[Vision2020] Zones of one sort or another

[Phil Nisbet]

Joan and all

I was referencing a lot more than the uniform enforcement of zoning in what 
I was suggesting.  In any number of controversies here somebody will dust 
off a single law and insist that everybody must follow it.  Trouble is that 
there are a lot of laws on the books including ones which I for one find 
exceptionally repugnant.  The Sex ones I brought forward included a lot more 
than just male homosexuality (I found it interesting in reviewing the law 
that lesbianism is not defined as an un-natural act or an infamous crime 
against nature, just the male version.), but also the much more common 
hetrosexual activities like fornication and adultery.  Its the law, but I 
think uniform enforcement of it is something we definately do not want.

Some have pointed out that invasion of the privacy of the bedroom in the 
case in Texas is a savings in such cases, but the guys who were busted down 
in Boise in 1996 were arrested for consensual sex in a parked car.  
Hetrosexuals in similar circumstances simply are not charged this kind of a 
crime.  You see if they do bust a gay man for this conduct, unlike a 
hetrosexual couple in similar circumstance, the gay person is placed on the 
sex offenders list and stigmatized as if he were a rapist or a pedophile.

I think few of us want uniform enforcement of bad law.  The question we need 
to ask is not is enforcement uniform, but is the law good and valid.

I can hardly be accused of having any affliation with Mr Wilson, Joan.  I 
doubt seriously he would be wanting to see the consentual sex crimes taken 
off the books.

And Tim, who I was addressing in my original missive, seemed to be saying 
that regardless of validity of a law, uniform enfrcement must be applied.  
He was critiqing Donavan for his insistance on uniform enforcement of the 
Statute that Rose put forward here on Elections while at the same time 
holding that the zoning ordinance was possibly not similarly right to 
uniformly enforce.  I was simply taking a set of laws that I know that one 
heck of a lot of people break and asking if since they are on the books, Tim 
would see them similarly uniformly enforced.  Tim did not reply.

There are simply so many laws and collections of ordiances and regulations 
and codes and the rest, that its difficult to navigate what should actually 
be allowed anywhere and who may or may not be breaking some particular law.  
Look at our Moscow Zoning Code.  There are multiple special purpose zones 
with page after page of what is allowed, what is conditinally permitted and 
what is prohibited that a use allowed in one block is prohibited on the next 
and conditionally permitted a couple of blocks from that.  Anybody wishing 
to locate here needs to hire a zoning attorney before even looking at what 
proerty might meet working reqirements for their business.  Nobody in 
business wants to have to deal that way, they want to look for locaction and 
price and how those fit their business plans, not have to spend months 
having an attorney looking at their business plans and try to find a place 
where they might be allowed to actually set up shop.

At the county right now, the hard working folks on the Planning Commission 
are doing a ten year over haul.  Its long and its tiresome, but they are 
stripping outmoded regs from the books and adding new sections to meet new 
situation that have come up.  The result will be a tighter and more 
enforcable Zoning Ordiance with the invalid and unworkable elements removed.

The city code on the other hand seems to be add ons following add ons with 
no complete cleansing of the code to build a more constructive and workable 
picture that can work for Moscow of this year and not 15 years ago.

So why not ask our legislators to strip the Formication and adultery and 
crimes against nature statute from the books and at the same time ask Moscow 
to Write a complete new zoning ordinance that simplifies the code.  Clean up 
the law so that people can understand it and can actually live by it.

Phil Nisbet

PS  A lot more hetrosexuals are breaking those three laws than any other 
group and there are few people who over the space of their lives have not 
broken them.  That makes for one heck of a lot of criminals.

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