Softly, in the background I hear Elton John singing, ‘Can you feel the love tonight .. . .?
Zoinks! Who woulda? thunk a little ol? column, by little ol? me about that city to the south (Royal Oak) last week could have caused such a ruckus! But, it did. There were tons of responses, some by e-mail lots via Facebook and Twitter. Seems like the hipsters don’t like any one complaining (whining) their favorite cool city.
I was called an idiot, hick, buffoon and told to lick somebody’s undercarriage. Somebody had so much time on their hands they created a new email address to yell at me. As this is a family paper I can’t say what the address is, but it was the opposite of ‘makeloveskinnyDon@gmail.com? Then the person called me Don Sherman.
I was even told that my kids are fat.
Yep, I was called stupid and a bunch of other things, too. All because I dared to opine that after having a good time at local businesses, the city left me not feeling welcome. (Read last week’s column about not enough change for parking meter and tickets.) I wanted to respond to those folks in a couple of ways.
1. I wish this cool crowd would spend as much energy into helping the needy, rooting out corruption and bad government as they put into yelling at me for having an opinion, contrary to theirs.
2. And, I bet they’d be the ones yelling, ‘It’s the law and it’s the tax. If you don’t like it, don’t drink it, there’s no need to throw it into the harbor!? during the Boston Tea Party. Taxation without representation.
But, I won’t instead . . . I’ll let you all see your own commentary! This week those who love to hate, passing on warm wishes and welcomes. Next week some opposing view points.
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David Walker: Whiney little baby got a ticket….let’s slam the whole city. You should be fired!
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Garrett Kolodziej: Personally, I find that this is just a guy complaining about paying for parking and high end retail. I love Lake Orion and always call it home, but the shops in and around LO don’t cater to the younger crowd. I go to Royal Oak because I love the nightlife and the different stores.
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Eric Davidson: What a buffoon.
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If you cant afford a parking meter perhaps you should stay in the part of the county where rebel flag license plates are prevalent. Yes it sucks but damn you could park 4 blocks away and walk (judging from your William Shatner sized head you could use the exercise) or accept the fact that it takes revenue to police all your Gods country bourgeois kids playing hipster but can’t afford birmingham. Some of us remember when Noir Leather saved this town that rolled up the sidewalks at 6 p.m. I am happy to live here and am glad I won’t have you and your fat kids blocking the sidewalks.
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. . . You will not be missed.
Judy Dietrich (A happy and grateful Royal Oak citizen)
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I like how there is a picture of Don Sherman on his column page. That way you know what you are getting when you read his stuff. If there were a ratio of stupid sounding to stupid looking this guy would be 1:1. That’s tough in this world. Kudos to you, Don! To sum up the article:
1. Don didn’t know about parking meters and didn’t come prepared.
2. Don can’t figure out how to get quarters when based on his description he was a block from a gas station and 100′ from a convenience store.
3. Don is so smart he buys tickets to lectures by Reality TV Show hosts about ghosts.
4. Don thinks that some places have change machines on the streets.
5. Don calls Clarkston “God’s Country” because there are no parking meters? High bar you set there, fella.
6. Don has no idea why a city would want parking meters other than to get rich.
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Shame on you. Your article is ridiculous. Just because you are too cheap to pay for parking (by the way if you had selected a different lot you would have seen the card type meters) doesn’t mean that Royal Oak is a money grubbing town.
Royal Oak is consistently on lists of best city in America. Why? Because the city officials are doing everything they can to make sure we have everything we could want. Does your town have 50 parks? How about Art Theaters, restaurants, unique shops?
I doubt it or you wouldn’t have come to Royal Oak where you could see live acts like your Ghost Hunters, or popular music bands.
Your argument about Royal Oak is invalid and insulting to the hard working people who live here.
Paula Hartson, Resident of Royal Oak, MI
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I find your norther suburb narrow mind to be offensive and sad. I have not much to gain from your visiting of our city so this information is because it seems I’m a more mature person than you . . . We’d love to have you back-there are several parking decks that don’t cause you to rely on the meters. I wish you were more open and pleasant because I’d even invite you to sit on my front porch with me this summer and watch all of the fab people of Royal Oak walk by, but I prefer more pleasant humans in my life. That’s why I live in Royal Oak. Wendi H.
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Oh, there is more . . . some I can’t print because it’s not suitable; also there is only so much space I can spend sharing the love coming out of Royal Oak.