Archive for August, 2010

Provo – upcoming discriminatory Parking Permit program

Does this old photo grab your attention?!

I hope so.

Have you heard about Street Parking Permits being required in a few small areas of Provo?

So far, the existing areas give out 2 street parking permits per residence.  That part of it is ok.

But keep on reading…. have you all seen this news about the Joaquin Neighborhood?!

The current Municipal Council could choose to do nothing and let the permit program automatically begin Sept. 1, 2011, or they may opt to look at the program again to see if it needs modifying or changing.

Because of the likelihood that new council members will want to address the permit program, it too will have to be put on the fast track, if changes are made.

“I was very surprised to hear from the mayor the development was back on,” said Kurt Peterson, Joaquin neighborhood chairman. “There is no waiting, we have to address the South Joaquin neighborhood parking issues. We don’t want to do anything that will make it harder for the owner.”

Peterson said the north neighborhood was approved with the parking permit program set in place earlier. With the development a go, the south neighborhood, which has more owner-occupied homes, needs to have the parking permit issue addressed for their streets.

“They have to preserve the South Joaquin neighborhood residents,” Peterson said. “They don’t want it to be a parking lot.”

source: http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/article_5e5dff76-c835-5819-ac85-8c2a88d1f226.html – Aug. 12th, 2010

Where’s the problem?! The details are the problem — the details are different (see section 9.85.070) — they give more respect to owner occupants than they do to poor renters who can’t afford to buy their own property.

This ordinance is discriminatory.  It does not treat all citizens as equals before the law.

Owner occupants get MORE parking permits than owner landlords or renters who are too poor to own property.

Very, very misguided and sad.  Good goals are not justified by poor means and double standards! And this issue is related to the existing discriminatory zoning ordinances and bad feelings from some of the neighbors.

P.S. Their rationalization as treating some citizens as second class is very disappointing — sad once you consider what some of them profess to believe, or at least the church that they belong to.  I think if they really believed what their church teaches, then they wouldn’t have such double standards enacted into law.  We’re all equal before God and why shouldn’t we be equal before the law?! Stop the rationalization!

More on this later… for now see http://provocitizens.net/initiative/talkingpoints.html

Roger L. Brown

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Provoans — your most important civic duty in 2010?!


Hi, if you live in Provo in the South East part of town, specifically the Provost South Neighborhood (from 900 S. down to Springville — on the east side of State Street) — this is very important — check this out and my NOTE at the end:

Just a reminder that the meeting to elect a new neighborhood chair for Provost South will be tonight at 7 PM at Spring Creek Elementary.

Attending this meeting and casting a vote might be the most important civic duty you perform this year, as the new neighborhood chair will likely have major input on how State Street will be cleaned up and developed, when Bicentennial Park will be improved, and what types of new housing (high-density apartments vs. single-family homes) will be built in our neighborhood.

Obviously the better the turnout tonight, the better the chance we’ll be represented by someone who best reflects the sentiments of the neighborhood. So please make a point of attending, and bring a few of your neighbors along as well.

See you tonight.

Nick Mason
Provost South Neighborhood Chair

NOTE: Single Adults — please, please, please, please come tonight! There are basic rights issues at stake — i would call them human rights issues since I don’t know what else to call them.

Single Adults in current Provo City zoning law are treated as second class citizens effectively:

  • Unlimited numbers of family adults can live together VS. 3 single adults — no limit on one class but a limit on the other class.

The Neighborhood Chair directly influences public policy/law by speaking before the city council.

We need to elect someone that treats single adults the same as family adults with respect to the law.  Far too many neighborhood chairs in the past have treated single adults as second class — at least in the law they have.  And good intentions don’t matter when it comes to the effects of the laws — what does the law say and what are its effects? — that is the question!!

Please, please come!!!  This is urgent, really!!  Come listen to the candidates speak tonight and then vote.

Meeting will probably last till 8:00pm is my guess, but might end much earlier.  Come! :)

-Roger L. Brown

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On forgiveness…

wow, this is powerful.  it touched me to the center.  thank you to the people that shared their lives in it.

Forgiveness: My burden was made light.
Forgiveness and the power of Jesus Christ enable a man to survive losing his wife and several children in a car accident—and allow the offending driver to begin rebuilding his own life. Read President James E. Faust’s talk on forgiveness: http://bit.ly/alS1ui.

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