Historical Tidbits
by DONN BROOKS
For too long I have heard the mantra of how cities tend to over-regulate their development. Developers attack municipal officials with venom because regulations offend their profit-making goals. My tenure on city council (1971-1975) convinced me that real estate concerns need to be carefully monitored. Unscrupulous interests influencing school board members over a decade ago continue to plague the Hays school district. Push me and I can name names and situations.
Near Kyle there is a locality that was built without zoning ordinances or restrictions. People were/are free to build as they please. In the 40 years since it has been in existence it has steadily deteriorated. There are more wheel-less automobiles there than people. More people have motor homes than anywhere I can name, but they give no evidence of being functional. Bottomless boats are everywhere. Every fifth house, at least, gives evidence of being a repair shop. Everybody does what they please.
There are good people living there and it just doesn’t seem sporting to advertise to the world that they live in a place that is worse than a slum. The tragedy is that it didn’t need to be that way.
Nobody set out to wreck the place. Everybody just did as they pleased. Nobody set a positive example.
In the face of the argument that crime does not follow poverty is the fact that this area has a great number of homes with bars on them, and my guess is that experience has taught these people that their homes are vulnerable to attack. Some mailboxes have protective bars. The place looks like an armed camp.
I have a strong idea that property values are such that the area is consuming far more in the way of services than it pays in taxes. Looking around, it appears to me that there is probably a high rate of tax delinquency. If the real estate community rests solely on business principles there is an irony here, since investment in this area has been a dismal failure.
All of this is not simply a function of poverty. It is driven by a lack of regulation and controls that allow for a general degeneration of the area. In Kyle during the late 1960s Mayor James Miller and Councilman Chester Young led the way to programs that offered to preserve the property values and neighborhood orderliness that is today in place. Future administrations followed suit. They have all been vilified.
At the time of the construction of this subdivision, and until today, areas outside of city limits are essentially unregulated. Every session of the legislature rejects proposals to give county government ordinance-making power. It is worth asking the question: Who is stopping it?
Mayor Miller and Councilman Young are deceased but Kyle owes a debt of gratitude to these men who caught unshirted flak for getting the ball rolling. I do not expect to hear any amen. Such is the penchant of the body politic.
