Life22

Day 13,652 - Property Rights and Right to Commerce.mp3
Transcript
00:00:01 Kevin
Hey, gang, Kevin here. Life 22 and I don't it's been a while since we've done a a podcast from down here to the old Quinn's awake and I just happen to be passing through and I had a spot. Well, I needed a nice quiet spot towards the end of my day. And I know I'm a little late coming up with this podcast, but it's kind of a call to action.
00:00:21 Kevin
Uh.
00:00:22 Kevin
If you're around only and tonight, there your presence is required over at the zoning board meeting. I wanted to kind of speak my piece to this. I got a bunch of foil documentation in relation to a zoning board case that's coming up, and I I think it's ridiculous. So.
00:00:42 Kevin
Here's part of here's part of the issue with me making these comments.
00:00:47 Kevin
One of the issues that I always am hesitant about is that people are very emotional and they, even though they say that they're non biased and non partisan, they have a tendency to.
00:01:03 Kevin
Like, hold that against you. So now it's like. Well, no, I wasn't being biased towards you, but well, that means nothing. And it's like, you know, it's easy to just pretend like something doesn't bother somebody. But then, but they but they behind the scenes, they're, you know, they're actually like, they are harboring A grudge because of you stated your opinion to them and they're.
00:01:21 Kevin
Never going to let it go.
00:01:23 Kevin
Which?
00:01:25 Kevin
Poses an issue because like listen, I do construction in this town. I I live in this town. I own property in this town. And so the issue I have is if you you speak up against like the zoning board and then you have to go in front of the zoning board like I have a bunch of things at my house, I would love to do. And in the future, if I have the expendable income.
00:01:44 Kevin
I would love to add a driveway in the front of my house and a curb cut like that because of setbacks and all this other stuff would require me to go in for another zoning board and so I know the zoning board members aren't forever and always, but they do change and but if they don't change and I'm speaking my pie.
00:02:00 Kevin
On the zoning board issue that has come up today, will somebody hold it against me in the future and that's, you know, as much as people say that they don't hold, you know, grudges or biased or whatever, like.
00:02:13 Kevin
Could they be saying that because they're they're, you know, they're, they're honest about it and they're not actually holding a grudge? Or could a case of mine be denied in the future because of that? They always worry about stuff with small town politics like that, because I've been on the common Council. I've been there when people say that they don't have an issue with a certain person or blah blah, blah. And then behind the scenes, they're like, no, I have a big issue with that person and blah, blah, blah. And luckily we had this excuse.
00:02:36 Kevin
Deny something or whatever, and it's like, well, that's not how I voted.
00:02:40 Kevin
I could give two craps about the person. You know what I mean? Like you could spit in my face right before the meeting. Like I still have to vote on the merit. Not because of whatever. Like, that's. But you know, and I've seen all sorts of stuff like that. You know, you would hope that people would be honest and.
00:02:52 Kevin
Truthful now that disclaimer said.
00:02:56 Kevin
I have a big issue with zoning in general. I am a constitutionalist. I I am a big property rights guy. I love my private property, I love it. I love all the private property that I own. The beautiful thing about America is when you own property, you have the right to pretty much do whatever you want. Now you can't just like.
00:03:17 Kevin
You know, no warning, just, you know, like somebody steps on their property to, you know, deliver the mail. And you could just murder them. Like, no, you can't do that, right? Like you, you can't do certain things, but.
00:03:29 Kevin
It's my proper property.
00:03:30 Kevin
Right, so I can do what I want and and I think discussion should be have because like listen, I've gone through code enforcement training, stuff like that. I'm I'm, I continue to do my continuing education every year. I'm a certified code enforcement official and to a degree the codes have merit. You watch enough videos and testimonials of kids going up like candles in 18.
00:03:50 Kevin
Hundreds boarding schools and you're like, you know what? OK, I can understand why you should be able to.
00:03:55 Kevin
Infringe on somebody's right? That's what it is. It's an infringement on somebody's right. Somebody has the right to build a home and you are creating an infringement by imposing a code. But for the betterment and the safety of all humans around you, make these things that I can make concessions for, stuff like that. But there are concessions I can't get behind. I don't like Hoyas. I don't like.
00:04:17 Kevin
Any of those things, right, so.
00:04:20 Kevin
For the fact that you can say like what if I want my entire yard to be driveway?
00:04:25 Kevin
Like my entire, I want my entire front of my house, so the side of my house to be a driveway approach. Right? Like I want a 45 foot driveway approach. It's my *** **** property. I can do whatever I want. And that's my philosophy on it. And then you can make the argument that, well, you're reducing on street parking. Well, guess what? I don't give a flying **** about your street. You know what I mean? It's also my street. It's also in front of my house.
00:04:46 Kevin
You know, and so to.
00:04:47 Kevin
Me. You know you have less of an argument to say that I can't turn my entire, you know, my entire side of my house into a subway or, you know, or a driveway approach and more so right saying that. Well, yeah. You can't go four stories in wood without having the building sprinklered, you know, or three stories or more.
00:05:07 Kevin
Without it being sprinkled, unless it's grandfathered, right, and then they still would like if, you know, they would still like some kind of concession or something just to show that people are, you know, safe.
00:05:16 Kevin
Carbon monoxide detectors, right? Like things like that. Things that you know, there is no grandfather shipped to carbon monoxide and smoke detectors. But then there are things in the code that they automatically they just, they just know that your.
00:05:28 Kevin
Private property rights are very important and they understand that your your beliefs and your religion and all that other stuff. So like where the building code says you have to build a house with, you know, like running water and electric.
00:05:41 Kevin
In the exemption to the electric rule is if it's your. If it's owner occupied and you choose to not have electric.
00:05:49 Kevin
And that that's that's a very plausible case because what happens when you are like a Mennonite and you're Amish and you don't believe that electricity should be in your home? You know, things like that, or it's a hunting camp, right? Maybe there's not electricity where you are, or you have to hook up a generator and you only needed to run while you're there.
00:06:04 Kevin
Right. So maybe you don't need it.
00:06:08 Kevin
You know that said, like, you know, carbon monoxide, for example. You listen to the, you know how it got in and you know created I think it was what, Amanda's law. It was in, I believe it was based out of a family in like Clarence or Buffalo where they, you know, the the little girls had to sleep over. And there was a crack in the heat exchanger, the furnace and and, you know, they went in the room and three of the girls were really sick. And the other four were dead. And that's that's depressing. And that's sad.
00:06:28 Kevin
And I and I, and I feel for those people. And I and I agree that there's certain safety measures that should be taken when it comes to the building code. But for the most part.
00:06:39 Kevin
If I meet certain setbacks right to have my campfire in my backyard so I can have a fire and drink a beer and be an American right, you shouldn't be able to infringe on that. Well, I'm sorry, we only have certain times of the year. What if it causes a wildfire? Like? OK, well, I get that. But I'm also like.
00:06:55 Kevin
I can give you that, but also like well, it can only be this and it can only be that you we start going down a rabbit hole with all these discussions, right. And here's the issue is there's too many restrictions on.
00:07:07 Kevin
These rights.
00:07:08 Kevin
There's too many restrictions. That's the issue.
00:07:12 Kevin
UM.
00:07:13 Kevin
It's my property.
00:07:15 Kevin
I don't care if it's my religion or not. If I wanna slaughter a goat in my front yard.
00:07:19 Kevin
I will do so.
00:07:20 Kevin
Because it's my property and for you to tell me that I can't have a goat inside your city, that's an issue. I know this is a long time coming because I saw most recently at a Common Council meeting. They were talking about expanding the number of chickens that you could have. I've got a bunch of neighbors that would like, you know, in a neighborhood, you know, couple blocks away that have a vacant lot that one of them bought and.
00:07:41 Kevin
You know she has chickens.
00:07:44 Kevin
And.
00:07:46 Kevin
She she has chickens and she'd like to get more, but she would overload the the limit that the city allows on her. But she's got neighbors that are willing to maybe not invest their time but invest money into providing her with the coop and additional chickens and feed. And in exchange they would get eggs every month, almost like a Co-op. It's like it's like the neighborhood gardens, but for chickens.
