CH Council Outlaws Exotic Flappers

At some point, I suspect, Buddy Waskey will realize that he needs to move out of Colonial Heights.  It’s a shame really, because Buddy is truly a shining star in the city because of his aviary, despite what City Council thinks.
While he does have quite the menagerie of birds, he has shown time and again his willingness to do whatever he needs to do to keep his birds in place.  And, perhaps, they get a bit noisy at times, but where else can you go and see the kinds of macaws that he keeps?  Nowhere in this state, that’s for sure.
When I was a kid, my parents hauled us down to Sarasota, Florida, for what amounted as the biggest vacation boondoggle of my life (I think I was about 8 at the time).  We headed out of Long Island in a beat up old Ford station wagon, with my parents, all four siblings, and my grandmother.  My father sent a picture he drew of us down to my other grandparents, showing all of us kids leaning out windows and my grandmother on my Mom’s side riding shotgun in a rocking chair on the roof. That was in the Spring of 1962, a little ahead of the Beverly Hillbillies, which first aired in September of ’62.
I know, I know, so what’s the point? The point is that while we were in Florida, we went to the Sarasota Jungle Gardens.  While there, my brother and I, both pretty young at the time, got to have a macaw put on our shoulders for a “photo op.”  I laughed, because the one on my brother’s should periodically grabbed some of his hair and pulled.
My point here is that these kinds of birds are intriguing.  Notwithstanding how Buddy’s neighbors feel about the whole thing, imposing the strict rules that council stands up for seems out of place in this case.
Buddy is part of some free flying organization that works with the birds so that they can fly around rather than be stuck in exile in some cage.  Watching his birds in flight is amazing, to say the least. They are well trained and, as far as I know, have never caused any harm to anyone and are less of a nuisance than those other illegal alien Canadian geese that seem to flourish around the mall, Wally World (WalMart), and behind and beside Sam’s Club.  And that’s not to mention the abundance of Ring Billed seagulls that fly overhead in formations looking for something to attack.
At some level, I understand that City Council wants to hold the line on the city’s ordinances. I mean, how else can we get people to put their trash cans behind the front line of their homes, or pick up unsightly objects in their yards?  Still, the point is that City Council has the discretion to override some ordinances via the Conditional Use Permit.
The City may be right to hold the line on this matter. I mean, perhaps the noise that that many birds makes is too much, no matter how hard Buddy has tried to dampen the squawking.  But still, there has to be some other compromise that could have been reached.
When I lived in Italy, a friend of mine had four Doberman’s and a pair of mastiffs.  The City of Milan sent him a letter explaining why he could not have so many dogs.  So he got rid of some of his Dobies.  He then proceeded to buy a lion.  The lion was allowed by the city, but now instead of some occasional barking, his neighbors, who lived in a high rise apartment complex, got to hear the lion roar on occasion.
In this case, I don’t think a lion would be appropriate.  I think the city needs to take a different perspective on things like Buddy’s birds, which don’t really fit into the ordnance as written.  But then, I suppose if the city is stuck on beautifying the area via ordnance it may be time to move out.
The idea of voting out members of council fell flat on its face last November.  The only seat that changed was Diane Yate’s seat, and there only because she chose not to run.  For those who think that is the way to fight back, God bless you, but there isn’t enough support to change Council.
I applaud Council for enforcing the City Code rather than creating other pesky changes that are annoyances because the code hadn’t been enforced.  But there are times when we end up pounding the square peg through the round hole and standing on principles that should be looked at on a case-by-case basis.  Buddy may in fact be the one who free flies from the city.