Day: November 21, 2005

Okay we debate about affordable housing but what of areas/ neighborhood that are affordable to live in. Not just a house to cover one’s head but ability to shop at local shops, find usable services close in and not have other costly burdens that come with living in a particular neighborhood (HOA dues, parking fees, etc). That was part of the idea I had when reading in Sunday’s Post about the tax assessments for businesses in gentrifying neighborhoods like Shaw. The other part was wondering what does New York City, land o’ expensive property, do as they have lots of indy stores.
What makes a neighborhood workable, in my view, is not just the house one lives in and its adjoining houses but the amenities. The poor and the working class do eat out (carryouts), use day care and buy clothes and housewares, and there are business that cater to them. What do the poor and working class do when the Dollar Store and the daycare are priced out of their neighborhood due to rising tax rates? Of course part of me (my inner libertarian?) is asking ‘really is it society’s job to make sure there are businesses to serve the poor?’ My inner Republican is yelling “tax cuts!”
Of course there are businesses that cater to and take advantage of the poor and working classes and I’d like to see them gone. I’m thinking check cashing places. My best friend from high school used to work in a check cashing place. When visiting her I’d hang out with her at work and watch her check the checks and the person cashing the check. Nothing evil was going on, but the thing that bugged me were the fees & charges for cashing a paycheck.
How do you keep the good businesses and let the bad pass away?

Well the last cold snap did it in for the tomato plants so I’ve had to cut them down. But the plants still had tomatoes on them, some of them a bit red, the rest very, very green. At the end of the day I had two bags of tomatoes. I gave 1 bag of them away. The other bag I brought into the house and put the green ones in the window sill for ripening. All in all I have 39 tomatoes sunning in my windows. That’s a lotta tomatoes.
I also began cleaning up the patio. I pulled out sensitive plants killed by the cold, happy that I was able to put some impatien flowers in a salad a few days before the snap. I chopped up some of the tomato vines and threw their remains in the composter. The soil from dead plants were put into big thick contractor bags so I can use it next year. Right now the backyard garden has been reduced to a rosemary plant, alpine strawberry, arugula, thyme, pot marigolds, pansies, 1 lone spinach plant and some scrawny cilantro. The basil also was a causality of the cold snap. However I have a small plant that barely escaped turning brown and brought it inside.
Other plants like the dill weed and the passion flower vine, just keep going. I think they will perish when it snows.