Which starts most Thursdays at 3PM.

And is on today, for the first time, in 2012.

It’s a great Perrysburg tradition, filling the first block or two of Louisiana Ave. in downtown Perrysburg.

I personally think that they should block off the street . . . but it’s running fine as it is, so why make changes.

I have a report, from one of my crack in the field reporters, that there are now fresh macaroons being sold there that are reminiscent of my wife and my favorite treat in NYC and Paris – Laduree.

Make what use of that you will . . .

Hundreds of thousands of REO’s are coming. The main issue is will it be a firehouse or a more manageable stream. I don’t know. No one does.

I can tell you this: the financial institutions, banks, and their owners are planning to monetize and securitize the various and sundry loan deficiencies, liens, contigent obligations, and busted walked away from loans. They are going to come after everyone they can. “TANSTAAFL” means there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. And they mean to collect.

(iconic and meaningless photos courtesy of the Ft. Worth Museum of Modern Art — which was the highlight of my trip)

Not a small hotel – a fair sized convention venue.

Today?

It has taken over the Ft. Worth Convention Center – a large place.

This class was in the Omni Hotel across the street from the Convention Center.

Any reasonable appraisal of the state of the US real estate market would take the size of this meeting into account. The national real estate market is now REO-focused.   And expanding.

Gala?

Suits and ties enforced. Full orchestra. Classical pianist in lobby.

CEO of Safeguard Properties was the main award winner thanks to his efforts to clean up blighted inner city Cleveland.

Gala and REO normally don’t go together. But American capitalism is a strange and powerful force.

But maybe some people can’t read the law.

Because someone is trying to put an adult “novelty” store, with pornographic videos, visiting porn “actresses” and all of the other accouterments right in Perrysburg Township adjacent to Oakmont Subdivision.

Lovely.

Charming.

I am all for freedom and business – being a Libertarian-minded capitalist business owner.   But we have this little OVERLAY in our lives in Perrysburg called . . . . zoning.

Why do we have zoning?  So that if I live in Oakmont or in Perrysburg, some out of town sleazebag who lives somewhere else with BETTER zoning does not destroy my property values.

Adam & Eve? In Perrysburg?  Right.

This store will brings, according to the Supreme Court, the following potential blessings to Perrysburg:

a. Decline of character of a community’s neighborhoods and quality of life.
b. Increase of crime (e.g., prostitution, drug sales).
c. Spread of disease, particularly sexually transmitted diseases.
d. Degeneration of the social and moral order.
e. Harm to children.

Here is a picture or two of an Adam & Eve franchise in suburban Detroit.    They encouraged, in a contest, their customers to disrobe and dance in their underwear outside the store.   That will be fun for your kids to see on Oakmead Dr. as you are going to Little League or 4H.    They bring their own “adult movie” “actresses” to their stores.   I wonder what that crowd looks like!  (You have to use a lot of “QUOTE” marks when writing about “adult” “businesses” and their “effects” on our communities.)

Perrysburg Township has already DENIED their zoning request.

But the fine, nameless, anonymous (cowardly?) franchisee is appealing.

You can make your voice heard.

At the next Perrysburg Township Board of Zoning Appeals Meeting.

Tuesday, September 15, 6:00 PM
Board of Zoning Appeals Meeting
Perrysburg Township
26609 Lime City Rd.
419-872-8861

See you there?

You can read about Adam and Eve in the Bible.  You can read about this adult store at their web site – www.adamevestores.com  And you can read about the effects of adult and erotic businesses here at www.CCV.org.

You want to be an “adult”?  Do that with your spouse in your house – or wherever it is allowed by zoning.  Don’t bring that into our city and township and destroy our property values.

The casino is coming . . . details here.

Why is that bad news?

Inevitably, after a 2 year latency period, the incidence of crime against people and crime against property increases.

Every time.

Everywhere a casino is built.

You can count on it.

Build one in Wood County?  Along the Maumee.  Or in the “Golden Triangle”.  And there will be negative, deleterious effects on the values of Perrysburg homes.

You can “BET” on it.

The scholarly  paper on this is interesting reading.  And sobering reading.

Here is the paper by Earl Grinols and David Mustard.

The casino lobby will never stop.  They will try and try and try – stopping only when they have fooled enough people.

Things will be great.  For a couple of years.

Then the neighborhoods closest to the “Crossroads Casino” will start to be negatively effected.

That negative trend will then metastisize and spread.   From Starbright to Belmont to Three Meadows and beyond.

Theory?  Supposition?  Hardly.  Read the literature.  (page 14 shows how MILLIONS in lost property values is the result of the “jobs creating casino”.

Bring on a casino I say.

But build it RIGHT NEXT to the Toledo Correctional Institution on East Central.

Crimes against people.

Crimes against property.

Visitor crimes.

Criminal gambling.

Costs of addiction to gambling.

Increased rapes.

Increased police costs.

We neither need nor want these things in Wood County.

The day they get their way is the day we start to pay.

There are going to be income phase outs.

There are going to be all kinds of government red tape requirements.

But don’t believe me.

Read the experts.

A real economist, James Hamilton, opines:

“If my hunch is correct, then all the house purchase tax credit will do is to modestly increase the number of houses sold each month… with no noticeable impact on house prices.

That doesn’t mean that the tax credit would have no impact. In particular, it may be a boon to some cash-constrained households that want to buy a house right now but can’t borrow enough. And it should help to reduce inventories of unsold houses by a bit. But if you’re hoping that it will make house prices rise, with all of the beneficial economic effects on home equity that such a rise might have… think again.”

Do we really want to be encouraging “cash constrained households” to buy houses they really cannot afford today?

Seriously.

Is not that “solution” somehow related, at least tangentially, to the problem we find ourselves in?

With a GM and Chrysler bankruptcy imminent . . . with declining real property values in Perrysburg . . . with our regional banks failing . . . might I suggest a tax cut?  A payroll tax cut?  A tax holiday?  A tax cut for business?  Something to goose employment?

I will encourage every American to pray for our leaders.  Pray that they have wisdom.  They are lacking it right now by borrowing or printing a TRILLION DOLLARS that we don’t have for things that will not work.

Realtors from the Northern states left the conference room en mass to go OUTSIDE and make their phone calls.

I was outside with them – I had to call a buyer, a seller, and my team.

Dazzling sunlight. Flowers. Mountains to look at. And 55 degrees? 60 degrees? It felt like Summer again.

The California agents and AZ agents and Florida agents stayed inside.

If they only knew how precious weather like this is to a northerner . . . This is a photo from outside.  In January.  These people who live here are very, very blessed (and spoiled).