This is an urgent message going out to all Columbians and all Howard County! The village of Harpers Choice is under attack; repeat, UNDER ATTACK! The attacking force seeks to destroy the village, and all Columbia, from within, asking people to trust it while at the same time, hurling lie after vicious after scurrilous lie with no respect for the truth, for the board on which he serves, for his fellow man, and even for human life itself.
This enemy: Harpers Choice CA Board representative Alan Klein.
Here's the latest missive he has sent out through the Harper's Choice web site. It is again full of misrepresentations, half-truths, and non-truths.
So, I'm no attorney, but I know what the legal meaning of "quiet enjoyment" means. And it refers to a tenant's right, not the rights of neighbors. Don't believe me? Find it here. In Klein's piece he suggests it's an obligation of a landowner to keep his property quiet. That's not what it is. Fact is, any property owner-- in fact, renters too-- have a right to enjoy their property, but they have to maintain that right.
I think there's little doubt at all that the Sweetlife Festival was too loud. And there are sanctions for that, as County Executive Kittleman articulated in his letter to HCCA. So does Alan Klein know more about the law and about property rights than Allan Kittleman? His writing would suggest that he thinks he does. And thus yet another Klein fallacy is created.
But Klein is not yet finished singing his song of lies. He then goes on yet another ill-informed, fact-free tirade about the "corporate" nature of Columbia vis-a-vis the "homeowners" side. (BTW Alan Klein thinks "vis-a-vis" means "with ice cream".)
The words Klein uses are unfortunate and exactly the sort of thing thousands of people have worked for decades in Columbia to prevent. There are no "two sides" to Columbia. There is one side and we're all on it. We may have different opinions and perspectives, and we may disagree, but we are all working for the common good.
In the world of Alan Klein, there's so much insecurity in his world that he and people who think like he do, need an enemy in order to feel better about themselves. In Columbia in recent years, that enemy has been defined as young people, old people, people who live in affordable housing, people who want McMansions, people who are pro-development, pro-business, people who want to help own Columbia's destiny. In other words, anyone who doesn't act or think like he and his friends do.
It's an isolated world, but not a lonely one. There are lots of people who can only define themselves by what they're against. The Citizens to Fix Howard County, The People's Choice, LLC-- two more examples of fear-driven, angry people with no positive, progressive, pro-growth agenda for Columbia and Howard County.
It's sad, in an area so educated, so affluent, supposedly so cultured and civil, that such purveyors of fear, anger and deception still exist in Howard County. Let's all of us rededicate ourselves to saying "no more" to this.
Won't you join me?
Let's be careful out there.
#ColumbiaMD #harperschoice #CABoard
I get the sense that "growing number" of complaints about Merriweather are a result of a general lowering of the bar of what is complaint worthy. I was told anecdotally that the County received numerous complaints about "Mumford and Sons", an all acoustic band. Sweet Life has made it that a certain segment are now complaining when they overhear the music, rather than being truly annoyed.
Ironic, that many who are now complaining probably tolerated (or even attended) the epic Merriweather Shows of the 1970s- the Who, Zeppelin, the Dead etc. The shows were louder then.
Posted by: JT | July 24, 2015 at 06:57 AM
Wow! You sure do know about spinning fact-free packs of lies! And methinks thou doth protest too much as you seem to be the one who needs an enemy.
I happen to know that Klein is always emphasizing what he is for, not what he is against. Too bad you can't follow suit.
Posted by: Columbia Watcher | July 25, 2015 at 08:00 AM