Upland...The City of Gracious Living Falls From Grace....

Many times I have pointed the finger at Upland City Hall as being part to blame for the problems Upland Cascade Mobile Home Park residents are facing.  For years they have been made aware of our park owners questionable business practices yet the City of Upland has failed to lend its residents any support.  In past posts I have pointed out that the City of Upland's motto is "The City of Gracious Living" and that to many of the City's residents, this motto appears only to apply to homeless animals and wealthy developers.  Well recent news indicates that the City of Upland has had a hard fall from grace and that my feelings about wealthy developers may not be too far off base.  

An excerpt from one of the recent Inland Valley Daily Bulletin articles follows: 

FBI probe involves several Upland businesses

"UPLAND - The FBI and IRS investigation that closed City Hall for an entire day Thursday is a far-reaching one that involves not only the mayor but a number of businesses and business owners in the region.
According to an FBI search warrant served to Mayor John Pomierski on Thursday to support the seizure of his cell phone, investigators were seeking records related to a number of businesses and people including Chronic Cantina, JH Builders, Upland Market Place and many others.
The records - including e-mails, text messages and address lists - are described as evidence of violations, including conspiracy, extortion, bribery, fraud, money laundering and racketeering, according to the search warrant.
When reached for comment on Friday, Pomierski deferred comments to his attorney Robert Schauer.
"I truly believe what's going to come out of this is nothing," Schauer said. "When all the smoke clears, you'll see there isn't anything there."

A team of more than 40 FBI and IRS agents on Thursday seized boxes of evidence at four locations - City Hall, Pomierski's home, JH Builders and Statewide Bancorp" 

Now this is exciting...I have always been of the opinion that our mayor is an arrogant buck-passing sob and it does my heart good to see that he is now caught up in something that could conceivably lead to jail time.   Possible "conspiracy, extortion, bribery, fraud, money laundering AND racketeering" sounds pretty serious to me and if they have or will invoke the RICO Act any who knowingly participated might find themselves cellmates with the mayor.

And what about the mayor's lawyer, Robert Schauer???  Isn't this the same Mr. Schauer who is a member of the City of Upland's planning commission and who caused such an uproar when he used the "N-word" during a February 8, 2010 city council meeting?  Class acts here.

Remember, it's the FBI and IRS (Federal agencies) that locked down City Hall from 9:00am to 10:00pm on Thursday while they searched for evidence.  This is not something these agencies do in a frivolous manner without some kind of proof of wrong doing.  City business came to a halt while the agencies searched and carried away boxes of material.   Who knows what will be found in those boxes?  I'll bet a lot of sphincter muscles tightened up at the news of this.

ARE THE RATS JUMPING SHIP???

Here's a little update for you.  This month I noticed more vacant homes and more homes up for sale. Another eviction took place at the end of March.    It now appears that our park manager has also quit and moved out of the park. 

So while our park's conditions continue to worsen, where is the City of Upland "our city of gracious living" when we need them?  The city knows full well what is going on in this park as it has been reported to them on numerous occasions by many of the residents yet the city fails to offer any real assistance claiming it is not their responsibility.  "City of Gracious Living???"  Again it appears that this is only true for wealthy developers and homeless animals...not for the middle and low income residents who are themselves about to be homeless at the hands of the questionable business practices of Jeffrey A. Kaplan, Thomas T. Tatum and their cohorts.  

How about our state officials...where are they?  They are aware what is happening to thousands of residents in the Tatum-Kaplan owned parks throughout the state yet everything still remains the same...abuses continue while residents feel trapped with little or no hope of rescue.

At least someone sent help when the Titanic was sinking...what about us?

Mobile Community Management Alleges "Interference with Sales/Leasing"

Earlier this year, MCM was at it again with their self-righteous bullcrap.  On January 11, 2010, they circulated a letter throughout Upland Cascade Mobilehome Park claiming that a resident approached a prospective buyer of a mobilehome and killed the sale with derogatory remarks about the park.  (A copy of their letter is posted below.)

