Part Two ~ Favoritism In Code Enforcement? ~ Shoddy Police Work? ~ Welcome To North Miami!

We're a few days from an election. It's time to clean up a mess. I ran this photo three years ago. If you want to see more photos go to my post of Jan. 31, 2006 It was taken by my son Jonathan on January 29th, when I probably should have been in the hospital. That's what my son said, but right after this beating I dragged my butt into my truck. I had an hour to get to the airport to meet his flight arriving from Boston. Those of you who know me know that I'm never late to an appointment. Al is ALWAYS at board meetings. Yup, if I'm supposed to be someplace then I'm there, and on time. Here's some history on the beating:

I had a new next door neighbor, at 1375 N.E. 133rd Street, who thinks that he's special, above the law, and code enforcement, all the way up to city manager Clarence Patterson, seems to let him get away with his transgressions. First it was the over six foot high solid wood fence around his back yard built without a permit and nailed directy to a live oak tree. At least he was required to pull the nails out of the tree before he killed it. The dirt and crushed rock tjat was dug up for the post holes was dumped behind my fence next to the alley. A whole bunch of wheelbarrow loads of chunks of coral rock. There was no way that I could mow there. Code enforcement cited me for the unmowed grass AND I GOT CHARGED $135 to have the city's contractor mow it. That was BULLSHIT. I want my money back. Finally the city sent a crew to remove the rock rubble after I made enough noise. I'm still out the ONE HUNDRED THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS. Take it from code enforement's budget, not mine.

The over height wood fence wanders about a foot or two from my existing chain link fence. It was like pulling teeth to get code enforcement to make the neighbor remove a discarded car transmission and some other junk from between the fences. See, he can't see the shit through the wood fence. I can see it through the chain link fence. And our city manager's response was to come by and say that the guy had gotten an after the fact permit, paid the double permit fee, the fence wasn't all that much higher than allowed by code, and I should just let it go even though the post holes were never inspected for depth or as to whether or not the posts were embedded in the proper amount of concrete. Thanks a lot, Clarence!

Then the guy got roosters. They awakened me morning after morning at first light. Code enforcement agreed that the roosters weren't legal but (a BIG but!)they weren't allowed to stand on anything to look over the top of a fence that didn't meet code to begin with? BULLSHIT! And it was never brought in front of the Code Enforcement Board.

Some of you may remember the council meeting where I was screaming and cursing into the microphone that if the F***ING CODE ENFORCEMENT GUYS COULDN'T SEE THE DAMNED ROOSTERS THEN THEY SHOULD GET THEIR ASS OVER THERE AT FIRST LIGHT and listen to them. I guess they did. Not only did those roosters cease to be a problem, but others further away in the neighborhood no longer could be heard. And the neighbor at 1375 N.E. 133rd Street? A few days later he saw me and in a snide tone screamed "Whats the matter? You didn't like my roosters?"

I still suffer from a sore arm, shoulder and neck from getting the shit beat out of me. Thanks, Clarence. Thanks a lot.