UPDATE: Just days before Sark’s Automotive might have been forced to lay off employees, the city of Mauldin chose not to be grinches who steal jobs. Yesterday, the city council repealed its amortization ordinance. “We’re relieved that this important part of our business will continue next year,” said Jeremy. “What the city tried to do wasn’t right and it would have hurt our employees, customers and people who move to and from Mauldin.” Read the press release here: ij.org/press-release/victory-for-u-haul-business-as-mauldin-south-carolina-agrees-not-to-ban-its-truck-rentals/
This strikes me as pure snobbishness. These people want the work done and the services supplied but they don't want to see the businesses that make it happen. Just cookie cutter houses and office buildings. It's like Victorian mansions where the servants must look at the wall when the Lord or his family walk by. Pretty damn insulting.
Just government(criminal psychopaths) doing what government(criminal psychopaths) do. The US is lost. The lunatics control the asylum. This is what happen when you let them out of the cells and let them take over the offices and start giving themselves official titles and run the payroll.
@@PumpkinheadsPlayhouse , I bet they didn't learn a thing, they are probably scheming on how to make more money and pocket that for themselves by rezoning a different way :(
This is what happens when the local mayor is a retired executive, worried about how the town looks and attracting new comers rather than attending to what’s already there.
City gov'ts have been like this for a long time. Motivated, icky people often seek power and those people also care exclusively about building and not maintaining. I know most people where I live don't want to keep expanding forever until we connect to Denver, but it sure seems like that's what's gonna happen.
U mean advancing and improving a run down city! Yeah heaven forbid they have a mayor that cares and puts effort into how the city looks! But really doesn’t matter cause this is some snowflake crybaby shit! They were not singled out in anyway! Must hurt being so stupid and ignorant!
The industrial nature of the area is very obvious. A factory across the road must go next? Look at the garbage slapped up housing units just south of the U-Haul Business. They look like crap, and they are new? Real Estate swindlers encroaching on lower priced industrial land to make a buck!!
Never in all my years of driving through numerous cities have I ever been offended by the sight of rental trucks. I strongly suspect that some deep digging will show that these city officials all received bribes from the developer.
Developer, that’s where 99% of problems start with city “re-imaging”. The developer only wants to make money for himself, he doesn’t give a damn about the city or the people living there.
Yeah, private developers don't care about the city's needs or how it functions for the residents. It's all about using their land ownership to generate revenue and they'll happily screw over rival land owners and businesses to give themselves an advantage. I'm not against developers making money but I am 100% against any business using the government to screw over other businesses.
Its all about looks, selling an image and an idea to other dickheads who care even less about the people actually being affected. The rat race participants who end up having their lives and homes ruined domt matter. Their purpose is to consume things, not to fight back or think.
Just think, these people are under attack, simply because ONE PERSON decided they "didnt like how something LOOKS" and then convinced other people to go along with him. Its despicable!
@@lopoa126 Well that clarifies it, I guess. Unfortunately there are too many "developers" that lead city governments by the nose, which would make a person fall for a generally.... Ah well. Keep up the good work though, some of us are too old to spend too much time following up on things, it's more fun to have knee jerk reactions as grumpy old bastards.
I know the feeling. I've been persecuted, too, and lost many friends and allies in various social experiences in the last 10 years, just because One Specific Person doesn't like something about me, so they tell everyone else to shun me. And God forbid they speak their mind, then they get the boot from those social cliques. Apparently status in a clique is more important than having enough sense to realize only one person has an irrational opinion. Damn shame.
Everytime I see a law made for an individual it's going to be a problem. When everyone is grandfathered except one business there's a problem. And again, thank you for protecting people from government abuse.
@@austinhernandez2716 stupid take, The reason this is bad is because it's obviously targeting a specific business who already established themselves, but there's nothing wrong with a city deciding it wants to preserve areas for certain functions and aesthetics. for example it would be stupid to allow a strip club to open beside a historic church that draws tourist revenue, why would a city, and in turn it's residents, sacrifice more money going into their local ecosystem? Smart zoning is major way to help a cities economy, along side a bunch of other positives like not having waste processing plants open next to your house.
@@austinhernandez2716 Say that when it's in your backyard. In this case it's in a pre-existing commercial zone, so it should be grandfathered. I definitely am rooting for the SBO.
I was in a similar situation years ago. I moved my business farther up the road, but outside the city limits. That made them cry! Suddenly, those sweet, sweet, tax payments no longer going to the city. The intersection that business was on had 4 family run businesses in 1981 but by 1983 it had zero. Not one of those properties have seen any development since we all moved. As the years went by, everyone left the city limits. Downtown is vacant, the major intersections are ghost towns, restaurants, garages, gas stations, convenience stores, retail outlets have all moved outside the city limits. People started building homes outside the limits as well. This is how shortsighted and power hungry morons kill towns. Walmart doesn't do it, strip malls don't do it, city governments do it. No my home town is a shell of what it was and should have become. Glad I sold out and left when I did. Who would want to live in a town that cannot even repair the streets? LMAO
I know someone who was in your situation, and the city in question tried to annex the new area that had grown outside the limits. Some political snakes have no shame...
