Dogman
27th May 2011, 02:06 PM
The Sob, says no to the residents that have no place to live, but it is ok for the city to use them! Bet his days on the job are numbered! Douche bag!
http://blog.al.com/archiblog/2011/05/alabama_tornadoes_cordova_is_m.html
Alabama tornadoes: Cordova is mired in ... mess
"Jack Scott ain't sayin' nothin'."
That's the way Jack Scott put it, anyway.
Scott --that Cordova mayor who speaks in the third person and probably now wonders what person I'm talking about -- is captive to the law of his land.
So to heck with you if you were left homeless in his town by the April 27 tornado. You can't live, even temporarily, in a FEMA mobile home.
Because as Scott stubbornly points out, a once-ignored Cordova ordinance bans single-wide trailers in town. Scott now points to that ordinance as if it were a gun to his head.
"Jack Scott ain't sayin' nothin', the ordinance speaks for itself," the mayor told reporter Val Walton this week. "I ain't said s---."
But the mayor -- whose police department and city offices are themselves housed in temporary FEMA single-wides -- really has said a whole bunch of ... well let's just call it mess.
He said this ordinance stands firm, like a line in the sand. He has said, through his action and inaction, that it is more important than his people. And he has said, out loud and in earnest, that the ban is needed to keep Cordova property values up and to encourage people to build on vacant lots.
Talk about a bunch of mess.
Because the way the U.S. Census puts it, Cordova's home values are already about as low as you can get. While the median value of occupied homes in Alabama was $111,000 in the last estimate, the median value of occupied homes in Cordova was $42,000. That's lower than values in Prichard in south Alabama or Uniontown in the impoverished Black Belt. It's lower than Tarrant, or Brighton, or Walker County as a whole.
It is so inconsistent as to be ludicrous.
Because Cordova hurt long before the tornado swept away its downtown, its history and its housing.
Almost a third of Cordova's 1,259 houses were vacant before the tornado, and not a single occupied house was built in Cordova between 2005 and 2009, according to the census. The city had 169 mobile homes in 2009, but only 77 homes worth more than five figures.
It's a depressed old town that began its decline half a century ago when its textile mill closed. It suffered worse when U.S. 78 pulled commerce to other parts of Walker County. People drifted away.
Some thought all that was about to change. They saw the building of Corridor X, or Interstate 22, as a chance for salvation. They developed a plan to revitalize and capitalize, to use the interstate as a tool to turn the town into a bedroom community like Calera or Chelsea.
But Scott has not been a champion of those plans. He has, though, supported efforts to allow two big strip mines on the outskirts of town, near the two Cordova exits of I-22.
As one Cordova native put it, "I've never seen a community strip mine itself back to prosperity."
It's ludicrous.
But Jack Scott ain't sayin' nothin'.
Jack Scott ain't done nothin'.
And his stubbornness doesn't just hurt the poorest people in Cordova at the time they need his help the most. It hurts his city as a whole. Who, after all this, would move into that ... mess?
Only those who want to mine it for coal.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/05/cordova_mayor_says_no_to_fema.html (http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/05/cordova_mayor_says_no_to_fema.html)
An old ordinance and severe damage from one of the April 27 tornadoes are creating friction in the Walker County town of Cordova. The ordinance bans single-wide trailers such as the ones supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for those who lost their homes, Birmingham News writer Val Walton reports.
Mayor Jack Scott said he knows tornado survivors need a place to live, but the city is going to enforcing the zoning ordinance, even if the ordinance was not enforced in the past. FEMA officials say they'll follow the local law. The issue will come to a possible head today in a 6 p.m. council meeting where unhappy residents and supporters are expected to have their say.
