I’ve never been one to be consistently engaged in playing card games such as poker or the currently popular Texas Holdem.  The general rule is to draw cards to create the best hand while along the way betting that the cards held in your hand will beat the cards in the other players’ hands.  In the end, the player with the best hand wins.  Pretty simple- but I am told that it becomes more about having an ability to keep track of opponents’ tendencies and cards and having a keen instinct to read your opponents bluff.  For us novices, it’s like the old Kenny Rogers song lyrics- you got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em; know when to walk away and know when to run.  You never count your money while you’re sitting at the table, there’ll be time enough for count’n when the dealings done.

After seeing the few hundred people and reading the transcript of the Planning Commission’s Public Hearing relative to the resubdividing of land for the four proposed apartment complexes, it reminds me of a very high stakes game with some very dramatic potential outcomes.  The developers are at the table with their federal court ruling, already filed land purchases (which have land bought presuming it to be resubdivided), “lined up” financing, and a mantra of the project will assist in providing housing in a market that is short on housing.  We sit at the table with our commitment to our way of life, with thousands of people who sunk everything into rebuilding our community, the financial challenge of a recovering community, and the knowledge of having an already oversupply of rental and single family home sites.

The risk we face is obviously linked to the high stakes stand-off in which we are engaged.  To fold at this point is to surrender everything that we have fought to rebuild, like throwing in our cards with a pot full of our money.  To hold at this point is to potentially create a financial judgment against St. Bernard for millions of dollars.  We have never been a community that has surrendered and when one looks back over the last three and a half years, it was not through giving in that has us where we are in the Recovery of our parish.  As the lyrics suggest, “the secret to survivin is knowin what to throw away and knowin what to keep”.  If we are to ultimately lose this fight for our survival, it will not be because we as a people or as a government simply folded.  If we are to survive and win this fight, it will be because we stood together- and demanded that justice to our community not be ignored.

When these proposed developments started, the concern of too much too fast was ignored despite the fact that the more the discussion went forward, the more the market around it began to fall apart.  So the developers look to draw a Full House (four housing developments with no regard for the outcome)- and we will play a Royal Flush (a community of citizens of all backgrounds banded together committed to what is best for St. Bernard).

I’m no professional card player, but I believe our Royal Flush will beat a Full House every time.

God Bless,

Craig Taffaro, Jr.