The fact that people will have to loose their jobs, just because of a mayor. That should be criminal. What a horrible man. I hope he gets voted out of office. Keep up the good fight, Uhaul business.
That on its own isn't a bad thing. For instance, common people are pushing for a shift away from fossil fuels, and if that dose become a reality, it would means millions lose their jobs. I'd say a better way to put it is it's a stupid reason, saying its because someone thinks it's "ugly". For instance, having a downtown littered with bars and certain entertainment business is ugly to some, but you see that kind of thing everywhere because alcohol laws benefit the government(alcohol tax). So to pass a targeted law because of someone's perception of beauty is perhaps one of the worse reasons to pass a law.
@@androidmaster3369 wind and solar aren't reliable sources of power. Constant outages will only get worse, and it's not only because of negligence of officials. Regardless, that wasn't the point I was making.
Uhaul should join the lawsuit for defamation and prejudice against their brand, who the hell do these people in government think they are? Only problem is Joe and Mark Shoen are to cheap to care.
Well thinking something is ugly is your right. Opinions aren't defamation. I actually do think uhaul places look ugly in run down towns. But then I think the whole town looks ugly. In a major metro area with the whole new parking lot, storage area trucks lined up they don't. Based on the view of this town the U-Haul is as ugly as the rest of it. It seems they want some short circuit path where they get a single company to come in, demo everything and rebuild all new and beautiful. Of course that's not worth it. Happens organically. If you grow the town enough this guy's business will be so profitable he'll have to expand, possibly by demoing the local and rebuilding a garage and rental place for himself. Then you get new and pretty.
@@sparkzbarca that's why we let a jury decide genius, if an opinion results in monetary injury to property or reputation then its defamation especially when its a public institution engaging in libelous actionable conduct
@@Makeitliquidfast well not genius, it doesn't matter if it hurts you monetarily if it's opinion. Let me explain how stupid your idea is. I write a review on Yelp about a restaurant. Restaurant gets less customers cause I said food is bad. Your idea is now they get to sue me and make me go to trial. Your idea is dumb. It doesn't matter if something hurts you if it's opinion because a person's right to an opinion trumps your right not to be injured by it. If they provably lie about something, so it's not an opinion. Let's say they say you're a murderer and your not and now people don't go to your place because they worry about getting killed. That's actionable. Ugly is not actionable. That's because the truth is always a defense against libel/slander and if someone says "I believe it's ugly." That is true, they do think that. Unless your suggesting you can read minds and know they are lying about their opinion it's the truth and the truth isn't illegal not genius.
@@sparkzbarca well you're definitely not an attorney that's for sure, if you yell fire in a crowded theater it may only be your opinion but its still actionable under the law if people get hurt genius.
@@Makeitliquidfast lol fire is not an opinion. You really think fire exists what? Only in the mind? Honest to God I'm trying to break this down for you but it's hard. If you make a claim about the physical existence of something. One can use your five senses to determine verifiably, empirically if it's true. So no fire doesn't work. Try again.
Maybe they should paint the trucks with the mayor and city Council's faces and see if they still think it's ugly. I'm happy you took this case and thank you.
I love the logic. Cripple or possible kill a proven thriving, tax paying business on a maybe that a developer may come in, a business that provides a much needed service in the community
We’ve had similar situations, here in Las Vegas, where the City decided to condemn or otherwise zone out businesses for their “rebranding” of the City. The City has paid out millions in tax payer money to these individuals for violating their rights. Keep up the fight
If the Constitution is the supreme law of the land how are all these tyrants getting away with all these b******t fake laws that are repugnant to the Constitution?
U-Hauls are just as ugly as Walmart, gas stations, grocery and other stores, schools, hospitals, police and fire departments, apartment and condo complexes, malls, restaurants, parking lots, roads, power lines, etc. I'm amazed U-Haul doesn't file suit.
I don't even understand how they are "ugly". It's just a place where you rent moving trucks, they are everywhere and should just blend in. They serve a legitimate purpose.
@@coryc9040 People nowadays are very FICKLE at anything & everything. In some towns, semi trucks (18 wheelers) are banned. So you make your deliveries, then have to go park your semi far away from town cuz it's an "eyesore". Hence all these "Karens" nowadays as well. Bitching & complaining about anything & everything.
Thank you for helping this company! I spent 11 years on my local zoning board fighting for property rights. The current board is anti business and is trying to do the same thing. I may be in contact with you.
Amortization is a threat to all property owners, allowing government officials to shut down your safe use of your property simply because they don’t like it. It can destroy your property rights just as if the government took your property-which it can’t do except in very narrow circumstances. If your property has been amortized, please go here: ij.org/case-intake/rezoning-amortization/.
