Help Needed to Counter Activists in Pottstown
POTTSTOWN, PA – That’s right all you diversified investors out there. Read our website. Read the entire thing. Tell us how your investment strategies are helping to make Pottstown a better place. We’d love to hear it.
The following plea for help appeared today on the Diversified Investor website:
Your help needed to counter anti-landlord activists
Yes. This is the same Pottstown absentee property owner and Limerick resident Doug Campbell who was featured in the July 6 Mercury article:
Landlords have stake in proposed rental rules (video)
And if you find us “discriminatory and offending”, then we’re obviously getting our point across.
We really don’t care that you’re buying up properties in Pottstown to put your kids through college. Lots of parents in Pottstown can’t afford to send their kids to college because our property values are in the crapper due to the saturation of 44% of our housing stock being rental properties (the majority of which being owned by absentee property owners).
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. THANK YOU to Pottstown Borough Council and Borough Manager Jason Bobst for taking the much needed action on the rental property issue in Pottstown.
If absentee property owners are upset at the new rental rules being proposed…then it must be a good thing for those of us who live and own in Pottstown.
Maybe these absentee property owners should spend a few nights living in their “investment” properties to see how their tenants treat our town. Now, of course as a disclaimer we certainly realize that there are good tenants in Pottstown. But…with almost half of our housing stock being used for rental properties…there are a lot of bad apples out there (and a lot of them wouldn’t be in Pottstown if there were less places for them to live).
This whole landlord issue reminds us of a certain track on the Rolling Stones’ classic recording, “Exile on Main Street”…
This is the same Doug Campbell that agreed with Code Blue at the Boro Council meeting. Code Blue’s position seemed clear-the Boro can write all the rules it wants but if there is no enforcement then the laws are just a waste of ink. Enforcement is the key. Mr. Campbell agreed publicly with Code Blue that better enforcement was needed. So now I do not understand his call to the DIG group to bash Code Blue. ??
Nor do I understand this ‘reply’.
I would encourage this DIG group to visit some of the websites mentioned to get a feel for some concerns that are present regarding Pottstown. Further, I would hope they do participate in some of the ‘discussions’ so we all get a more comprehensive picture of the issue. Resolutions will be more lasting if they address the bigger picture from day one. Without enforcement, no solution will work.
Hopefully, Mr. Campbell (as an investor not living too far from the Borough) will be encouraging positive, lasting change as he has 10 properties in Pottstown (according to public records). He has a fair amount invested here and would profit from revitalization.
I do not know him and make no presumption about his character. He has a voice and is using it and I hope he will be open to efforts that help the town, which help ALL of us. No matter the reason, thank you Mr. Campbell for directing those you know to visit other websites – I hope it is going to prove to be a positive experience for ALL of us, rather than the beginning of an ‘attack fest’.
Furthermore, the remedies initiated by the borough are aligned with the intentions of the District Attorney who has assigned an assistant D.A. to work with the local authorities. Think: The LUDY’S
http://pottstownmercury.com/articles/2010/04/09/news/srv0000007997753.txt
I was looking at the diversified website. It is a group focused on helping it’s members make money. Plain and simple. There is nothing in the website about improving neighborhoods. If a neighborhood is improved, that is a byproduct, not an objective. We are in a capitalist society. Our goal is to make money and improve our net worth. That’s fine. But don’t tell me that you are helping the town. That’s BS. Doug’s property on High St. that was burned out, looks really nice now. But admit it, if there was no money in restoring the property, it would not have been done. I would not expect it to.