The Cincinnati Beacon - Michael Earl Patton hits a grand-slam at the Real Estate Investors Association forum

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Michael Earl Patton hits a grand-slam at the Real Estate Investors Association forum

Having been to many candidate forums and political events, I can tell you that it is extremely rare to see a candidate for City Council or any other elected position for public office get a standing ovation. Perhaps he had an advantage with the audience because he owns rental property in Walnut Hills. He has had many different experiences renting to Section 8 and he has also worked with non-profits that deal with housing issues for fifteen years.

As a media reform advocate, I like the idea of a pop quiz for candidates to get past the stump speeches. As a candidate, I can tell you that getting random questions thrown at you from all over the city in front of a live audience can be a challenge.

Candidates were brought up in groups and different groups were asked different questions. The moderator wound up pitching a question about copper pipe thefts and what council could do about it to Patton’s group. Laketa Cole’s answer informed the audience that she’s not a police officer and that council members can’t go around arresting people. Even a policy wonk like Greg Harris said he didn’t know and hadn’t thought about it yet, but he said he would think about it. (This was a better answer than most of the candidates gave.)

Patton stepped up to the plate saying; “this is a big problem. Virtually any empty house gets broken into and thieves cut out the copper pipes. They tear holes in the walls to get at the pipe. They cause far more damage than what the costs of the pipes are actually worth.”

Patton continued; “the problem is not just the theft of the pipe, but the fact that there are scrap metal dealers who buy this stuff even though they know it is stolen.” Though it was a simple answer, its common sense appeal got a big round of applause prompting Harris to grab the microphone and say, “that’s what I meant to say” which scored him some laughs and maybe a few points.

This growing city wide problem has hit the west side particularly hard. Some police officers are encouraging people to use PVC pipe instead of copper because the problem has gotten so bad and they say they have assigned an officer to specifically deal with this issue. Obviously, there are fences buying and reselling stolen goods in the area and while getting rid of them might not completely solve the problem, it will go a long way towards reducing the problem. (PVC pipe has been called the poison plastic and I don’t recommend using it for drinking water.)

When asked how council could encourage small investors like the REIA membership to buy property and fix it up in Cincinnati, Patton said “the population decline and crime problems must be addressed. Patton also said that the granting of property tax abatements to just the favored hurts the small investors, who can’t compete.

Patton really connected with the audience when he took on the ordinance that Jeff (Gerald) Berding has been running around town touting as his big accomplishment. Patton said, “I’m insulted by the city’s Chronic Nuisance Ordinance. This ordinance makes the landlord responsible for many crimes that happen in and next to their property.” The audience burst into applause and many rose to their feet before he finished describing how foolish this ordinance is.

Some of the crimes that fall under the Chronic Nuisance Ordinance range from a tenant’s kids being truant or out past curfew, to drug sales on the corner by the building. The landlord faces fines and even jail if the quota of police calls is exceeded. The ordinance states that the police do not have to arrest any criminal before they arrest or fine the landlord.

In a corrupt election system where the undue influence of big money stifles real debate on the issues of the day, Michael Earl Patton is a breath of fresh air to many frustrated citizens that know they aren’t getting a fair deal from their government. Patton knows the issues, does his homework and has shown an unwavering commitment to our community. Patton worked to beat the last failed jail tax and was a top signature gatherer in the effort to give the voters of Hamilton County a choice on this massive and regressive jail tax. Patton has worked as a leading citizen watchdog for the Cincinnati Beacon and I applaud his efforts.

It is unfortunate that an engaged citizen like Michael Earl Patton is considered to be such an underdog in an undemocratic political system where candidates are judged based on name recognition and their ability to dial for corporate dollars. This gives an advantage to those with big family names and their rich family’s rolodex. We end up with too many corporate candidates that were born on third base and think they hit a triple.