Ridiculous how there are so many injustices in this day and age be it small or large. It sounds like this business is more helpful than harmful. I bet there are so many other businesses around there that have their quirks about them that some don't like so why pick on this one?
Should be illegal 100%, no one should be allowed to prevent a business from thriving just because someone with power does not like it, there has to be grounds of criminal activities to withhold a licensed and up to date business from growing its front to the customers. Corruption to its pure form, misuse of power and management, now that should be grounds to remove the people taking these decisions.
For clarification, as I used to be one of those “40,000” cars that passes through beautiful “North Main Street” everyday commuting from Greenville and cutting through this town of Mauldin ( 0:50 ). Directly across from this families auto shop is a GIANT mayonnaise factory pumping out Dukes Mayo by the truckload…. Rounding out the rest of North Main is a pool store, a double-wide trailer store, probably 5 gas stations, a Dollar Tree, 2 or 3 tire stores, coin laundry, probate court, Autozone/Advanced and OReillys, a car wash, long term storage, a consignment shop, Jiffy Lube, Wendy’s, and a Western Union… Not to mention probably a dozen other defunct or empty buildings in between. Then it’s City Hall where Mr. Mayor Terry Merritt resides… The Uhauls aren’t an eye-sore, I honestly never noticed them in 10 years of driving by because the entire strip of road is not some picturesque downtown. Mr. Terry is just upset he’s surrounded by better towns and cities that have improved over the years and he seems to be singling out one business…
Mayor Terry probably has grand aspirations to remake it all in his image and "revitalize" that part of town. He thinks the U Haul business is just the one easiest Domino that has to fall first for his plan to move along. This family owned and operated business is a LOT easier to target than Dollar Tree, Autozone, and the others.
To echo others, when I was a child, the city of Birmingham let a contract to destroy the beautiful train station. To this day, sixty years later, it is an empty lot. Was done for a developer.
Same thing happened near where I live. A 150 year old building was leveled for a developer. Then they backed out a week after the land was cleared. Now it is an overgrown vacant lot. It has sat untouched for 40 years
Same thing is happening in our little town. They just destroyed one of the oldest buildings because of a developer. A building that was on the Historical list. Doesn't matter when money gets to swapping hands.
@@jennycothern6375 because sometimes the people can't spend that much money operating a historic building is quite expensive and if you keep the owners in courts long enough they will have to give in I agree this is wrong but it's unfortunate
Somtimes buildings really are not that historical and historical societies really reach to classify unnecessary buildings as historical simply because its old. The first time I went to London I asked a random person how they felt about the blitzkrig and I got the best response. He said, "I'm thankful for the V2 bombs because they killed everyone on the zoning board and now we can build skyscrapers."
If the city has changed the laws this should be grandfathered...or...the city should be responsible for the costs of moving them to a appropriate location.
Similar to eminent domain although it sounds like they can't claim that in this case sounds more like a slander also that should be up to the purported representative folks vote rather than unilateral Boss Hog forward slash hazardcounty like crap
As a small business owner, I was told by a developer AND my bank that "A small business is 5 MILLION and above" Quote unquote. So $75k isn't even ACKNOWLEDGED to them. They sure will take your mortgage interest without a blink of the eye though...Sickening, and I hope they win or get a BETTER location!
The true goal is to drive them out of business. The city will go after the landlord and take the property under KELO for "public benefit" at pennies on the dollar.
I agree. This happens across the country, big cities and small towns. Developers can persuade local governments and governments take the land for "public good" and turning it back over to private developers, thus increasing the tax base is a public good. This is a convenient way to get rid of those mom and pop businesses, low income mobile home parks, etc. I bet this town's ultimate goal is to have that land developed, so even if they get rid of the Uhauls, they will come up with other tactics to drive them out. Just wait.
The problem is, is what goes up in the name of "public benefit": usually vast tracts of cookie cutter McMansions and very heavily travelled stroads lined with strip malls, big boxes, and corporate outlets all with vast seas of parking. They turn out over time to be such a drain on city finances that the services deteriorate until people and businesses move out. If they keep this up eventually the whole country will be one vast Detroit and everyone who can will move back to the old country.
@@edwardmiessner6502 exactly. KELO declared that there is no private property rights anymore. Property can be taken by local gov't and given to politically connected developers. 47 states states tightened property rights after KELO and greatly limiting what any level of gov't could take property for. CA and NY were 2 that made it easier for developers to coerce people into selling. All they have to do is threaten to have city hall condemn the property and take for pennies on the dollar. CA passed a law that put 78% of all private property in the state subject to taking for (private) economic development.
What they need to do is get all their employees, and their families and friends, and churches, and everyone else they know, to write and call the mayor and city council. And go on the local news while they're at it. Bad publicity always makes politicians' day. Pointing out how they're shutting down business and costing citizens jobs will not make the voters happy.