The online community is already having its say, with our commenters lining up behind homeless residents against the mayor's stand. Read some of what they're saying:
• "What is it about being elected to Public Office, that makes one take leave of common sense. Suspend the Ordinance for 1 year, and then take the issue back up after people have a chance to recover. People are a little more receptive when they have a pillow to lay their head on." -- reality5000
• "Ok, as I agree with the mayor on trailers, but not for the same reason-Is it not a no brainer and has been proved more people die in trailers in bad weather-to me by FEMA placing me in one after a tornado would be like me just sitting around waiting to be blown away in one. The wise thing FEMA could do is hook up with Habitat for Humanity and give these people a home to live in, in which I have seen first hand, they can do in the time it takes FEMA to get a trailer moved in a area.
"But shouting out to the Mayor.....you could have already placed these people in abandoned and foreclosed homes-Give them a home or you move on and over for the trailers to be brought in." -- Janie
• "Many useful enlightening posts. Actually this is good timing forcing open debate to break out in Cordova and other tornado devasted areas. Governments at all levels, universities with ag depts throughout tornado areas have been negligently complacent on requiring and funding comprehensive research on tornadoes and rational tornado recovery TO MINIMIZE FUTURE TORNADO DEVASTATION.
"If Cordova's citizens demand immediate public hearings on not just single vs double wides, but including land use policy and requiring safe rooms in, under or by all new construction including mobile homes, they will set an important precedent for other tornado struck areas. If neighborhoods have been hit by tornadoes before, an obvious point to debate is should certain lots be prohibited from any future buildings on them. What kinds of trees should be replanted and where? These kinds of public policy discussions can lead to much more desireable communities with higher tax bases.
"If nature or God keeps destroying certain areas, there are serious messages there. Insisting on rebuilding in those areas could be a sign of serious mental and spiritual issues." -- afraidtoques
• "I think Mayor Scott and the council are wrong in "enforcing" a 1957 City Ordance they they have not enforced until now. I believe the solution is to allow the FEMA Trailers to be brought in for those needing shelter. Then if the people that have been displaced were allowed to have a mobile home (trailer) on that lot before the storm then they should be "grand-fathered" in an allowed to put the same type of housing back.
"He forgets that if he tries to force these people out of Cordova he's left with vacant lots these people still own and despite what he wants to do "bring young professional people in" to build he doesn't have the land to do it on." -- knowhat13
Join the conversation, add a comment.
Related topics: april 27 2011 storms
http://blog.al.com/archiblog/2011/05/alabama_tornadoes_cordova_is_m.html
Alabama tornadoes: Cordova is mired in ... mess
"Jack Scott ain't sayin' nothin'."
That's the way Jack Scott put it, anyway.
Scott --that Cordova mayor who speaks in the third person and probably now wonders what person I'm talking about -- is captive to the law of his land.
So to heck with you if you were left homeless in his town by the April 27 tornado. You can't live, even temporarily, in a FEMA mobile home.
Because as Scott stubbornly points out, a once-ignored Cordova ordinance bans single-wide trailers in town. Scott now points to that ordinance as if it were a gun to his head.
"Jack Scott ain't sayin' nothin', the ordinance speaks for itself," the mayor told reporter Val Walton this week. "I ain't said s---."
But the mayor -- whose police department and city offices are themselves housed in temporary FEMA single-wides -- really has said a whole bunch of ... well let's just call it mess.
He said this ordinance stands firm, like a line in the sand. He has said, through his action and inaction, that it is more important than his people. And he has said, out loud and in earnest, that the ban is needed to keep Cordova property values up and to encourage people to build on vacant lots.
Talk about a bunch of mess.
Because the way the U.S. Census puts it, Cordova's home values are already about as low as you can get. While the median value of occupied homes in Alabama was $111,000 in the last estimate, the median value of occupied homes in Cordova was $42,000. That's lower than values in Prichard in south Alabama or Uniontown in the impoverished Black Belt. It's lower than Tarrant, or Brighton, or Walker County as a whole.
It is so inconsistent as to be ludicrous.
Because Cordova hurt long before the tornado swept away its downtown, its history and its housing.
Almost a third of Cordova's 1,259 houses were vacant before the tornado, and not a single occupied house was built in Cordova between 2005 and 2009, according to the census. The city had 169 mobile homes in 2009, but only 77 homes worth more than five figures.