If you are tired of City Hall being corporate occupied territory, I urge you to vote for Michael Earl Patton for City Council. He not only throws a good pitch, but he can knock them out of the park too. More importantly, he’ll prevent more foul policies and sweep up the mess at City Hall. Cincinnati shall win with Patton!

• Share This Article!
Listen to this article

Help The Cincinnati Beacon Grow! Participate in Social Networking!

Socializer!

Members

Tell us what you think!

Anonymous comments are allowed, but you can create an account above to stamp your name and to avoid typing the anti-spam code.

If you are not familiar with our rules for leaving comments, click here! The Cincinnati Beacon is not responsible for the contents of any comments. Comments do not represent the views of the moderators of The Cincinnati Beacon.

anon2000 says:
14 Oct 2007 at 10:57 pm | #

Congratulations MEP!!!! Despite opposing you on the safety plan and claiming you’re a Libertarian (which you’re not)- I usually find MEP is well informed, vested and compassionate. Just a likable kind of guy.

horosho says:
15 Oct 2007 at 06:34 am | #

REIA is as responsible as anybody anywhere for the problems in our neighborhoods so I would take that applause with a grain of salt MEP...... As far as I’m concerned approval from REIA is the kiss of death. All of these “real estate investors” should be forced to live on the same block as their “investments” and then we’ll see how they feel about the chronic nuisance ordinance (or really any kind of accountability for landlords since that’s what they’re really opposed to).

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher says:
15 Oct 2007 at 11:45 am | #

I’ve not met Michael Earl Patton, but it sounds like, from the article, that he has bridged a divide.

Certainly though, the Real Estate Investors Association cannot represent the City of Cincinnati, or even its unbiased needs. I’ve come to know some of these people.

If you look on the City’s web site, you will find a Cincinnati Welcoming Committee, or some such. This City Office is entirely staffed by voracious and rapacious real estate agents looking to welcome outsiders to your City.

Still, kudos, Michael, for bridging the divide.

Now, let’s see what will end up happening to the vacant real estate that has had its copper plumbing (and the wiring) ripped out and cannot now be sold at any price.

I wonder, has anyone in Cincinnati had any occupied buildings lose their plumbing and wiring, their kitchen sinks and their appliances?

I would suggest after a while of looking at all this de-plumbed and de-wired property, the City might set up a task force to identify plumbers and electricians to whom these properties could be given, with enough tax abatement for how ever many years it takes to entice them to take and fix these properties, and hopefully long before the roofs cave in or they catch on fire.

The problem is not Cincinntati, the people of Cincinnati, or, even the economy in Cincinnati. The problem IS vacant buildings, no matter by whom they are owned.

And the buildings are vacant because speculators now own buildings that absentee landlords let get run down to the point where no one would live in them but the bums, the drug addicts and the prostitutes.

The speculators now are sitting back and awaiting the day when the City steps in with some typically half-assed redevelopment project half financed with federal dollars, but which will end up yet another bureaucratic disaster no matter what is attempted.

And the speculators will then look for some sucker to come into town upon whom they can impress the lie that there is great potential in this or that up and coming neighborhood.

Condos! And “Condo Gold” they will exclaim, attempting to start a real estate Gold Rush.

A hundred years ago, and long before that, it was the public concensus that what are essentially unearned profits from unimproved real estate transactions should be rewarded to the state, or minimally taxed at the highest level possible.

During the current insidious plague of vacant buildings spreading like an uncontained fire throughout Cincinnati, the City cannot await for any such supposed profits, or a Condo Gold Rush, that would, even if it ever to happen, ruin the character of the City and make of it another Detroit, or worse, a Buffalo.

Cincinnati must tax vacant buildings out of existence before the entire City is left vacant and to the bums, the drug addicts and the prostitutes.

It’s certainly no environment in which to raise the City’s kids, unless you really-really want to build that jail.

