Public meeting | today to discuss tax hike repeal and other issues – Columbia Spy

The county’s youngest | School board of directors member – Lancaster Online

Anticipated vacancy | Yep, that’s what it states at the Columbia Borough School District website.

And this position’s posted elsewhere: “Career Counselor-Columbia School District”

fundie facts | “Jerry Falwell Jr. can’t imagine Trump ‘doing anything that’s not good for the country’” – The Washington Post

“It’s important to examine how good, hardworking people became a mob.” | This is a youtube video that’s worth watching to get a perspective about life’s circumstances at the time.

More on comments following posts & articles | The ongoing facebook commentary about Columbia’s River Park expansion and taxation sorta’ / kinda’ serves as an “open town hall.”

“keep in mind | No. 1 defenses fare better than No. 1 offenses in the postseason” – The Chicago Tribune

Not exactly a news flash | “AP Fact Check: Trump’s Afghan comments inaccurate” – WITF

OPINION – on vilifying tenants and landlords.

Opportunity & choice | When thinking about the “town hall-like” comments, it reminds us of the New Year’s Day experience we had when we went to a York dining place for the traditional pork & sauerkraut undertaking. Honest to pete, the menu had the above tag on New Year’s Day Special of Pork & Sauerkraut for $10.99. When we peeled away the tag to see the rest of the menu, there it was: Pork and Sauerkraut for $9.99. It’s the entrepreneurial right of “opportunity pricing.”

Not unlike the opportunity of entrepreneurial pursuits of buying properties and renting them, is it? The diner operators and landlords are in business to make profits. In the New Year’s Day dining instance, we had a choice. We could have got up and walked out to look for another place to get pork & sauerkraut.

In the case of property owners who acquire properties to rent them, in a capitalist economy, municipalities don’t exactly have the same choice. Properties come up for sale and someone decides the worth and value before deciding to buy — either as a primary residence or as an investment opportunity.

Retail business operators and property owners face the same challenges with Customers or tenants. They want to satisfy the Customers’ / tenants’ needs and make profit from the experience. They have the same responsibilities and options, it seems to us.

If or when a Customer / tenant becomes unruly or destructive; disturbs neighboring Customers / tenants or doesn’t pay for services rendered, the entrepreneur has to resort to the legal system.

Recently, we asked for and received a list of rental property addresses in Columbia. The list shows a total of 779 properties with a total of 1,668 residential units in them. We’ve asked for more information / clarification on several properties on and off the list.

Actually, it’s difficult getting consistent information about housing units from any source, period.

The US Census Bureau [NOTE: this line at the website “NOTICE: Due to a lapse in federal funding this website is not being updated.”] shows that 59.4% of Columbia’s housing units are owner-occupied.

In contrast, Millersville’s percentage of owner-occupied housing units is 56.0%; Elizabethtown’s is 53.3% and Ephrata’s is 60.6%.

The Census Bureau shows 4.309 households; this site shows 4,298 occupied homes. And this site shows 4,154 households. Clearly, the number is ever-changing and fluid.

Coincidently, this site has some interesting portrayals of Columbia’s demographics.

Some real baby killing | Vietnam veterans sometimes were greeted with screams of “baby killers” upon returning to the US. That’s nothing compared to the US Government’s complicity in the horrific killings in Yemen. – The Washington Post