00:08:06 Kevin
And I think that's a great idea. I think if neighbors can come together and come up with collective things like that, but then you have these stupid restrictions, well, it's her property. She will do what she wants if she wants every chicken. If she wants to buy the buy that lot and fill it with chickens standing Ramon.
00:08:20 Kevin
Really so that she can so that they just all there, they're very uncomfortable, but they're all penned up in a line that goes like chicken run. OK, just in rows and rows and rows of chickens. So many that it's hard for her to feed them. Guess.
00:08:34 Kevin
What? It's her property. It's.
00:08:35 Kevin
Her property, even the chickens are her property. They are personal possessions.
00:08:40 Kevin
They're not human beings. They don't have the same rights as human beings. And so with that said, I'm not saying go out there and cause animal cruelty. I'm saying go slaughter goats in your front yard. But it is our rights as Americans to be.
00:08:51 Kevin
Able to do these different types of things.
00:08:54 Kevin
And all of this to say.
00:08:57 Kevin
All of this to say is there is a nice gentleman that lives nearby a rental property. One of the first properties I lived at when I moved to Olean and I bought it off my father and now it's a rental property of mine and I try my best to make sure all my rental properties are kept up and and keep their value and it's it helps me out for my investment, right? Why would I let a house just rot apart and why would I?
00:09:16 Kevin
Pick bad tenants to move in and disrupt the neighborhood and.
00:09:19 Kevin
It drops my property values, drops everybody.
00:09:21 Kevin
Else's but.
00:09:22 Kevin
But across the street, and especially and I'm sure most of you have noticed, with all family August, we've been doing a lot of neighborhood watch stuff and there's a lot of drug activity, a lot of homeless, a lot of people coming into our city. And it's not a cool thing. It's not good. It is not good.
00:09:35 Kevin
At all. So when you have a neighbor that is just.
00:09:39 Kevin
I don't know.
00:09:40 Kevin
Outside all day long, or when he's not working. So this particular individual he works, and when he gets out of work because he raises a family and when he works, I believe his wife goes to work and then someone's gonna watch the kids. So he's kind of like watching the kids. And so like, he plays that role, but he also details cars.
00:09:59 Kevin
And he's done this for a long time.
00:10:02 Kevin
And he's always a watchful eye. He always sees crimes. He reports them. You know what I mean? He's always out on the street when other people are not. And there is one neighbor in particular who does not like this and files complaints because she doesn't believe that people should be able to use the leaf blowers and she's sick and tired of people using their lawn mowers. Listen, I've read all the emails to the ultimate it's bad enough that.
00:10:22 Kevin
I'm forced to have to listen to the lawn mowers and the leaf blowers and weed wackers of all my neighbors.
00:10:32 Kevin
Listen, I know the lady. I used to mow her lawn when I was in high school. Like I'm surprised she didn't call code enforcement on me. Kevin is operating his lawn mower at my house without a without a permit, without, you know, without without during a, you know, I worked it into my schedule because I was a young kid. I had school like I.
00:10:50 Kevin
Surprised that those things didn't happen. But you know what? She didn't call it on me for the simple fact that I was mowing her lawn. It benefited her.
00:10:58 Kevin
Guess what?
00:10:59 Kevin
I shouldn't have to go outside.
00:11:03 Kevin
I shouldn't have to go outside and listen to her peace and quiet.
00:11:06 Kevin
I mean the the same right? That she says that she has to quiet habitation of her home is the same right that I have to noisy habitation of mine.
00:11:15 Kevin
Just playing devil's advocate here, and it's a legitimate reason I nobody should be able to. Nobody should be able to tell me that I can't live the way that I want to live. Well, I mean, as long as I'm not infringing on the rights of others. Right. And you don't have the right to like.
00:11:33 Kevin
Not have to listen to your lawn. The neighbors mow a lawn. You know how you get that right? You know, you get that. That's not even right. You know how you get that privilege of not having to listen to somebody mowed the lawn?
