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The Progressive: Texas: America’s Rotting Banana Republic
from The Progressive:
Texas: Americas Rotting Banana Republic
By Stephen C. Webster, May 17, 2013
Texas Governor Rick Perry said recently that even after the massive fertilizer plant explosion last month, voters in his state really arent that interested in tighter workplace safety rules. That would infringe upon freedom.
Having lived in Texas for most of my life, I can tell you this makes a strange sort of sense. Despite the states history with populism, Texas is home to one of the most rare and powerful creatures on the political tundra: NIMBY's, in numbers you wouldnt believe.
Whole armies of them swarm city councils and leave members in rotting heaps for buzzards and property developers to pick clean. When business and political leaders say, All politics is local, what they really mean is dont cross the Not In My Back Yard folks.
Ive seen Texas NIMBYs bring even the almighty Home Depot to a standstill, leaving company representatives pleading with local activists -- okay, well drop our whole brands unique color scheme if youll just stop stacking the zoning board meetings already -- and its astonishing. This is the backdrop to what happened in West. It was all kept so quiet for so long that nobody even really knew a bomb twice the size of the blast that leveled the Oklahoma City federal building was just waiting to go off mere miles from Interstate 35. Aside from the near constant smell of cow shit, this fertilizer depot was not out of the ordinary, so the NIMBYs stayed at home. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.progressive.org/texas-america-s-rotting-banana-republic
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The Progressive: Texas: America’s Rotting Banana Republic (Original Post)
marmar
May 2013
OP
xchrom
(108,903 posts)1. du rec. nt
n2doc
(47,953 posts)2. True to my experience as a former Texas resident n/t
rlegro
(338 posts)3. Wait, I'm confused.
From a non-Texas perspective, this really doesn't make sense. Where were the NIMBYs when the fertilizer plant got built IN THEIR BACK YARDS?
coldmountain
(802 posts)4. The community was too poor to fight back, they just wanted jobs
southmost
(759 posts)5. good read
Sounds like the hellhole I call home
Lone_Star_Dem
(28,158 posts)6. Excellent article.
It's refreshing to see a write up about what took place in West which actually addresses the whole problem, without just smearing an entire population as ignorant. The real issues are much more complex and deeper rooted than such a dismissive attitude.
A deserved. K&R from me.
linbarkertx
(11 posts)7. West fertilizer plant
The fertilizer plant in West was built long before any schools, houses, or nursing homes were built. Small towns like this
usually didn't have any zoning at all.