I know it was my idea, but, for the record, I am very much against the idea of blanketing the midwest with “Obey Kircher” stickers (along the lines of the “Obey Giant” stickers popularized by Frank Shepard Fairey).
(The image on the right was produced by Brett Schutzman in exchange for an oversized can of Canadian beer at the Tap Room. If you would like to earn one for yourself, all you have to do is make a design, like the one on the left, featuring the face of local Ypsilanti landlord David Kircher. Brett came close, but I’d like to have an exact match… not, of course, that I’d advocate placing them anywhere.)
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As an alternative … how’bout a …
PITY DAVE
… sticker/poster?
Perhaps our governor would not have taken such a strong hand in favor of landed property rights if she lived in Ypsilanti and had to endure what we’ve had to endure in our neighborhoods thanks to David.
Kircher, for those of you who don’t live in Ypsi, is our most infamous landlord. (Most would say “slumlord.”) I don’t know what it means exactly, but he’s also the person I most agreed with during the recent mayoral debate.
I don’t know about pity, Ed, but maybe we could have a “Help Dave Fix Up His Houses” day, or something like that.
Quite simply, David does not feel that the City has/should have/could even possibly ever have any legal authority to order that his properties be in good repair, safe, habitable, much less rentable for good money. His feelings and his beliefs, while within his right to express, trample on the rights of his neighbors, not to mention is tenants, and, therefore all citizens of Ypsilanti. Current law, including building codes, as constituted, demand City enforcement, while protecting David’s exercise of due process.
Some of our neighbors have questioned the legal expense of the city attorney to enforce the decisions of one or more commissions, HDC for one. The better question is to look to the causes, the addresses and the property owners at those addresses to determine what/who is costing the City of Ypsilanti $$$ to protect the quality of life, health and safety of its housing stock for its citizens.
We have friends that live next door to a Kircher property. I never saw it myself, but I’m told that his tenants, because they didn’t have plumbing, would go outside, squat and shit in the backyard. The building has since been boarded up.
David clearly sees all of this as a matter of principle … he is a classic anti-authoritarian … as he resists being told what to do with his property … which is actually a good’ol’boy American thing … if you’re living under the rule of a despotic King somewheree near Warwick, Rhode Island in 1770.
Under our current code, by which all Ypsi property owners live and under which we enjoy life, liberty and our individual pursuits of happiness … David doesn’t need our help to figure out that one of his unihabitable houses contains several code violations and will NOT be approved for a building permit and a Certificate of Occupancy if he merely requests to repair some aluminum siding.
David is an anachronistic patriot who missed the Revolution by over 200 years and is now costing this city and his neighbors significant sums of money as he allows his blighted properties to languish in his defense of liberty.
David is to be pitied.
“Dear Slut, How would you suggest we deal with David Kircher?”
(I hope I’m not confusing anyone by weaving in a thread from another one of today’s discussions.)
Speaking of dealing with Kircher, it looks like his trial by jury for sewage dumping began Monday (as reported in today’s http://www.easternecho.com).
Has anyone heard how it’s going?
To anwser my own question, today’s
Ann Arbor News has an update.
If only Mark had gotten off his ass and made those “OBEY Kircher” signs, we could have been picketing the courthouse all this time. ANother huge missed opportunity.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061221/NEWS05/612210416
And from the A2 News.
It may be a little like getting Al Capone for tax evasion, but it works for me.
Kircher is not a political rebel or anything related to anti government “Aint nobody gunna tell me what to do with my property” kind of person as much as he is mostly just a plain lazy slob with deadened motivation levels. Ive seen him several times in court, and he appears to be in a zombie state, who just rolle out of bed, yes in court !