Depends on how many citizens agree that the UHaul business is ugly and needs to go. Just because news reporters and online activists are upset doesn't mean the majority of citizens who live there are or care. Local dynamics is real.
@@n.d.m.515 I highly doubt there are ANY residents who would want to lose the option of renting a U-Haul just because it's a supposed "eyesore" I guarantee no significant number of people had ever made such a complaint before. Most residents would be more likely to value practicality over perceived beauty. What's next? Letting voters decide to tear down a high school just because it's ugly? No. That's silliness.
@@Jhfisibejoso8pkabrvo2is8 silly or not, if the voters decide to do that, then in a democracy they can. They do that all the time by the way when voting to shut down a high school and build a whole new one.
I financially contribute to IJ because they do the best thing anyone can do to fight government overstepping its bounds- take them to court! Hope you win this one!
Yeah, and what about the garages that work on various types of trucks and industrial equipment, gonna railroad them out of business, too? How about the places that work on farmers' tractors? How beautiful are those places? Better outlaw the local landfill, too. This has the stink of sleazy local politics all over it. One of the mayor's golf buddies is probably looking to put one of his businesses there and is scheming to get the property for cheap.
Also a lot of interstates go through the industrial part of cities because the noise isn't an issue there, so most people's first impressions of a city are the factories and tractor trailers and oil tank farms.
Two responses: 1) In Florida we have the "Burt Harris Act" which says if government changes your zoning and devalues your land, you have standing to make a claim for that loss. If that happened here it would just become non-conforming and allowed to continue. If destroyed by 50% it can't be built back. They still have that claim. 2) Someone I knew had a "used building material" company where they sold old doors, windows, toilets, anything used to build a building. So a developer buys land across the street and gets a development order for over $1B worth of waterfront highrise condos. The used building parts guy across the street lines up all his toilets at the fence line and the developer bought every one of them and donated them to Habitat for Humanity. Then the development goes bankrupt and it was the largest bankruptcy in this history of the nation at $179MM, only to be outdone a few months later by an even bigger one in the same county. This was Florida 2008-ish. It was on national news.
Developer bought all the toilets because they didn't like the look of them? Mature response. But I can see why developers went bankrupt - they weren't shady and cutthroat enough.
Ugly road, across from an ugly factory surrounded by an ugly chain link fence. Ugly dollar stores, ugly gas stations, ugly tire shops, ugly insurance offices. There's no way the private developer has even noticed this one business. Downtown? You mean where the six lane road meets the other six lane road? About a mile away? This isn't about rezoning and beautifying. This is picking on one individual. Very fishy.
Any town that looks like THAT should just disincorporate. The water and sewer services can be taken over by the county just like the streets and drains would be, or privatized.
This looks like an actually decent place to pick up a uhaul! They don’t look like they need to change anything to me! They sincerely look like they run 2 respectable businesses out of this location.
_Kelo v. City of New London_ is a textbook example of eminent domain abuse. The town took someone's house away from them, in order to build a mall, and then the mall developer couldn't get the financing. This went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the town.
Did they remunerate the home owner, or was there a provision for government to simply take it if they felt it necessary for local growth? Either way, that's awful. Sometimes people lose property for the good of a community, but this just sounds corrupt to the core.
@@noctisocculta4820 Totally corrupt, I don't know if the home owner was ultimately compensated, but obviously they lost their most valuable possession that can never ben restored. The one consolation here is that Connecticut is a dying state; they've lost most of the insurance companies that were the biggest taxpayers, all the manufacturers fled years ago, and young people are moving away. This is the end stage of uncontrolled liberalism.
@@ChickensAndGardening How long will Sikorsky Aircraft last now that they've lost the bid for a new aircraft to Bell? Lego is moving their U.S. headquarters out of CT, to Boston, GE left, all the firearms manufacturers, the Pratt and Whitney in North Haven closed almost 30 years ago,
Too bad Uhaul can't collect the names of the Mayor, the developer, and the entire damn city council, and black ball them and their entire families from ever renting from them ever again.
Yeah, this kind of thing happens all the time. Usually the city just takes the land using eminent domain and gives it to the developer so this is a slightly different method but the outcome is the same.
Yeah they do that where I live. As the cities grow, they take farmland away for pennies on the dollar. Then turn it around and sell it for millions to a developer who also makes millions. Meanwhile the family that farmed that land for 80 years doesn't have enough money to even replace the land that was taken without moving so far north that the land is almost useless.
@@pastrami00 I do know that they abused the intent of it, but it really was made so that it was to be used for improvement of public area like making more roads or other things. It was never made for such years ago here we had someone fighting it as the claimed his property for a road widening project but it never happened.
@@johnree6106 That's crazy, they took the entire property to widen the road? You'd think they'd just slice off an easement for that. I suspect the reason the project never came to fruition was rampant corruption pocketing tax money and bribes.