00:11:42 Kevin
You own a property far, far away from other people. If you don't want to listen to other people, then don't live next to other people.
00:11:48 Kevin
Or at least, if well, because there's no such thing as not living next to somebody, right? Because like your property line might go for five miles. But on the other side of that is somebody else. So that's next to them, regardless of how wide your property is now, you might not live right on top of them.
00:12:02 Kevin
And that's probably what she's preferring. So sorry, you've lived in this neighborhood for 20 some odd years, 40 some odd years, but.
00:12:14 Kevin
Tough noogies there's a guy out there running a business trying to raise a family, trying to make ends meet, and during COVID, these people had no problem.
00:12:22 Kevin
Like promoting all of Facebook, I saw it.
00:12:25 Kevin
My wife has a cricket like. Is she running at home business because she would make like decorations here and there and we'd sell them right here at this coffee shop when it was a coffee shop. You know, it's just one of those things. Like if she sold her wares here, is she at home business? She doesn't really do it anymore. I have her work for one of my other businesses, but it's one of those, like, if she was still doing it, would she?
00:12:46 Kevin
Have what would it be? You know where? Where would we be at with this would would she? Would she have to get at home variance from the zoning board to?
00:12:55 Kevin
Run a how?
00:12:55 Kevin
Many thousands of women or men in this town are running.
00:13:01 Kevin
At home, businesses, cricket machines, watching people's kids or watching people's kids is in the business. I get that. I've gotten that excuse. When people said you're not babysitting with your kids, but that doesn't apply when you're watching someone else's kids. You're babysitting. If a babysitter comes to my house, do I need to get a variance cuz they're now I'm hiring a professional. Do I have to get a variance when the kid comes to mow my lawn?
00:13:21 Kevin
Or it's because it's a service based business and it's not a permanent situation. But what happens when the kid is permanently watching other people's kids at their parents home or at their own home or their apartment? You dropped the kids off.
00:13:32 Kevin
You know, this lady watches her kids? No, because America was founded on this. There was no zoning permits needed when somebody wanted to, just to hang the shingle up in their backyard and say, hey, listen, I'm gonna. I'm gonna be the blacksmith, the blacksmith down the road died. He doesn't have any kids. I'm gonna be making the horseshoes for all the horses out of my garage. Here. I trained off of them when I was younger and.
00:13:53 Kevin
Now that I'm the only game in town, I you know, I'm gonna. I'm.
00:13:56 Kevin
Gonna be the blacksmith.
00:13:57 Kevin
Just why you didn't need a ******* zoning permit?
00:14:00 Kevin
You didn't need zoning for that.
00:14:02 Kevin
It's ridiculous. It is ridiculous.
00:14:04 Kevin
And so now they're making him go in front of the zoning board. And there is a huge, I don't know, there's just a huge issue in my mind with having to go there for your business. Every one of the rental properties I own of those considered a business, some people consider him a business. I'm profit from them. What makes what's the definition of a business and the definition of things are constantly changing.
00:14:27 Kevin
There's no definition of business in the Constitution. the United States, as far as I'm aware. So I mean, where at what point is your business protected?
00:14:35 Kevin
Because they'll say that you have no you have no right to commerce, right? You have no right to that. You don't have the right to go get a job.
00:14:42 Kevin
Club.
00:14:43 Kevin
And that's why Communism is able to sneak into our society so quickly.
00:14:49 Kevin
It is just ridiculous that a small family is trying to make ends meet, is going through such a depravity and this just what our city is doing and then how how everybody is so closed minded to small business owners.
00:15:04 Kevin
That's what it should. Yes, it is good to have a ton of jobs. Where do people get W twos? But you should be promoting, like most of your citizens should be self-employed should be working for themselves. That is mature. That is what we're that's we're supposed to strive for. We're not supposed to strive for people working for other people.
00:15:23 Kevin
That's it. Like that's that's.
00:15:25 Kevin
That's the American dream. The American Dream is owning your.
00:15:28 Kevin
Own business. That's it.
00:15:32 Kevin
Yes, I employ people. But guess what? Like if they had side businesses, if they did their own thing, I would not have an issue with that. I mean, obviously, unless it's like a direct competition, I might have a slight issue with that, but.