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher

formerly f says:
15 Oct 2007 at 12:04 pm | #

yet another cyber bj by the beacon. i cant wait for the follow up article where MEP praises justin jeffre

anon says:
15 Oct 2007 at 12:30 pm | #

Oh, Jesus Christ!
So much for an unbiased, alternative “news” source that ironically comes into print format right before election time and hosts more pictures of Little Justin Jeffre (front and back, mind you)than the Bang nightclub website.
Why does ONE candidate’s answer at ONE (of a million) candidate forum deserve a whole article?

says:
15 Oct 2007 at 01:13 pm | #

I wonder, has anyone in Cincinnati had any occupied buildings lose their plumbing and wiring, their kitchen sinks and their appliances?—from Don robertson (#3)

Yes. I know of a case where someone broke into a basement and stole the copper pipe there. The thieves did not rip it out of the upstairs walls, though. It is very easy and quiet to turn off the water and cut the pipe.

I disagree with your assessment of the REIA group. They are mostly small business investers, not big developers. The problem is not the vacant buildings, per se, but the fact that there aren’t enough people in Cincinnati to occupy them all. The people who do want to fix them up get no help from the city, and sometimes actual hostility. Do you have any idea how discouraging it is to spend thousands of dollars upgrading the plumbing and then having it all ripped out and the work destroyed? It’s no secret where the copper is going, or the aluminum downspouts. There are a couple scrap metal dealers who are nothing more than fences, buying and selling stolen goods.

I’ve actually had a city inspector threaten to condemn a house because someone had stolen the aluminum downspouts. What am I supposed to do? Post a guard? Replace everything with plastic before they are stolen? The city insists it is the landlord’s fault when the copper and aluminum are stolen. That is not conducive to having small investors come to Cincinnati.

And, the city always has the power of eminent domain, which it has shown it is ready to use.

CincyCapell says:
15 Oct 2007 at 05:58 pm | #

REIA = Slumlords. These people are one of the root causes of our City’s problems.

Don Robertson, as you don’t live in Cincinnati why do you troll this blog?

Jones says:
15 Oct 2007 at 07:14 pm | #

Horosho, I agree with you about the hucksters who are under the REIA banner. Several REIA slumlords own tumbledowns in the community where I live & help themselves to Section 8 payments without blinking their eyes.

Applause & accolades from REIA is nothing to be proud of. It spells the downward spiral for any community where they sneak in, slap on some cheap paint & stick their hands in the pockets of the taxpayers for the rent. Then you can gauge the uptick in criminality on your streets.

And Mr. 98 Degrees, the poverty pusher-advocate is gushing over this??? As I said before, he talks out of both sides of this mouth.

MEP & 98 Degrees will not get my vote.

is the light on? says:
15 Oct 2007 at 07:50 pm | #

Quoted from the article: “The ordinance states that the police do not have to arrest any criminal before they arrest or fine the landlord.”

This is blatant stupidity. If a person commits a crime a police officer can not ignore it. That is an offense in the ORC called Dereliction of Duty.

Your comment is bullshit because if a police officer responds to a “nuisance call” in an apartment complex for domestic violence where a husband/wife has hit their spouse an officer is not going to ensure the landlord is fined before that person goes to jail.

Or if an officer finds one of these drug dealers near the apartment complex because of a “nuisance call,” they most certainly aren’t going to call the landlord and say “well you hit 6 calls for the week and that is over the quota, so we are going to let this guy go until you pay your fine.”

I think you definition of nuisance calls is skewed. I would like to see where it says that “drug sales on the corner by the building” is listed because I seriously doubt it is. What is a landlord going to do besides maybe put up some lights or a security camera (which they would not by law be required to do). That is a job for the police.

Mr. Jeffre I think sometimes you have good ideas, but the fact that you don’t know anything about the current laws makes me doubt the fact that you could effectively create new ones that would not be unconstitutional or violate anything else in existence.

says:
15 Oct 2007 at 09:46 pm | #

So much for an unbiased, alternative “news” source that ironically comes into print format right before election time and hosts more pictures of Little Justin Jeffre (front and back, mind you)than the Bang nightclub website.
Why does ONE candidate’s answer at ONE (of a million) candidate forum deserve a whole article?