Gee, regulatory tyranny, who would've guessed. Bet you any money the city is doing this to hand over the property over to a connected person with a sweetheart deal for a development project.
Cities are corporations, they are not government. They work with other businesses with the perceived power they have to benefit those that have the influence on city governmental services corporations. City for Champions in my hometown of Colorado Springs is a prime example. The influence of those with more money than sense to displace businesses and homes from the downtown area, get money from the "taxpayers" to the developers has been going on for decades. Smaller cities and towns are now seeing a similar push. The goal is to find out what the master plan is and uncover what's next. It sounds like they risk losing their entire business if there is more going on. Their landlord may be enticed to sell for something "prettier" than an automotive repair shop. It's happening here, it can happen in smaller communities too.
That has to be the most incorrect statement I've ever heard about government and unfair business practices. What do you think gives them the authority to do this? Just because a government hires a business, does not make them a business themselves, literally or figuratively, and it doesn't take away their unconstitutional power grab. The reason they can do this is because they are the government, not becuase of their greed, as horrible as it is. Their power doesn't come from their business practices, even if they are bad, it comes from the "authority" of being an official governing body and the powers they have. Do you think, without government, companies can just somehow boss their rival companies around magically with money alone? That is naive. Do you think that the US military is a private military contractor just because they buy equipment from private companies like Sig Sauer or Lockheed and Martin? Yes, they may be running the government like a corrupt business, which is wrong, but that's the point...they're the government. Any other company in the private sector doing this would have their higher ups arrested and the business shut down.
@@randyb3851 Seems to me that you need to begin unstuffing the information you "learned" and start paying attention. Look up your city on Dunn and Bradstreet. Look up various fed gov agencies, all are incorporated. These are not government, they are governmental services corporations. When you understand the difference, it all begins to unfold. Or you stay in your protected space because you choose to stay in denial. Be as defensive about it as you choose, it doesn't change the reality of what government is and isn't...how they are supposed to operate and how/why they operate the way they do.
COS represent! It really is little better than the local corruption exhibited in shows like Boardwalk Empire. Crooks posing as businessmen/politicians expecting us to be grateful for their benevolent guidance.
Government officials are servant's PERIOD servant's work for the people PERIOD 🇱🇷 we Americans have a document called the constitution of America and it is top law
Not really. Cops have safety which over ride your const rights. That's why cops are allowed to break the const for their safety per SC. So, govt protecting govt & eff the citizens.
And gov officials everywhere, are ROTFL, as they read this, because they flaunt the Constitution, and luxuriate in being drunk on power; the power to ruin other people's lives.
What will look even worse is the empty, abandoned building when they close up shop and take their business and tax dollars elsewhere. That's the kind of place that will sit empty and rot to the ground for years
I used to work in that area. Almost every other place around them has been turned into sub divisions. That looks even more ugly. This has all happened in about 5 years or so. Even worse, I could see it happening much longer than that.
I've just sent the city an email, saying shame on them and asking them to reverse the decision. If thousands of us do it. They might listen. Good luck everyone
To me, those "40 - 50 thousand cars passing each day" are *far* more of an unsightly blemish. They should remove the roads. As a bonus, then they won't be afflicted by seeing some ordinary trucks parked by the side of the road in a parking lot.
I found it interesting too how they were talking about "50 thousand cars seeing..." as if it is the car that sees anything. The car truly seems to be the superior being and humans are just an afterthought in the eyes of some.
city counsellors (and majors) are often corrupt and enjoy kickbacks from developers in exchange for suddenly and quietly rezoning, or changing 'pesky rules' that everyone else had to do with for decades if not longer. In this area, several long time businesses (over 40 years old) have had real-estate developers buying up all the land around them, developing 100s of houses on them, then complaining that the business they engulfed is ugly, or makes too much noise, or doesn't fit well in a 'residential area' after they made it into one. The most recent local example is just a few km from here, its a 80 year old tree nursery on the outskirts of town.
I would believe that Corporate U-Haul would want to get involved here. A thriving business about to be destroyed by some Num-Nuts needs reciprocity like proposing a future black-balling any business in the town from renting their equipment or relocating the business out of the city's Tax enforcement. Harsh treatment but there has to be money being paid by the developer to the City officials. That is the Carolina way.
Yeah, or the parts of some towns that are dominated by pawn shop and payday loan businesses. I'm just giving an example, I'm not advocating that they get run out of town. I don't like a lot of those places and I think a lot of those business owners are scumbags but if they're operating within the law, they have the same right to be there. The landfill is unsightly, gonna make those illegal, too.
Gentrification results in better looking areas with higher property values. The only people who complain are usually renters who didn't take the opportunity to buy themselves.
I'm pretty sure there's no automatic legal "grandfathered". Any criteria for wavers need to be part of the law or regulation. Hopefully the adults will prevail without childish reactions that also don't help the business.
