The Pinehurst Hot Mess: Cranky old Yankees. At the end of the driveway. Screaming abuse. (Welcome to Pinehurst.)

 

The followers of the Strickland-Pizzella cult speak loudly and often about an alleged cornucopia of criminal misdeeds at Pinehurst vacation rentals.  Yet, there are few — if any — police reports to support their claims.

But there is evidence of a rather satanic version of “The Welcome Wagon”, um, “greeting” tourists as they enter or leave their vacation rental.  A gaggle of old people will camp out at the end of the driveway and scream abuse at the renters as they drive up to and leave their rental.  Some of the same people Strickland and Pizzella recruited to speak at the public forums on the vacation rentals ban have been partaking in this freak show.  Imagine the horror stories these renters are telling their friends back home: “Don’t go to Pinehurst.  There are crazy old people wandering the streets and screaming at you.”  

It’s enough to give everyone at the Convention & Visitors Bureau FIVE ulcers. 

I encountered one of the pro-ban folks the other day.  I heard him speak before the village council, and noticed he uttered several statements I knew to be false.  I mentioned this to him, and started correcting the record. He stopped me and said:

“I don’t give a s—! All I care about is the [rental] next door to me being gone!”

So, in at least one case, we have clear evidence this is all about snobbery.  (Never mind that the utterer of the above statement inherited his downtown home from one of his wife’s recently-deceased relatives.  He’s NOW “royalty.”  Better than the rest of us.

Never mind that their own survey debunks their position on rentals.  Never mind that the village’s police department has no evidence to support the claim that these rentals give birth to crime sprees. Never mind that the village’s planning & zoning board totally rejected the ban concept.  Never mind that Wilmington got the bejeezus sued out of them for doing just what Pinehurst is trying to do. (They lost.) Never mind that the same law firm that won against Wilmington is already threatening to sue Pinehurst if they enact this ban.  Never mind that the proposed ban ordinance has been crafted outside of the public eye.

The Strickland-Pizzella team (and their downtown cocktail party buddies) are going to shove it down our throats. Damn the consequences. 

The vacation rental ban is on the village council agenda TONIGHT.  There was a lot of talk by the Strickland-Pizzella gang at the last meeting about talking this all out and seeking a compromise.

Surprise! Surprise!  The supposed “compromise” on the agenda tonight is basically the same thing that was on the agenda for the planning board and both public hearings.  There was no compromise. There never will be.  That’s not the way the Snob Mafia operates.

You WILL bow and scrape before them. (And thank them for allowing you to reside in THEIR village.)

So, it looks like this will go to court.  And Pinehurst will lose.  And Pinehurst will have to pay beaucoup dinero to the rental property owners and their attorneys.  And it will all come out of our pockets.

Insurance is not going to cover any penalties a judge hands down.  Pinehurst will have to pay it all directly from its budget.  I can see a tax increase on the horizon to cover this “unexpected” financial hit.

Be sure to thank Pat Pizzella, John Strickland, Jane Hogeman, Mike Newman, and Jeff Sanborn for making it ALL happen.