 

As you read this you might want to keep in mind four possibilities may have taken place here.  The first possibility is that this allegation could just be made up by MCM in order to further intimidate residents into keeping their mouths shut about conditions in the park.  The second possibility is that maybe it is true and exactly as they have stated.  The third possibility is that maybe a resident approached a prospective buyer of one of the mobile homes that MCM (CMS) has for sale here and killed the sale with negative remarks and now MCM is pissed.  The fourth possibility would be that someone selling their mobile home in the park is claiming that the park management may have interfered with the sale of their home and the park wants to turn the blame around onto its residents.  I don't know what actually happened but why should residents have to take what the park says in their letters as fact?  Past experience has taught me that I must question and investigate anything that MCM states is true and you should do the same!


Let's look at the letter very closely and try to see what MCM is actually telling us.  In the first paragraph they say, "We have been informed about something disturbing that is happening in the Upland Cascade Mobilehome Park community.  We are writing to you out of a concern this has caused."  If our park owners and management are really concerned about your ability to sell your homes it's only because they hope you will play their game and sucker someone into accepting the terms of the long term lease from which you are trying to escape.


The second paragraph claims "that at least one resident who has negative feelings and thoughts about the mobilehome park had intentionally approached a prospective buyer and voiced their judgmental and derogatory opinions about the park to that buyer."  Again, do we have to take this statement by MCM as fact?  Remember and think about the four possibilities I have mentioned above.  The second paragraph continues, "Every person is entitled to their own opinion and freedom of speech; but to intentionally seek out a potential buyer of a neighbor's home and possibly kill the sale is just wrong and unkind."   Yes, we are entitled to our opinions and freedom of speech...no debate there however, based on all the information that has been provided previously in this blog, in your wildest imagination can believe that Jeffrey Kaplan, Thomas Tatum and MCM have room to preach about something being "wrong and unkind" in their parks?  Paragraph two ends up sounding a bit hypocritical when you watch your neighbors being unfairly priced out of their homes.  What is so righteous and kind about that?


Paragraph three then goes on to explain how potential buyers may visit the mobile home park several times to evaluate the possibility of living here.  MCM explains that potential buyers may "engage a resident in a conversation looking for some insight as to whether or not to buy in the mobilehome park.  We would ask residents to use their common sense and to not let their emotions get in the way of giving objective answers to any questions."  How on earth does one give an objective answer to a question without speaking the truth???  If you find yourself swimming in a pool of hungry sharks and someone on shore yells out to you "How's the water?"...do you set your emotions aside and reply "The water is fine." with no mention of the sharks?  This is what MCM and our park owners are asking you to do and this is totally absurd.


Paragraph four states: "Negative statements by current residents may not only stop a sale, but may eventually have the potential of decreasing home values throughout the park."  My God, how sickening that statement is in view of what MCM, Jeffrey Kaplan and Thomas Tatum have done to their park residents!!!  Our home values have already been decreased due to our park owners' greed, outrageous rents, unconscionable long term leases, deteriorating park conditions and questionable business practices.


In closing, I have not and would not intentionally seek out a prospective buyer with intent to kill the sale of a home in this park, but if someone approaches me and asks my opinion I would not hesitate to do the right thing, the honest thing and warn them about the "sharks." What would you do?

RAMBLE ON....

Thought I'd do some somewhat off topic rambling tonight. You see, sometimes the depression gets to me and I need to vent in order to sort things out and try to move on. At times I feel like I've been so unlucky. Poor choices? Too trusting? Naivety? My own stupidity? What has placed me here? I guess all of the above. *lol* But what has also placed me in this situation is the apparent insatiable greed of others. There are two diametrically opposite positions at work here of which I find myself on the short side. All I ever hoped for was to live comfortably, at ease with myself and to provide the same for my wife. (Could that be a much different than what Jeffrey and Thomas strive for?) I am most saddened by seeing my wife hurt, her pain, her heartache and I know she hides a lot from me so as not to bother or worry me. But still, she supports me and tells me no matter what she'll be with me, even when we lose our home to Tatum and Kaplan. That's one of the reasons I love her so much and that's why I will continue with this blog for as long as I am able. Maybe I am not quite so unlucky after all.

THEY CALL HIM FLIPPER...or Bring on the Clowns!!!

Jeffrey Kaplan and Thomas Tatum have once again shown us all that they are "extremely sophisticated property owners."  They have now joined the ranks of cheap insurance, furniture and mattress sales by hiring a "flipper."

 

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this guy gyrating on the corner of San Bernardino and Grove.  I wasn't laughing because the flipper was particularly good at his job, I just found this method so hideously foolish on the park's part. What next???  Circus clowns and cotton candy vendors???