Venezuela and the influx of immigrants

It is interesting to your old columnist that so many of the illegal immigrants coming in through the non-existent southern border are coming from the South American country of Venezuela. It wasn’t that many years ago that Venezuela was a rich country, rich in oil that we from the United States had discovered and developed for them. Then the socialists infiltrated their government and nationalized their oil industry—just took it over and declared it owned by their now Marxist Government.

A Communist nation, Utopia. Evidently, the people living there understand that it isn’t the utopia that was promised. They are leaving in droves as one can see if you watch Fox News. The other three lettered networks don’t seem interested. Mostly the immigrants are young men and few families with young children with them. It has to be unbelievably tough to abandon everything that own and set out into the unknown.

Yes, I understand that our President Biden has put out an invitation to the world to come to the United States. Once here, you’ll be given a guest pass and minimum support until you can find a place to live and a job. There is an underlying hint that eventually you will be granted citizenship and then you can vote Democrat in thanks for a new lease on life.

Yet these same progressives so driven to increase and keep the Democrats in power are also the ones that are socialist leaning with dreams of becoming a Socialist State with them of course in positions of power. Personally, I suspect that a great number of our new “guests” will see through the charade and hopefully will not let that happen. Experience can be a powerful teacher!

You, my dear readers, may know that your old columnist is not a great fan of the practice of zoning. I am more of a lover of liberty and the private ownership of land whereas the owner can best make the decisions of how to farm that land or what to build on it. Nevertheless, I can also see that zoning allows for some standards and pleasing uniformity of homes built within a town or city.

It is my understanding that our city Government is in the process of looking at doing a little rezoning to encourage new, needed, housing in our fair city. Possibly the changes will have a good effect.

Recently the CEO of Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska approached the board, of which I am a long-time member. Meredith’s problem is that she has a sum of money to spend to enable housing for low-income folks that Mid serves. She inquired about several local towns that advertise improved housing lots, free, to folks that want to build and live there. It seems that Mid is unqualified as we propose to place prefab homes and the rules are that they have to be constructed on site. Additionally, the rules require that a two-car garage is also necessary and Mid’s money won’t cover such. No homes to be built on the “free” lots.

Our towns and villages need to realize that they are competing with persons who can buy a piece of land outside the city limits, build a home, dig a well and provide their own sanitary sewer system. They don’t have to pave the alley behind nor sidewalks or help pave the street out front. The other advantage is that they also don’t have to pay city property taxes. Yes, the sheriff is supposed to provide security and most areas now are served by a rural fire district with a small levy. All the other services, shopping and community are available with a short drive into town. That is the competition in housing.

I’m reminded of a housing crisis that this McCook Community experienced when the McCook Army Airbase came into operation during WWII. Thousands of young men, very few women at that time, were assigned to the Base to train as aircrews on B-17s B-24s, and then the brand-new B-29. They were here for about three months and then flew their aircraft overseas to areas of combat. The single young men were housed in barracks on base and those that were married were allowed to live off base with their wives. Obviously, McCook did not have adequate housing to provide for all those married couples but people innovated. Many of the garages in town here were converted to rather bare-bones apartments for rent. Provide a walk-in door, put in a few windows, seal up the large door, and provide a stove to heat the place, beds, and a small kitchen and I imagine the rent was cheap. Actually, some of those units exist to this day — just drive some alleys and you can spot them. Other people were generous to rent rooms in their homes. Later two-story barracks, with family apartments were built just north of the auditorium. It was called the Victory Addition and families still lived there in the early 1950s when I was in high school.

After the war, and the closing of the Air Base, housing became dire due to GIs and families returning to this area. Land was diverted from a portion of the unused Fair Grounds and the Sterns Addition was rapidly built. No alleys, small lots, no basements, no garages, just small, cheaply built homes that sold for about $1,800 each. Most of those homes still exist today, have been vastly improved, and are well cared for. Look for yourselves north of J Street from Westridge Drive until about West 6th. Would they fit into today’s zoning regulations? Hmmm!

Just a thought. How about setting aside a few blocks zoned to allow the building of tiny homes that we see advertised? Those should fit the needs of older couples or for singles.

There is a movement afoot to develop North Pointe a few acres of bare land just north of our Fairgrounds. Some years ago Claude Cappel had laid out a subdivision there that was for people 55 years or older. It was a great plan but became too expensive to build as City Manager John Bingham decreed that the developer also had to put in all the utilities, sidewalks, curbs and gutters to spec and pave the streets. I pray that the current administration understands that their zoning requirements won’t prevent the development of needed housing in our fair City.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail