Hysteria. It’s no longer just a classic Def Leppard song.
Create a problem. Or, better yet, deny there is a problem when there clearly IS. Evidence – shmevidence – be damned. Whip up the low-information general public into a frenzy. Thereby gumming up the serious work going on out there. Rinse. Repeat.
Those are familiar tactics throughout politics. It’s been a very effective M.O. here in Moore County. The Pinehurst-based Patrick Pizzella cult has mastered the technique against targets like short-term rentals and the notorious Pinehurst Traffic Circle.
Short-term rentals are a fixture in tourist destinations around the world. They offer options for vacationers who can’t get a hotel room or, for some reason, don’t want one. They’re a great way to foster family togetherness while on vacation. Pinehurst, as you know, is – in addition to being Heaven’s (and some say Hell’s) Waiting Room – also a world-class golfing destination. The Pinehurst Resort clearly doesn’t have a supply of rooms to meet the demand of all the people out there wanting to golf here. These various VRBOs, airBnBs and Kayaks pick up that slack.
Local politics has recently been taken over by a group of loud transplanted Yankees, fresh off of destroying their home states, seeking new things to disrupt and damage. Some compare them to locusts.
Talking about the Patrick Pizzella Cult here. These people whipped up a frenzy about airBnBs destroying the community and needing to be kicked out of town. Their evidence? One party – sponsored by an area radio station – at a rental house that got way out of control. The police got called and shut it down. It made the papers.
Politicians saw an opportunity. And all rental property owners would have to pay. Never mind that the police had no evidence that rental properties attributed any more to crime than those with year-round owners / inhabitants did. Social media and the op-ed page of the local ad-rag were filled with groundless claims of increased litter and drug use thanks to airBnBs. Mobs of elderly Jersey transplants picketed driveways of rental properties. There was no substantial evidence for declaring short-term rentals a community-wide problem. But it didn’t matter. Hysteria was whipped up. Horrible demagogic people got elected to office. Small entrepreneurs were intimidated, harassed and nearly run out of business. *Mission accomplished.*
Similar tactics have been tried against the state’s plan to remodel and redesign the notorious Pinehurst Traffic Circle. If you’ve ever traveled by car from the Wilmington area to The Triad area, you’ve likely used – or passed close by – the Pinehurst Traffic Circle. It keeps local lawmen busy with traffic accidents to police. It adds to traffic congestion. On most weekdays, the vicinity of the traffic circle is a snarled, jammed nightmare. Locals have learned to travel around town via routes that complete avoid the circle area. Once-quiet subdivisions are finding the streets in front of their houses are now suddenly very busy.
Yet, the same people who informed us of the terror of airBnBs have bent over backwards to say there is nooooooooo problem with this traffic circle. It’s *historic*, they tell us. It’s got *ambiance.*
Even though it connects two state highways and one US highway, the Pizzella cult and their cheerleaders declare that it’s OUR circle. They say there is no problem, and nothing needs to be done. Their chorus of screaming and whining Yankees has helped kick the circle project down the road for years. Again, a little hysteria accompanied by little to no evidence, accomplishes the political agenda of a small group.
That brings us to the latest bit of hysteria-fueled political mischief. Some of the same rabble-rousers from the Circle and rentals debacles are now trying to scare the hell out of residents with tales of allegedly irresponsible county government and *out-of-control development.*
County board of commissioners chairman Nick Picerno and his team have had enough of the demagoguery and have decided to introduce some facts into the discussion. They prepared a presentation for the public – that we got our hands on – which presents the county’s side of the story.
