Harbor Mean

Quick! Call the museum! We've found a Tea Party stronghold in Bellevue! And man, are they Teain' it up!

Bellevue City Council had a special hearing last night about proposed development at Harbor Greene. If there was any indication beforehand that lurking bigotry would reveal itself at the meeting, I would have been there to monitor it. (I went to the recent TANK meeting, and the Tea Party was suspiciously quiet there - perhaps because the Tea Party had long ago succeeded in their goal of gutting local transit.) According to the River City News website, last night's hearing was dominated by the 1% heckler's veto.

Harbor Greene is a luxury condo complex on the riverfront near Bellevue's west corner. It opened last decade. Construction of the development was of course rubber-stamped, even though it was out of step with the city's working-class character and blocked neighbors' views.

Harbor Greene's developers had planned more luxury condos there, but since there aren't enough financially secure folks to fill the condos that are already built, the developers recently changed their plans to ordinary apartments instead.

But last night, the millionaires who currently live in Harbor Greene - and their few supporters across town - said no. They don't like "those people." And yes, one of them did say "those people."

One apologist for the posh condo residents said we lowly renters "don't care about Bellevue." This far-right plen-T-plaint is particularly tiresome, considering I've rented the same apartment in Bellevue since years before Harbor Greene was even planned. I'm not moving out of the city just so "better people" can launch a land grab to drive me out.

Harbor Greene residents acted as if only their opinions should matter. They claimed to be an accurate representation of Bellevue's overall population. After the Tea Party's precious Mitt Romney lost Bellevue, I sort of doubt it.

Because the planned apartments would be part of the same development as the existing luxury condos, condo residents expressed horror that they'd have to share their swimming pool with renters. Heaven forbid!

Well, I don't want to have to share a city with a bunch of elitist right-wing bigots. And I was here first.

Isn't it strange how - all over the Cincinnati metropolitan area - every new luxury development gets rubber-stamped, while residences that might actually be affordable for somebody somewhere in town are rejected out of hand?

(Source: http://rcnky.com/articles/2014/07/18/bellevue-condo-owners-transient-apartment-dwellers-not-part-deal)