It's 9AM
Property Needs Work
That’s the sign on almost every other house in Pine Bluff.
And it’s true.
All properties need work.
Especially if no work has been done in a decade or forever.
It makes for cheap real estate.
Or life advice for anyone getting older.
Body needs work.
Mind needs work.
It should be on a tee shirt.
I saw the phrase on a real estate listing.
My first thought was it would make a great title for a book.
A real estate developer encounters a magical creature in an old house he’s trying to rehab.
A wicked witch as the villain.
Chaos ensues.
Which might describe a lot of life without advice too.
I think the reason so many NEEDS WORK signs pop up on properties around Pine Bluff is complicated.
Crime, sure.
But that’s almost exclusively (90%) black on black crime where young black men are killing other young black men at epidemic levels.
Drugs. Poverty.
Those things referred to as poor people diseases.
And almost as contagious.
No one blames the Mayor though.
She’s 71 and tired.
No one blames the City Council or Dept of Urban Renewal, though they are tired too.
And the people who put them in office aren’t tired enough.
Yet.
Because they all need work too.
Better leadership.
Better decision making.
Less back door dealing and good old boy networking.
I’ve read about shadow governments that control congress.
And shadow ops working in the dark to keep US corporate interests safe in foreign countries.
I suppose there could be shadowy stuff going on at the local level.
I know it happens at the State Congress, especially in one run just like a banana republic.
I could see it working in the city too.
Or not working, as the case may be.
Just take a look at the streets, the streetlights, the acres of abandoned commercial buildings.
The thousand or so abandoned homes.
All not working as designed.
The idea needs work.
But…
What if there was a shadow government to the shadow government?
What if there were a group of people who fought the bureaucracy and corruption by way of just DOING.
Foregoing permission and focused on results oriented forgiveness?
People who just decided to GET AFTER IT and get it done.
Mowing medians while the city dickers over who is responsible for it.
Boarding up dilapidated windows and getting high school kids to paint their ART on them before the gangbangers tag it.
The whole list of ideas we’ve talked about before and more.
Even citizens reaching out to big businesses looking to relocate and starting to work those channels.
Citizens volunteering to teach skills to others, to mentor kids.
I mean, imagine if my Papaw was still alive, and took on six teenage interns to teach them carpentry.
What if they bought one of those old houses for a couple thousand bucks, and got Mr. Nixon to donate lumber and supplies from his store.
Those kids would learn how to frame, how to trim, how to paint and prepare.
They would learn to roof and shingle and get cold cokes from icy coolers to cool off in the shade.
And a plumber with a couple of interns learning how to plumb, and electricians learning how to rewire.
When that house was done, they could sell it, and do it again until those kids knew enough to go out on their own, and take on their own apprentices and move from getting one house done every six weeks, to six houses at a time.
I know, I know, it’s just wishful thinking.
The City Code Enforcer would get a call that someone was trying to make Pine Bluff better and come by to ask about permits and papers.
Which would turn the kids loose for the rest of the day, because something is always wrong with the paper that only a visit to City Hall can fix.
There’s always more red tape.
Plus it’s not just houses, it’s fixing streets and changing lights, and cleaning litter.
A long list of to be done tasks that never ever ends.
And even a shadow to the shadow government might not be able to do it.
Which proves my point.
All ideas are property and property needs work.
But when do you get started?
One of my ideas was Mr. Lonely a classic murder mystery and another was Mr. Goodtime a classic mystery.
It’s a good idea to add them to your TBR pile.
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