Anonymous little trolls, as I said in the article, I’ve been to many political events and candidate forums and I’ve never seen a candidate get a standing ovation at one. Have you? That’s what made it unique and worth writing an article about.

There are other candidate’s pictures all over our paper too. We even let them write articles and if they bought an advertisement they got their picture in the paper twice, just like mine.

We’ve always made it clear that we have our perspectives just like the Enquirer has their own perspectives. The only difference is we don’t try to hide ours. Everyone knows Michael Earl Patton writes for us frequently. I even said I urge people to vote for him.

We’re not like the Enquirer that has a biased perspective and favorite candidates, but pretends they don’t.

It’s our blog and we will write whatever we want. If you don’t like it, go find a blog you like or start your own. We’ve covered every candidate in the race.

says:
15 Oct 2007 at 09:49 pm | #

MEP-

“The city insists it is the landlord’s fault when the copper and aluminum are stolen. That is not conducive to having small investors come to Cincinnati.”

Whether or not it is seen as the landlord’s fault, these sorts of thefts aren’t something that will bring investors to the city, especially if they create another vacant building waiting to be torched or abandoned.

And in that light, if “investors” are sought as a solution, any self-respecting landlord would and rightly should take it as his/her fault when the aluminum and the copper disappears.

And whose fault would it otherwise be? Are not thieves a fact of life everyone has to deal with everywhere?

I hope you are right about the REIA group, but it seems so much a question of mental positioning.

Everyone talks about investors coming the rescue and lifting up the city, when it would be better expressed that what are needed are entrepreneurs who might come and make the city work.

And where an investor might have his copper and his aluminum stolen, we might hope an entrepreneur would chase the thieves away, if not manage to put them to work.

Anyone can see, if they just take a look around, there is plenty of work in Cincinnati that could be undertaken.

And there is certainly enough work to keep all the thieves busy earning an honest living, were there more entrepreneurs and fewer investors whining about their copper and their aluminum being stolen while they lived way over on the other side of town, or in Michigan or California as some do.

In the construction industry, when materials are stolen, as can often enough be the case, the construction superintendent is taken to task for deriliction of his duty to ensure security of same.

And, I should think anyone who had their copper and aluminum stolen could be cited for construction work without a permit under the City’s extensive building code.

And, such a citation and a fine might not just raise their ire, it might also get their attention too, explaining to them, no one else is looking out for your interests.

So, get with the program and stop being so naive as to think, this or that building is safe here sitting empty month after month in a high crime neighborhood with unemployment numbers in the high teens and drug crimes going on on every street corner.

Responsibility can often begin with anyone who knew full well what was coming next. In such instances, it’s often accompanied by the uttered expression, “I should’ve known better.”

Best of luck in the race.

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher

says:
16 Oct 2007 at 10:01 am | #

In the construction industry, when materials are stolen, as can often enough be the case, the construction superintendent is taken to task for dereliction of his duty to ensure security of same.—from Don Robertson (#11)

Don, I appreciate your sentiments, but this is not the case for the normal, small-scale, real-estate investor. Also, I have lots of experience doing rehabs for non-profit groups.

The typical rehab is done a little at a time. The investor or volunteers may work on it just on the weekends or after hours. The investor will probably act as the general contractor. Other contractors come in as the money is available.

I do a lot of work with the Community Land Co-operative of Cincinnati. We have lots of experience with boarding up properties so that thieves cannot get in easily. But a determined thief will always get in. We cannot post a guard 24/7. We do use alarms. We are switching to plastic where the copper has been stolen in spite of all our precautions. We know that the manufacturers say it is just as good as copper. We also know that they have said that in the past and the plastic has had to be replaced.