00:15:44 Kevin
It is what it is. I mean, you, you, you, you our goal as a society is supposed to be promoting everybody to be their own, to do their own.
00:15:55 Kevin
To do their own thing.
00:15:57 Kevin
They laid out of there.
00:16:00 Kevin
They should be that it should not be the goal for every American to be a W2 employee. It's probably gonna be most American.
00:16:08 Kevin
Not all Americans will be custodians, but a majority of them will have minimum wage and low income jobs. That's just the way it is, and it's not always the same people. Those people eventually make their way up to the top. You don't you don't. You're born poor and you're you're raised. You know what I mean? Like most people, by the time if they're born poor, the statistic.
00:16:28 Kevin
By the time that they die, they're pretty. Most of them are pretty well off because you do you migrate out of income brackets as you get older so.
00:16:38 Kevin
I just think it is ridiculous and that we as a Community have to stand together to to fight these stupid, arbitrary zoning laws that exist. I don't think it's constitutional that they could have them. I think that the zoning board should be abolished. Nothing personally against any of those zoning board members have sat in front of them for clients before, most recently.
00:16:59 Kevin
Actually I understand the I understand why they, I understand.
00:17:04 Kevin
Why somebody thought they should exist, not the people, but the board itself. I I understand why somebody thought they should exist. I don't agree with that. I think it's an infringement on our rights. I play nice when I'm there, but I do feel obligated to speak my mind in regards to this issue and.
00:17:23 Kevin
And like I said earlier, I hope that this is not held against me, but you know, it's how I feel. I'm an American citizen. I'm allowed to feel certain ways. And I'm also allowed to stand up for other people when I feel like their voice is being muffled by the boot of government that is on the back of their.
00:17:40 Kevin
Wrote, extinguishing their voice, and so I will stand alongside them because the governments boot is only so big. The government wears one size shoe.
00:17:51 Kevin
And you'll remember that and I will stand right there, because it might step on my neck and it might step on theirs.
00:17:58 Kevin
But it can't step on all our necks and we have to stand together so we our voice can be heard so we can make a presence and a small business. Owners need to stand up for each other, regardless if you have multiple employees or just some guy washing cars at the end of your driveway.
00:18:12 Kevin
In your off hours from your nine to five job to try to be able to buy food and clothes for your kids. And also it comes to it comes to mind that somebody had just recently mentioned it's it's humorous that this one individual is calling in complaints when she runs on a like a business out of her home is what I've heard.
00:18:32 Kevin
Counseling, therapy. Some sort of some sort of, like, professional service of that sort. So it's funny, but she can run that out of her home. But because she's not running a shop vac or a garden hose or whatever that this is.
00:18:49 Kevin
It's depressing, it's depressing. And don't worry folks, you don't have to be depressed for very much longer because we're here. Fighting should give you some gusto. The fact that we're going up there to defend one of our community members from having their kids go hungry, they're not be able to buy back to school clothes or shoes because the because the extra income.
00:19:08 Kevin
And which I would almost hold the city accountable for all the fact the fact that he has not been able to operate in the last three months.
00:19:16 Kevin
Man.
00:19:19 Kevin
That's just. That's just ridiculous. Like, hey, kids like, we can either not eat or you can you can have back to school clothes. Like I I just don't. I don't see how that's fair to a family that all they want to do is work all they want to do is raise their kids and their family who should not be punishing.
00:19:36 Kevin
That kind of behavior and then the state of New York comes through and says, Oh yeah, if you're homeless, you don't want to work. Don't worry, you don't have to. Well, that's ********, too.
00:19:47 Kevin
Alright, well I needed to get this ran out. I wish I had gotten it to you sooner. There is a call to action tonight. Please show up at the zoning board. Meeting is at 5:45 at the city building. Even if this message to come to our invite is dated, please like and subscribe. Because this really just.
00:20:02 Kevin
Tells you where we're at.
00:20:04 Kevin
As as Americans and where we stand so and who we stand for and with. So we'll see you guys next time on like 20.