@@deusvult6920 I can tell you have no basic knowledge of laws and regulations and probably get all you information from some guy on the internet. There's still no automatic "Grandfather clause" it has to be an actual clause in the regulation. You don't really care about that anyway. You're just pointless and negative.. 😘
Steve Lehto did a video covering this. Iirc their auto business and all other businesses on that strip of road are grandfathered in EXCEPT for the U-Haul.
Zoning out the business to increase the property value and development potential of the piece of land is one thing, but what usually happens is is that the old business is destroyed and the developer builds a shiny new corporate retail outlet or power center with lots of parking, which perversely brings in less tax revenue into the city than before! Check out Not Just Bikes' latest video featuring Lafayette, LA or any Strong Towns article on Brainerd, MN (a block of old storefronts vs. a new Taco Hell)
This has the stink of small town politics all over it. I'm betting one of the mayor's golf-buddies is looking to acquire some town land for cheap to put one of his businesses on it.
That’s crazy. Our downtown U-Haul has a truck on top of their building. It’s visible from the expressway and a landmark that’s fun to see as you drive by.
Locally-owned mechanic shops are the most grassroots American business. To see a mayor more concerned about "ugliness" rather than a thriving locally-owned business is true ugliness!
Find "Killdozer" videos on RUclips. In Florida, if a county is over a certain population, a town must be 5000 residents to be incorporated as such. I have property in a small town there which consistently has been under that amount. Sadly no law exist that demands a city LOSE it's incorporation in such a case. There should be a law that removes a town's charger (incorporation) as such when it couldn't currently qualify as a newly chartered town.
"Not only do we rent U-Hauls we also work on U-Hauls" also "Mr. Bishop is one of our regular customers as well, met him because he had broke down in a U-Haul actually." 😐 🤣🤣🤣
that's a massive oversimplification of a complicated issue that affects at least 17 families. they cannot all simply move, your suggestion is not even 5,000 miles within reason
Mauldin SC is a corrupt small town. Around 2007-2012 they had regular dui checkpoints in the town and the police would walk around your car with AR style rifles with lights attached and shine the lights in all your windows, including at the passengers (aka me as a kid), like we were in afghanistan or something. One person I know was arrested after buying a beer at a gas station and was not told why he was arrested until after he'd been released. Turns out he was accused of stealing the beer, which he could have proven to be a false claim if he had known about the allegation since he still had the receipt in his car, along with the beer. He sued the city and received a 100k settlement.
Though it was several years ago, I used to live in the "Upstate SC" area (next town over from Mauldin). This is not a new thang. Mauldin SC is a continuous ego trip.
I Googlemapped this place. Sark Automotive, 728 N. Main Street, Mauldin SC. Have a look at it and answer me this: if the developer does not like U-Hauls at this garage, why is he OK with the _enormous mayonnaise factory_ right across the street. I mean seriously, how beautiful can this stretch of road get if there's an _enormous mayonnaise factory_ along it. _Enormous. Mayonnaise. Factory._
It wouldn't surprise me that these small town mayors and other higher ups get under the table handouts from the developers. They have very deep pockets. I hope it turns out well for the Sarks.
Bring the mayor to court - ask him if he ever used the same U-Haul tricks he is trying to get rid of and where does he plan to get other trucks when he or his office needs them?
Got UHaul service right next to a church in my region and it's all fine, better fine that developer for being unqualified. It's like a fashion designer who can only work with already beautiful models and is inept at bringing out the beauty in the average, totally unqualified for the job and overpaid nonetheless. It's that developers job to make it nice with what he got, not demand outrageous changes, because obviously a cherry blossom tree would be pretty, but awkward next to the street.
What’s ugly is a cookie-cutter development in a small town. It doesn’t look clean, it looks like everywhere else and takes away whatever character and charm there once was.
I bought a salvage yard once and it had been in continuous operation for 51 years with a state license. During that time the nearby town eventually annexed land past the business but did not say anything about whether or not it conformed to any zoning. A few years after I owned it they sent a letter stating the land wasn't zoned for that use and the business didn't conform to the zoning and needed to cease business until brought into conformity and rezoned. I got a lawyer and at the first hearing the city caved in and dropped all the complaints because they knew they couldn't retroactively zone property and the business was grandfathered in by the state as it didn't conform to all the current salvage rules either. Cities just trying to control things they don't have the right to control. Best 900 bucks I ever spent on a lawyer.
