Photo courtesy of Eric Nicholson, The Dallas Observer
I was outside yesterday for a little bit, trying to put in a basil garden for maybe an hour. Came in and was so bitten up I had to get out the cortisone cream. I cannot recall mosquitos biting in mid-day! No doubt they are way more than vicious this year, and we are taking every pre-caution, including stocking cans of insect repellant at every door to ward off West Nile Virus.
So I see this morning, thanks to Eric Nicholson at The Dallas Observer, that some of our intrepid city leaders are doing their best to HOST West Nile. Make it feel as welcome as the contingent of mayors who visited recently. (Who I hope used mosquito repellant!) Eric posts a photo of Dallas City Councilwoman Vonciel Hill’s swimming pool which is, bluntly, a cesspool. Here’s what he says:
“To mosquitoes, there’s no sexier place to conceive and hatch an extremely large brood of bloodsucking parasites than a rank, slimy puddle of the kind that might collect in, say, an empty pool after a good rain or two. That sort of thing is supposed to yield a prompt visit from city code inspectors and, often, an order to comply with city rules against standing water. So serious is the issue that the Texas Legislature gave cities permission to go onto private property to treat standing water with larvacide if a property appears to be abandoned.”
Click on over to his article to see for yourself, and see the photo of Hill’s pool taken from the public alley behind her home. Can you believe this belongs to a Dallas City Council member? Even more, Hill is the head of the powerful Trinity and Transportation Committee, as well as Dallas’ lone rep to the NCTCOG executive board. Here is a Google Earth image proving this is not a one-time deal.
If you can’t take care of your own house, how can you possibly take care of a major city?
