Know My Politician

At the last Investor's Club meeting I attended, I remembered a lady made a statement that resonated with me.

The Commisioner for Housing Development was taking hits from the landlords bitching and complaining about a variety of issues. One of the members made a statement that went something like this:

"You know, a lot of these problems that we have within our property neighborhoods can't always be stopped by calling the cops. That don't do nothing. I went to a seminar in Philadelphia where they talked about getting to know your district representative. The politician that is elected to serve your area has more power and is more capable of solving the matters that the cops don't touch."

And she was right. I remember coming back from my Nigeria trip and being inspired by those young Nigerians who knew so much about politics. Well, there are few better reason to understand politics than being a direct investor of a neighborhood. For example, that little punk that broke into Mallory's apartment at Property X was up on the garage roof again, so Mallory called the cops. The cops, once again, said that they can't do anything until the kid turns 18. I find it very odd that the only solution is to allow the kid to grow up and hope that he doesn't do anything too serious until then. The kid has no parents and a strung out grandmother. I parked in front of their house and just watched as low-lifes went in and out of there. Ugh!

I went online and found a ton of people that are elected officials, and it took forever to find out who represents my district, or even what my district is. I felt embarrassed asking who my representative is over the phone, so I pretended to be someone doing an assignment for class. I really felt shame in not knowing my politician, as they teach us this in junior high. Remember that assignment where the teacher tells the students to go out and get the names of all the politicians for their respective districts? Yeah, I think I may have been cutting class during that assignment. But I'm never too old to learn, and there's no better time than now...

P.S.: While filing my papers, I realize that I signed Mallory to a one year lease, not a six-month lease like I thought. Why I did this I'll never know, but I know now that I'll have to deal with this crap for the next 7 months. I had some ideas like putting bird spikes (or car lube) on the edges of the garage roof, and I may do them. But I'd rather see first what the power of information and politics can do for me.