Yesterday, just after reading the DP and UC Review, I walked up Baltimore Ave. In the papers, Penn and Tom are mad at Woodland Terrace and there were claims about expert disposal of trash at the new hotel.
As I rounded 40th St., I immediately saw a massive collection of corporate trash set out on the sidewalk as far as I could see up Baltimore Ave. The buildings from which it came are owned by the very cronies who are the power brokers behind UCD and the new hotel. And UCD, controlled by Penn and these large corporations, is the entity behind the trash tickets we all get out here in the neighborhood. The "working relationship" between UCD and the trash ticket agents was revealed in the UC Review back in April. Here is the problem. This corporate trash on Baltimore Ave was set out a day early. When I got to my block, 4300, past the corporate "student ghetto,' my neighbors did not violate the trash rules. But yet, I know they are getting intimidated, harassed, and fined like me. This is a pattern that is repeated so often in this neighborhood. The trash issue is overwhelmingly an issue at the corporate student housing, while in the rest of the neighborhood, where students integrate with us, trash violations are uncommon. I wonder did these corporate entities get over 50 trash tickets yesterday? I hope everyone asks that question next time you get a ticket in the mail that refuses to tell you why your "premises" was guilty 4-5 months earlier. Next month, I am summoned to court and face a $962 fine for three of these trash tickets. One is from 2002, and I got the other two generated from the time that UCD was caught violating federal law. We are not guilty of any trash violations at my house. But I cannot prepare a defense because the UCD/Sweep partnership refuses to tell me what they accuse me of doing. They tell me that I am guilty of an unknown violation which occured 4-5 months earlier. I do not have a presumption of innocence and I have lost the right to due process. When this was a democratic system, people had the right to know the specific accusations against them. In democratic systems, you can't shout out; "murder is illegal" and then start hanging people. My last ticket after the UC Review article exposed the UCD role in these tickets back in April, had a new stamp placed in the comment section. Now the dumb fucks are giving out tickets and they stamp on the incorrect trash rule. That's right, the next trash tickets you will get may have a stamp that tells you that you are guilty for not breaking the rule! "Trash set out on sidewalk or premises. You can't store trash/recyclables on sidewalk, set trash/recyclables out after 7 PM the day before collection day" The rule is that you can't set trash out before 7 PM, which we never do like the corporate entities. I just can't tell you how intimidated I am about our loss of due process while the enforcers, these UCD partners, thumb their noses at the very rules they are using to force me to sell and move to Canada. I know the reason and history around the ancient concept of due process. This is much more intimidating than simply the $962 fine for no reason. If they decide to load me up with tickets over any 4-5 month period, they will force me into bankruptcy. I am not so confident that my relationship with Lewis and UCD will allow me a free pass or mercy. Hey Tom, tell Lewis I'm ready to beg for mercy. Just tell me whose ass I need to kiss.