And the city’s response has been, as I said, worse than nothing. First, the police know who the crooked scrap metal dealers are. Second, the building inspector, after the copper is stolen, is likely to condemn the building as uninhabitable. That means paying a fine for a vacant building license, which is $900 for the first year.

THAT’S RIGHT. IF A THIEF STEALS THE COPPER PIPE FROM A BUILDING, THE CITY IS READY AND EAGER TO FINE THE LANDLORD. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL THEY FINE THE FENCES (A.K.A. CERTAIN SCRAP METAL DEALERS) WHO MADE THE CRIME POSSIBLE.

And, as I said, the thieves often do a lot of damage to get at the copper. The city’s response is to put more pressure on the landlord, NOT THE SCRAP METAL DEALERS WHO KNOWINGLY BUY STOLEN GOODS. This is a huge disincentive for anyone who is not “in” with the city to do rehabs.

And then, once the building is done and rented, the city brags about the Chronic Nuisance Ordinance which holds the LANDLORD as being responsible for crime OUTSIDE the building. Unless, of course, the building is a single family (as are most crack houses) or condos. The landlord is also responsible for making sure the kids in the building go to school and keep curfew.

Don’t blame the multitude of abandoned buildings on speculators. One would be a fool to invest in Cincinnati right now. Northern Kentucky and the surrounding counties are booming. Investors want to put their money in the area, but they do not want to be treated as criminals when they do so. Do they treat small investors like crooks outside of Cincinnati? Of course not.

cincysuz says:
16 Oct 2007 at 04:23 pm | #

Don Robertson is to philosophy what Jackie Collins is to literature, what Michael Bolton is to soul music, what Walter Keane is to art (though I do like those big-eyed kids), what ...

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher says:
16 Oct 2007 at 09:34 pm | #

MEP-

This discussion has grown old.

You can have your perception, and I’ll have mine. I cannot accept that the problem of vandalism and theft is anyone’s problem other than the owner of the building for buying before they could address the obvious security need (and any personal liability) any vacant building entails.

I still believe the problem lays with the speculators who buy buildings they have no immediate prospects of getting up and running again. They are speculators in the worst sense of the word. They buy buildings with the intention of leaving them empty. For however short or long a period of time, this is intolerable. They deserved to be taxed out of existence.

Their “investment” only adds to the backlog of vacant buildings. These speculators do not factor in the cost of leaving the building empty even a single day longer, and perhaps when they purchased they only looked at the prospect for profit.

But their negligence is still, clearly negligence.

But let me quote and respond to you again:

That means paying a fine for a vacant building license, which is $900 for the first year.

The first year? Where are you going with that? If I lived next door to such a building, $900 a DAY wouldn’t be nearly enough as long as the building remained empty with nothing occurring immediately to change its vacant status.

Professionals work five or six days a week, not weekends.

Again, if I lived next door to such a “project”, I’d wonder what kind of people would approach a project like this next door to me and expect me to patiently wait until they found the time and the money and could call in contractors to finish up where needed.

This is simply not what anyone wants to see going on around them. In a way, it’s worse than just a vacant building. The thieves could surmise there are tools inside!

If you want to tinker, then tinker on your own home where you live, but don’t expect patience or sympathies from neighbors when your project is ransacked or torched at some point over the months and months and even years this sort of approach leads into.

The market value of vacant Cincinnati real estate is what someone can afford to pay for it, and get the job done.

Those who think they can afford the initial price, shouldn’t start hollering when they incur other costs due to the fact they couldn’t afford to get the job done before they incurred incidental costs like theft, fire or City fines.

I have no sympathy for someone who bites off more than they can chew, and then pleads poverty for the eyesore and public nuisance they want to continue somewhat indefinitely next door to me because they don’t have the money or the time to pull the job in and get it finished.

They are asking me to tolerate an attractive nuisance and a public danger for their benefit.

Hey MEP, what if my kids live on this street? Am I supposed to keep an eye on them 24/7 ?