This is happening in every small city in the nation! A decade ago a town in Los Angeles county, actually confiscated over a 1000 pieces of property including running operating businesses so they could tear them down and beautify that particular avenue, and they did so without reimbursement to the landowners, the courts would even here the lawsuits..
sounds very similar to the case in Wilsonville OR where the downtown hardware store had a U-Haul side business. Lots of games with the city and zoning changes until the U-Haul business was forced out. This was in the early 2000s
Wonder if the word went out in the whole county not to do any repairs/service on the mayors family vehicles, appliances......everything what would happen? After all some of those businesses may have used those ugly unsightly rental vehicles at some point in time
As long as no one working at that business requires health care, their children require no education, they aren't LGBTQ, they are incapable of getting pregnant, and they don't mind walking around in a state where any idiot can carry any gun they want whenever they want. Oh, and don't be anything but white, cuz otherwise there is a target on you for that, too. I wouldn't move to Texas for 10 million dollars.
UPDATE: Just days before Sark’s Automotive might have been forced to lay off employees, the city of Mauldin chose not to be grinches who steal jobs. Yesterday, the city council repealed its amortization ordinance.
“We’re relieved that this important part of our business will continue next year,” said Jeremy. “What the city tried to do wasn’t right and it would have hurt our employees, customers and people who move to and from Mauldin.”
Read the press release here: ij.org/press-release/victory-for-u-haul-business-as-mauldin-south-carolina-agrees-not-to-ban-its-truck-rentals/
This strikes me as pure snobbishness. These people want the work done and the services supplied but they don't want to see the businesses that make it happen. Just cookie cutter houses and office buildings. It's like Victorian mansions where the servants must look at the wall when the Lord or his family walk by. Pretty damn insulting.
Just government(criminal psychopaths) doing what government(criminal psychopaths) do. The US is lost. The lunatics control the asylum. This is what happen when you let them out of the cells and let them take over the offices and start giving themselves official titles and run the payroll.
@@PumpkinheadsPlayhouse , I bet they didn't learn a thing, they are probably scheming on how to make more money and pocket that for themselves by rezoning a different way :(
Started to fear losing THEIR jobs!
That's great news. Maybe the city of Mauldin thought about the "revenue" they'd be losing should they have forced the issue.
This is what happens when the local mayor is a retired executive, worried about how the town looks and attracting new comers rather than attending to what’s already there.
City gov'ts have been like this for a long time. Motivated, icky people often seek power and those people also care exclusively about building and not maintaining. I know most people where I live don't want to keep expanding forever until we connect to Denver, but it sure seems like that's what's gonna happen.
This mayor is a predatory psychopath
@@DerakosZrux I think we live in the same spot and it's horrible. Denver is the worst, also people don't realize, more people = more problems.
U mean advancing and improving a run down city! Yeah heaven forbid they have a mayor that cares and puts effort into how the city looks! But really doesn’t matter cause this is some snowflake crybaby shit! They were not singled out in anyway! Must hurt being so stupid and ignorant!
The industrial nature of the area is very obvious. A factory across the road must go next? Look at the garbage slapped up housing units just south of the U-Haul Business. They look like crap, and they are new? Real Estate swindlers encroaching on lower priced industrial land to make a buck!!
Never in all my years of driving through numerous cities have I ever been offended by the sight of rental trucks. I strongly suspect that some deep digging will show that these city officials all received bribes from the developer.
I was expecting to see hundreds of trucks on a few city blocks and there were only two or three in view from the street.
I suspect with some digging, we would find that nearly ALL city officials receive bribes from developers
That was my first thought...Something smells in Mauldin...
It's obvious they're trying to run them off cuz somebody wants that piece of land
100% it happens here all the time,
i've worked for several developers in this region, they are opportunistic scum
The only person who should lose their job is the mayor
I have a sneaking suspicion he will next election.
@focke wulf Changing Zoning is fine. Necessary. Attempting to do so without grandfathering in businesses because you feel like it? That’s the problem.
he would have if people would have lost their jobs over this decision.
@fockewulf2352: and the city administrator and attorney.
Your damn right
Developer, that’s where 99% of problems start with city “re-imaging”. The developer only wants to make money for himself, he doesn’t give a damn about the city or the people living there.
Yeah, private developers don't care about the city's needs or how it functions for the residents. It's all about using their land ownership to generate revenue and they'll happily screw over rival land owners and businesses to give themselves an advantage.
I'm not against developers making money but I am 100% against any business using the government to screw over other businesses.
Its all about looks, selling an image and an idea to other dickheads who care even less about the people actually being affected. The rat race participants who end up having their lives and homes ruined domt matter. Their purpose is to consume things, not to fight back or think.
@@Strideo1 The US is an oligarch at this point and openly fascist federal government.
Bahahaha u clearly have no clue how things work!!
MONORAIL!!!
Just think, these people are under attack, simply because ONE PERSON decided they "didnt like how something LOOKS" and then convinced other people to go along with him. Its despicable!
Actually, ONE PERSON convinces the city leaders who are supposed to represent the city population AS A WHOLE.
@@fwingebritson if you read up on it, this has been the new mayor’s plan for years. He ran on building a new shopping center.
@@lopoa126 thank you for that additional input...
