Fort Thomas neighborhood expels poor

A local suburb is in the throes of a right-wing pogrom against the poor, and city officials seem happy to help it along.

Imperial Apartments in Fort Thomas has been the target of unending wrath by residents of a rich subdivision behind the buildings. They blame apartment residents every time something in the neighborhood goes wrong.

Some Imperial residents are relatively poor, and rents at Imperial are very low by local suburban standards. So what? That doesn't mean they're criminals. They're folks like me and you. One of the worst crime waves in Fort Thomas recently - a series of random street assaults - was perpetrated by rich kids from other suburbs. Nobody from Imperial had anything to do with it.

But the rich of Fort Thomas wanted something done about Imperial, dammit, and now they've gotten what they wanted. The apartment buildings are being sold to new owners who are renaming the buildings to the Grandeur and jacking up the rents by almost 40%. This action was encouraged by City Council members.

The buildings' new managers boast that they're evicting all the tenants - regardless of whether they did anything wrong. The city is letting them do it. Of course.

Plus, the wealthy residents of the subdivision behind the apartments have demanded that the city pressure the new owners into rejecting Section 8 tenants. Just because. It's one thing if a building owner doesn't accept Section 8 because it involves a lot of red tape, but for a third party to demand that someone else's building disallow Section 8 is unjustified and unwarranted.

It gets even worse. One of the nearby residents complaining about Imperial launched into a Facebook tirade in which he also assailed Muslims. He said of the apartments, "I hope they blow it up and put a memorial of their scuzlim leader their [sic] reading 'I tried to provide free housing but failed as everything else I do'. Then I'll hang a confederate flag through his temple." It wasn't free housing, dummy.

Stories like this bolster my belief that there's not much hope for America outside the central cities. Thank heavens we have our cities, because it's our cities that carry the day for America. Count your blessings, and thank the cities.