These “investors” are the sort of people who would daily lead their dog at the end of a long leash up on your lawn to defecate where your kids played and then not understand when you came out one day violently swinging a broom in their direction.

You prove my point. “[...] a determined thief will always get in.” You know what is going to happen. You take no responsibility for the fact that these thieves are going to get in next door to your neighbor to whom you have a clear responsibility you are ignoring.

That’s my point. Were it not for the lack of much of any appreciable investment, these groups or the investor would pay for a phone line and video surveilance system that transmitted pictures, if necessary, if you couldn’t live there during the few weeks it should take to get a project to the point where someone can live there until it is finished, again, ASAP, to reduce the incidence of what is easily anticipated and is known to get very expensive.

What you’re trying to justify is tolerance of a dangerous public nuisance because those behind the project never should have attempted it in the first place.

When these “investors” decided to attempt it, they made themselves the nuisance, and the City should keep after them in every way possible.

Real estate agents typically want to sell, and don’t offer any advice as to what such an “investor” is getting themselves into. And real estate agents don’t know anyway. They’re not contractors. I know both, realtors and contractors, and one is not the other.

But to repeat the buying-offense of what is clearly a no-brainer about liability and incurring added costs, and then blame others for the result, is unconscionable.

Oh, I know. The non-profits, and the “investors” want to impress all of us that they’re doing us all a favor!

But it always depends on your perspective.

Try walking in my shoes:

I see these realtors and these investors as people with big, defecating dogs on long leashes looking to fertilize my lawn.

Everyone knows the type. You see them out every morning and out every evening walking their ferilizer machines and doing everyone in the neighborhood the same <b>favor<b>.

They tell you, “Don’t worry the rain will wash it away!”

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher

cincysuz says:
18 Oct 2007 at 06:36 pm | #

Yeah Michael Earl Patton, try walking in Don’s shoes. He deals with REAL philosophical-type problems. Like dog poop.

says:
19 Oct 2007 at 10:36 am | #

This is a perfect example of an idiat that has no idea as to what he is talking about:

horosho says:
15 Oct 2007 at 06:34 am | #
REIA is as responsible as anybody anywhere for the problems in our neighborhoods so I would take that applause with a grain of salt MEP...... As far as I’m concerned approval from REIA is the kiss of death. All of these “real estate investors” should be forced to live on the same block as their “investments” and then we’ll see how they feel about the chronic nuisance ordinance (or really any kind of accountability for landlords since that’s what they’re really opposed to).

Quite a bit of REIA members have invested in Cincinnati neighborhoods AFTER most of which have hit bottom or are on their way to the bottom. I don’t see any indication that REIA investors caused the decline. While some REIA member might be called bottom-feeders, I don’t know that that is a bad thing. They go where there is an opportunity to make money and isn’t that the American Way? They are able to buy this property because there is less demand; in other words no one wants to have or operate these properties. REIA members want to see a demand for their properties and the work to that end unlike the critics, who sit on their butts and cry.

Just what has horosho done that has been more effective that those doers at REIA?

CincyCapell says:
19 Oct 2007 at 02:16 pm | #

Is Dieter a perfect example of an “idiat”?

says:
19 Oct 2007 at 05:57 pm | #

Well I am normally perfect, so I’ll accept the finding ungraciously.

I think it was a Freudian slip, given that I also wanted to point out that horosho is also an Ass.

The irony is that the A is not even close to the O on my keyboard. Often they are much closer together, separated only by a little taint. What was I thinking?

