The city fined me $1000 for bad housekeeping!

We have called the mayor's group of buddies the "James Gang of thugs" because of how they went about getting him elected and treated opposing candidates. No one has challenged him since his first re-election. He's finally leaving office, so we'll see what we get. Some affiliated with the city are saying they already know who will be the next mayor because there just isn't anyone willing to undo the mess he made (took us from being in the black to being millions in the hole because of his expenditures on behalf of the city to supposedly bring us into prominence - yet, they're losing money every year on each thing he's done that they keep doing.

Funny thing is, as soon as her Amazon boxes were gone, she began buying again. LOL This time, though, the boxes got put out right away (this morning) for recycle to pick up. We share responsibility for much of it because I also had an abundance of items from online selling.

@nanette64 Yeah. My bad. Vietnam Vets of America took all our excess away, about 15 boxes worth.

@jerzgirl Oh you bad girl.

@jerzgirl I hope everything will go well at that time.

@youless So do I. It's too important to go wrong.

The house is cleaned up now, thanks to my daughter's help, but my health has not helped me keep up with it and I began selling online with a friend and the merchandise became overwhelming and was everywhere and that didn't help. But, it is fine now. Our next and final inspection to verify this will be April 5.

The landlord didn't. The city did. It is required of all renters. Although they've discovered some major home-owning hoarders, they only require it on renters because renters are looked at negatively as a major devaluation of property values. I would love to live in Paris. I loved it the short time I visited.

@topffer That sounds grand.

@jerzgirl I lived in Paris several years and it has advantages and disadvantages. I am in a small city now, and the quality of life is better : the cost of living is cheaper, the countryside is not far and the air is better, I have a large house, etc. I am going to Paris several times a year to visit exhibitions and do some shopping. With high speed trains I can arrive early in the morning and be back at home to sleep in my bed, it is perfect for me.

The city requires that ALL rentals be inspected annually. It was the mayors way of filtering out "undesireables", but this is the first time in 15 years we failed because of housekeeping.

@jerzgirl Who qualifies as 'undesireables' ?

@MALUSE I'm sorry for taking so long. I was at a loss for how to describe my term without sounding bitter or sarcastic. Plus other things going on in my life kept my brain occupied. But, undesirables in this town tend to be renters in general. And, because we live right next to Camden, NJ (at least once listed as the most dangerous city in the US), the attempt to keep people who look like the non-white majority of Camden from moving in brought about changes in renting rules by this last mayor to campaigned on promising to rid the city of these "look alikes" and anyone who supported them. (I am being nice - his terminology was decidedly more vulgar.) To do this, they began requiring landlord licenses and then annual inspections, partly to check for fire risks as we have very flamable homes here that have already taken lives when they burned and partly to find problems with people who moved in who they assumed would not be worthy of staying. I've seen people booted by the city within four months because neighbors kept calling the police on them. Three police calls can get you kicked out of your rental home and have the landlord fined. There is no way to defend yourself because they will always believe the homeowner who called them. We have been looking for a new home, but so far are unsuccessful. Suffice it to say, this little city is commonly referred to by outsiders as "White Camden". They are truly lower class in their attitudes and behaviors.

I honestly thought people were exaggerating about the city. It has improved, but this mayor, who thankfully has finally decided he can't bleed any more money out of the coffers, won't be running again. But, yes, the bigotry here is alive and well. And, yes, it is illegal, but not one person would ever admit that he promised to rid of city of that particular minority because that's what they wanted. Even in bulletin boards, city residents would refer to the white girls walking with their black boyfriends as n-lovers who needed to be gotten rid of. We have a bigot across the street who would shut the door in the face of black kids' at Halloween right after she'd handed candy to white kids. My son, who is half Mexican and who has a black nephew and son, was outraged and hollered over to those kids that he had plenty of candy and to come get it. She was PISSED!! I won't miss that attitude, but had hoped that our presence might temper some of the attitude. And, the majority of people here are Democrats - supposedly left wingers - but there are never any republicans who run for office, even though they are the known bigots in the political world. There are obviously exceptions in both groups and this city is proof.

@jerzgirl I truly feel for you and others in your city who are affected by this atrocity. :-(

oop nevermind-i see it. wow inspection is nuts.

Our city requires annual inspections of ALL rentals, whether or not they are through assistance. We are NOT on housing assistance.

@jerzgirl Well then you really have to reason to get mad. If you knew it was coming, and you are used to their inspections you should of know what they were expecting.