brings . . . .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Forgive us, but that bit in the code on any “objectionable or unsightly matter” with its 12-inch high requirement: There’s gonna be some really short people walking around if the city ever enforces it.

Why do we have ordinances, if they won’t be or can’t be enforced or enforced equally in all areas inside the Paris city limits?

The city demands that citizens follow the city’s policy and city ordinances when the city, itself, doesn’t do it.  Just look at the city’s rights-of-way.

The Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce actually believes (despite what some may want to claim) that each citizen has an obligation and responsibility to the community in which they live, work or do business. Examples being you don’t litter, rob, steal, injure or kill people, and break other reasonable laws.  We also believe, on the other hand, that a community – even Paris, Texas, where weeds reach higher – also has an obligation and a responsibility to each citizen to act without favoritism or different considerations.

Decisions should never be based on perceived percentages; whether it’s the widow’s mite or the rich man’s thousands.

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                           Paris Texas: “Where Weeds Reach Higher”

 

 

 

 

 

           Darn that dream

and Bless it, too

It haunts me

that it won’t come true

O, darn … darn that dream 

 

The Chairman of the Board put it to music “…these little town blues…”

Of course, Ol’ Blue Eyes was trading the blues for New York Values – values which make the Walking Dead seem like good neighbors.

Sinatra received a lot of applause for his singing, but not so much for his politics.

Texas is trying hard to be New York, the city. The state’s emotionally damaged (roughly 46%) vote for political insanity, knowing that “if the stupid can make it here, the stupid can make it everywhere . . .”

It’s enough to give a small town the blues!

Seems socialism is an easy sell to those who see themselves as victims or believe that someone should owe them money. This includes the stumble-bums in the Texas legislature who jacked the state budget up to over $300 billion, and arranged for their fellow followers in local cities, counties, and schools to share in the joy of what they call “increased revenue” –

All the cost of celebrating, however, is paid by taxpayers. Really paying, as these same (supposedly conservative) legislators forced a “median value” appraisal on all property in the state’s 254 counties, and called it “lowering taxes.”  What is the “median value” of an acre in downtown Dallas and an acre in downtown Paris, Texas? And where would property taxes be lowered?

Thank God for good ol’ Blue State Texas legislators . . .

. . . But, O, those Big Spenders in the Big Blue Cities, and in blue states like New York and California!!!

Over the past three decades, as Paris lost population, the city budget grew, fed by increasing fees and taxes. The leadership let the weeds grow. Paris became a breeding ground for litter. Special businesses received tax abatement. The PEDC started giving cash to those who promise to create jobs. Too many neighborhoods went to pot (in more ways than one). Paris did a lot of things – instead of doing what it should have done.

Currently, the PEDC, the Paris Economic Development Corporation, is crowing about a $1.3 million grant that the U. S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration gave it.

Since government doesn’t have any money of its own, and the PEDC is a local improvement organization, what moral or ethically right does the PEDC have to other people’s money?

Other than the nation now seems to have a severe case of the Crazies.

Our symptoms, like the first coke poured in Texas, were first seen years and years ago. Now, it’s reported that the PEDC Directors have authorized this “free” grant money to be placed in a non-interest bearing account at the Liberty National Bank.

Why?

Liberty National Bank always charges interest on money it loans. To the PEDC, or anyone.

Being a local governmental unit, approved by taxpayers, the PEDC’s money and debt are the taxpayers money and debt. The Directors are supposed to be looking after the taxpayer’s interest. So why give Liberty the right to earn overnight or money market interest on the taxpayer’s $1.3 million – while paying no interest for it’s use? (Since March 2022, the Fed has raised its target “federal funds rate” [the rate for overnight lending between U. S. banks] 10 times–from a range between 0% and .25% to a range of 5% to 5.25%.)

Do each of the Paris banks get the same deal?

Some of the local 46% to 53% will say, it’s no big deal.

Then, what is a Big Deal? Cronyism? Earwax buildup? Special favors? An offer you can’t refuse? Stupidity? Bedbugs? Insider trading? Blue Bell Ice Cream? Insanity? Lint in poucher-in bellybuttons? What?

Or insiders creating more of those “little town blues…”?

return to the Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce

In the world-famous Red River Valley, Paris Texas is an economic sinkhole – and that’s being kind. Thousands of historically-obsolete houses and other buildings – unpainted clapboard, weathered, streaked with age; termite-havens with patchy, wild grasses and a variety of weed-greenery outlining vehicles parked in front yards, and not in clearly defined parking areas, in block after block of narrow, grubby chuck-holed strips of streets – are plain clues to its status as a failed community.

In its core, Paris looks older than its age, rickety and ugly, with a few amenities of polish and glitter.

Another fact is that those in Paris who try and speak the truth are condemned as “mean people”.

Its dangerous to dissent on what the leadership claims – or decides to do or not do. There is a dark heart that can be detected beneath the denials and the claims of progress.

Consider our friends at the visitors and convention council or whatever it or they may call it, who say, publicly, and with a straight face, “Welcome to Paris, a city graced by dozens of beautiful old homes and unique public architecture, creating a charming backdrop for a thriving economy and a contemporary lifestyle.”

Considering the handicaps they work under (some of their own making), they do a very good job of filling visitor spaces for events they sponsor, if not for Paris. They likely see their job as selling Paris, regardless of what they’re saying:

  • Do they actually believe that a few dozens of “beautiful old homes” negate the thousands of ugly old homes?
  • What town is bragging about not having any “unique public architecture”?
  • Three decades of in-city declining population is a “thriving economy”?
  • a “contemporary lifestyle” in a small city that will not consider pursuing a modern public WiFi or MiFi system to benefit all citizens, but will give some real estate developer millions in cash and incentives to build instant slums?

The Paris Texas Chamber is merely using the visitor’s group to point out that, as a community, we can only fool ourselves for so long before being forced to face reality.

Industry will not save us; neither will more subsidized retailers, apartments or residential subdivisions, or outside consultants long on promises but short on results.

A few amenities of polish and glitter only draws attention to the unpainted and falling down.

Community leadership created an economic sinkhole that eats whatever make-up we slap on it. Only by accepting reality can Paris change the future.

We’re burying diamonds in expensive, but cancerous, trash.

Return to the Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce