Knock, Knock...

Raids have been under way for several weeks now, not of the crack dealers of 15th street or the countless people living in alleys, but of private homes! I am living in a city controlled by people out of touch with reality and overcome with power.

The knock on the Quintero home on super-posh Pinetree Drive a little way up from where we live did not come in the middle of the night; it came in mid afternoon last week at a benefit for The Sylvester Cancer Center, one of the best in the country. City Code Enforcement agents declined the ravishing lunch and sweet champagne at a home they could never in their lives afford, the home of socialite (and publisher of Social Affair Magazine), Norma Quintera. They came to question her and issue her a citatation for hosting her home "for a non-profit organization". Agents questioned whether she owned or rented the home and whether she was pocketing any of the money herself. (MY friends told me they also asked if one of her grandparents was Jewish and if she had any Haitians hiding under the floorboards.)

The same thing happened at The Temple House a month ago and two, private homes on Sunset Island.

Ms. Quintero issued the following statement:"Instead of dealing with (crime)...the commisssion is trying to tell all homeowners who they can have as guests to their homes. We don't need new, intrusive (ordinances)...We have laws that need to be enforced and commissioners should just drop this useless and superfluous ordinance." You go, girl. A friend of hers named Arzt was even more blunt: "These peole are fuckwads. It's as if we live in Nazi Germany."

Ah, the sound of goose-stepping jackboots; how much sexier does it get than that, unless--of course--they are coming up your circular drive? (I have heard Code DOES have jackboots; they just can't get them over their thunderous calfs.)

What city in the America would attack property owners in it's richest enclaves, inhabited by the most talented, intellectual, and well-connected populations and not expect retribution? I'm not kidding when I keep writing that City Government is out of control. And, speaking of jackboots, City Manager Gonzalez--head of Code--should be strung by his heels for earning $250,000 a year to harass the population like this. What's next? Fisher Island?

(Home for the day, not shopping, not dealing with others' problems; I had to get on a soapbox.)