It's a depressed old town that began its decline half a century ago when its textile mill closed. It suffered worse when U.S. 78 pulled commerce to other parts of Walker County. People drifted away.
Some thought all that was about to change. They saw the building of Corridor X, or Interstate 22, as a chance for salvation. They developed a plan to revitalize and capitalize, to use the interstate as a tool to turn the town into a bedroom community like Calera or Chelsea.
But Scott has not been a champion of those plans. He has, though, supported efforts to allow two big strip mines on the outskirts of town, near the two Cordova exits of I-22.
As one Cordova native put it, "I've never seen a community strip mine itself back to prosperity."
It's ludicrous.
But Jack Scott ain't sayin' nothin'.
Jack Scott ain't done nothin'.
And his stubbornness doesn't just hurt the poorest people in Cordova at the time they need his help the most. It hurts his city as a whole. Who, after all this, would move into that ... mess?
Only those who want to mine it for coal.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/05/cordova_mayor_says_no_to_fema.html (http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/05/cordova_mayor_says_no_to_fema.html)
An old ordinance and severe damage from one of the April 27 tornadoes are creating friction in the Walker County town of Cordova. The ordinance bans single-wide trailers such as the ones supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for those who lost their homes, Birmingham News writer Val Walton reports.
Mayor Jack Scott said he knows tornado survivors need a place to live, but the city is going to enforcing the zoning ordinance, even if the ordinance was not enforced in the past. FEMA officials say they'll follow the local law. The issue will come to a possible head today in a 6 p.m. council meeting where unhappy residents and supporters are expected to have their say.
The online community is already having its say, with our commenters lining up behind homeless residents against the mayor's stand. Read some of what they're saying:
• "What is it about being elected to Public Office, that makes one take leave of common sense. Suspend the Ordinance for 1 year, and then take the issue back up after people have a chance to recover. People are a little more receptive when they have a pillow to lay their head on." -- reality5000
• "Ok, as I agree with the mayor on trailers, but not for the same reason-Is it not a no brainer and has been proved more people die in trailers in bad weather-to me by FEMA placing me in one after a tornado would be like me just sitting around waiting to be blown away in one. The wise thing FEMA could do is hook up with Habitat for Humanity and give these people a home to live in, in which I have seen first hand, they can do in the time it takes FEMA to get a trailer moved in a area.
"But shouting out to the Mayor.....you could have already placed these people in abandoned and foreclosed homes-Give them a home or you move on and over for the trailers to be brought in." -- Janie
• "Many useful enlightening posts. Actually this is good timing forcing open debate to break out in Cordova and other tornado devasted areas. Governments at all levels, universities with ag depts throughout tornado areas have been negligently complacent on requiring and funding comprehensive research on tornadoes and rational tornado recovery TO MINIMIZE FUTURE TORNADO DEVASTATION.
"If Cordova's citizens demand immediate public hearings on not just single vs double wides, but including land use policy and requiring safe rooms in, under or by all new construction including mobile homes, they will set an important precedent for other tornado struck areas. If neighborhoods have been hit by tornadoes before, an obvious point to debate is should certain lots be prohibited from any future buildings on them. What kinds of trees should be replanted and where? These kinds of public policy discussions can lead to much more desireable communities with higher tax bases.
"If nature or God keeps destroying certain areas, there are serious messages there. Insisting on rebuilding in those areas could be a sign of serious mental and spiritual issues." -- afraidtoques
• "I think Mayor Scott and the council are wrong in "enforcing" a 1957 City Ordance they they have not enforced until now. I believe the solution is to allow the FEMA Trailers to be brought in for those needing shelter. Then if the people that have been displaced were allowed to have a mobile home (trailer) on that lot before the storm then they should be "grand-fathered" in an allowed to put the same type of housing back.
"He forgets that if he tries to force these people out of Cordova he's left with vacant lots these people still own and despite what he wants to do "bring young professional people in" to build he doesn't have the land to do it on." -- knowhat13
Join the conversation, add a comment.
Related topics: april 27 2011 storms