D'oh says:
20 Oct 2007 at 04:45 pm | #

Now that I’ve read thru this BS of name calling- not one person has mentioned the word....CODE- AS IN BUILDING CODE!
You are not allowed to run tap water thru PVC- and if you do- you are not to get a vacancy permit.
And- there are still studies out there about the long term effects of PVC and drinking water- I know call Big Al Gore.
But- 2 houses up from me- that has been vacant for over a year- twice the copper has been ripped out! These people are slick- and I mean SLICK- I’m home during the day- they manage to do it whenever they want and you don’t notice it at all. And if you think that the city’s finest is going to stop them- oh pleezzzz....as soon as the stop the heroin dealers in Hyde Park! Momma’s little helper. Yeah we know about it!

says:
20 Oct 2007 at 10:26 pm | #

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher, lives in one of those neighborhood that has been going downhill. He either rode the neighborhood he says he lives in or he bought in because the price was low enough that he could afford the purchase. Now he wants everyone to fix up their property so his will appreciate. It was ok that the property depreciated with the former occupants, but when someone else comes in and pays more than anyone else, the investor is held to a higher standard; somehow I don’t understand his logic.

He holds the new owner responsible for theft and vandalism? He must fit right into the kind of people that live in his neighborhood. These are neighbors that won’t get involved and won’t call the police when someone breaks in and the thieves know the kind of neighborhood that has neighbors like Robertson. No, vandalism is not something that he has to be responsible for but if he is unwilling to look out for his neighbors, then I would hardly expect any neighbors to look out for him. This is the kind of neighborhood that the investor should not have invested but it is not easy to know how to identify neighbors like Robertson.

The investor probably had nothing to do with the deterioration of the neighborhood. He just bought into the neighborhood that has been going downhill; perhaps neighbors like Robertson had much more to do with the neighborhood’s path.

And Robertson has no tolerance for tinkerers? What is wrong with someone who has a work in progress home? Is there a law that says your neighbor shall determine how and owner spends his time and money? The Ohio Constitution says the right to own property shall be inviolate. This translates to private property rights which is a main tenet of this country.

He goes on to say : Those who think they can afford the initial price, shouldn’t start hollering when they incur other costs due to the fact they couldn’t afford to get the job done before they incurred incidental costs like theft, fire or City fines.

If the investor doesn’t do it the way Robertson feels it should be done, the the investor should not deserve the same rights and services that everyone else has a right to even though the investor pays taxes for services.

I would like to repeat that the investor paid more than anyone else for the property including the neighbors. The investor has a constitutional right to own property as do the neighbors, who have the same right to own THEIR property.

CincyCapell says:
25 Oct 2007 at 01:07 am | #

From today’s Enquirer blog; Patton is a section 8 slumlord. Now we know the rest of the story. No wonder about MEP’s histrionics over the Chronic Nuisance Ordinance, and his ovation from his fellow slumlords.

CincyCramerding says:
25 Oct 2007 at 10:09 am | #

CincyImpersonator: why don’t you prove that Patton is a slumlord? All he said is he takes Section 8 vouchers. Taking vouchers doesn’t indicate he leaves his property in slum condition. You need to be careful before making allegations w/o proof.

says:
25 Oct 2007 at 11:45 am | #

Just what do we know as implied by CincyCapell? The ignorance displayed by Capell and the so-called American Philosopher is amazing.

Have either of these people ever provided housing for anyone. They come down on investors but they display a level of ignorance which is way above the average of the general public. One differentiates between an investor and an entrepreneur, but I fail to see a difference. Most small investors are both. Not only have these whiz-kids no clue as to what is involved in the housing industry, they are probably not entrepreneurs in any other industry.

I am also amazed that someone like Michael Earl Patton, who is so well informed about whatever he speaks of, would even respond to these clowns. I guess he has sympathy for their obvious ignorance and/or the fact that they appear to be intellectually challenged.

Robertson appears to have delusions of grandeur for even claiming to be a philosopher. While it is true that some philosophers are difficult to follow because they are complex, Robertson is difficult to follow because he is so stupid. If he had any pride he would post anonymously.

Perhaps if these two have such a problem with the Section 8 program and its philosophy, they could present us with their solution for housing the poorer members of our society.

Hot News!

Contact Us

Events

Sunday, October 14, 2007