My neighbors weren't having it. Well, most of them. I got a couple of signs placed, but more were like my across-the-street neighbor, a WWII veteran who can practically remember when there were no cars, and thus no trucks to have intermodalities with trains: he won't let anyone put a yard sign in his yard, and he doesn't care what the sign is for or against.
Another neighbor turned out to be a City Council member who, paradoxically, supports the idiotic resolution the CFRD got on the ballot because he doesn't trust city government.
In short: the law Resolution #1710 would enact simply says Gardner cannot annex the BNSF intermodal site for ten years. This is supposed to make a railroad, with federal authority to do pretty much whatever it wants, and a corporate structure bigger than the state by two times, pick up their toys and go home.
The theory is that the county won't give BNSF the zoning and building permits it needs to do exactly what the county gave zoning and building permits to do in the New Century Air Center on the other end of Gardner. Nevermind that no one in County government is on record as being opposed to the BNSF logistics park.
Basically, every single argument fronted by the CFRD is either based on wishful thinking or outright lies. That organization has been vicious in prosecuting a campaign to convince voters that yes means no: voting yes on a ban on annexation means there will be no development West of the town that isn't in line with the Claudian* fantasy that this is the Aspen.
So anyway, the day before the election I realized I had a few signs in my trunk that I hadn't palmed off on a neighbor. So I put them to use, if you can call it that.
Thing is, BNSF is going to put the fucking thing there whether I like it or not. I don't, personally, like it. I would prefer a Lego-Land without the tax incentives they were refused (hence, they're not coming here). Hell, a sanitary landfill is in some ways preferable, though it would take too long to explain why (it's less that the intermodal/warehouse development is so awful, more than modern landfills are one of the most innocuous and necessary deveopments going).
But whe arguing with someone who's brain is faded and soft from repeated washings...
The question is whether Gardner can consider annexing the land for favorable terms. Tax revenues (commercial real estate is cheaper to serve than residential), zoning (we'd annex Gardner Lake and New Century if it wasn't for the cost of getting it all up to city code and on sewers and so on), these are things we have some say in if we annex. If BNSF has a wish-list as long as Lego-Land's (unlikely), Gardner can tell them to fuck off. The intermodal logistics park will still come, but we can hold our noses proudly. If we can diversify our tax base and gain some control over zoning, access roads, etc., why not?
It's been a confusing campaign all around. Not least because the assheads who got the ballot initiative opted for this double-speak type thing. But as usual, the safe answer is to vote NO.
See also the youth soccer welfare handout for Lamar Hunt and Price Brothers Real Estate. See also whatever they put on the ballot: if they're asking your permission, they are asking if you wouldn't be happier without that money in your pocket.
*Claude Hobby has been the voice of the CFRD, which is in some respects the best thing about their side: anyone who is paying attention ought to be able to tell his arguments do not make sense. I thought of the term Claudian to describe the CFRD propaganda when revisiting A Confederacy of Dunces, in which Ignatius Reilly coins the term 'Clydian' to describe the uniforms the old man from Paradise Hot Dogs is dreaming up for him.
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