@@lopoa126 Well that clarifies it, I guess. Unfortunately there are too many "developers" that lead city governments by the nose, which would make a person fall for a generally.... Ah well. Keep up the good work though, some of us are too old to spend too much time following up on things, it's more fun to have knee jerk reactions as grumpy old bastards.
I know the feeling. I've been persecuted, too, and lost many friends and allies in various social experiences in the last 10 years, just because One Specific Person doesn't like something about me, so they tell everyone else to shun me. And God forbid they speak their mind, then they get the boot from those social cliques. Apparently status in a clique is more important than having enough sense to realize only one person has an irrational opinion. Damn shame.
Everytime I see a law made for an individual it's going to be a problem. When everyone is grandfathered except one business there's a problem.
And again, thank you for protecting people from government abuse.
Bill of attainder, but reversed so it excludes instead of includes just one person.
Grandfathered? That law shouldn't exist in the first place. People should be able to start a small business like that anywhere they want to.
Killdozer time
@@austinhernandez2716 stupid take, The reason this is bad is because it's obviously targeting a specific business who already established themselves, but there's nothing wrong with a city deciding it wants to preserve areas for certain functions and aesthetics. for example it would be stupid to allow a strip club to open beside a historic church that draws tourist revenue, why would a city, and in turn it's residents, sacrifice more money going into their local ecosystem? Smart zoning is major way to help a cities economy, along side a bunch of other positives like not having waste processing plants open next to your house.
@@austinhernandez2716 Say that when it's in your backyard. In this case it's in a pre-existing commercial zone, so it should be grandfathered. I definitely am rooting for the SBO.
"Nobody should loose their job just because someone thinks U-Hauls are ugly".
Well said!
I was in a similar situation years ago. I moved my business farther up the road, but outside the city limits. That made them cry! Suddenly, those sweet, sweet, tax payments no longer going to the city. The intersection that business was on had 4 family run businesses in 1981 but by 1983 it had zero. Not one of those properties have seen any development since we all moved. As the years went by, everyone left the city limits. Downtown is vacant, the major intersections are ghost towns, restaurants, garages, gas stations, convenience stores, retail outlets have all moved outside the city limits. People started building homes outside the limits as well.
This is how shortsighted and power hungry morons kill towns. Walmart doesn't do it, strip malls don't do it, city governments do it. No my home town is a shell of what it was and should have become. Glad I sold out and left when I did. Who would want to live in a town that cannot even repair the streets? LMAO
no, walmarts absolutely destroyed small and middle town america as well.
I know someone who was in your situation, and the city in question tried to annex the new area that had grown outside the limits. Some political snakes have no shame...
Walmart does affect small business tho...
@@nonyabidness5708 so what!
No what is short sided is ur stupidity and ignorance! They didn’t miss you and the city was better off!
The fact that people will have to loose their jobs, just because of a mayor. That should be criminal. What a horrible man. I hope he gets voted out of office. Keep up the good fight, Uhaul business.
That on its own isn't a bad thing. For instance, common people are pushing for a shift away from fossil fuels, and if that dose become a reality, it would means millions lose their jobs.
I'd say a better way to put it is it's a stupid reason, saying its because someone thinks it's "ugly". For instance, having a downtown littered with bars and certain entertainment business is ugly to some, but you see that kind of thing everywhere because alcohol laws benefit the government(alcohol tax). So to pass a targeted law because of someone's perception of beauty is perhaps one of the worse reasons to pass a law.
@@androidmaster3369 wind and solar aren't reliable sources of power. Constant outages will only get worse, and it's not only because of negligence of officials.
Regardless, that wasn't the point I was making.
@@androidmaster3369 good onen dude. 👏 U got me there.
@@androidmaster3369 spelling mistake my b. Good one*
@@androidmaster3369 environmental extremism will kill more people that fossil fuels. Fact!
Uhaul should join the lawsuit for defamation and prejudice against their brand, who the hell do these people in government think they are? Only problem is Joe and Mark Shoen are to cheap to care.
Well thinking something is ugly is your right.
Opinions aren't defamation.
I actually do think uhaul places look ugly in run down towns.
But then I think the whole town looks ugly.
In a major metro area with the whole new parking lot, storage area trucks lined up they don't.
Based on the view of this town the U-Haul is as ugly as the rest of it.
It seems they want some short circuit path where they get a single company to come in, demo everything and rebuild all new and beautiful.
Of course that's not worth it. Happens organically.
If you grow the town enough this guy's business will be so profitable he'll have to expand, possibly by demoing the local and rebuilding a garage and rental place for himself.
Then you get new and pretty.
@@sparkzbarca that's why we let a jury decide genius, if an opinion results in monetary injury to property or reputation then its defamation especially when its a public institution engaging in libelous actionable conduct
@@Makeitliquidfast well not genius, it doesn't matter if it hurts you monetarily if it's opinion.
Let me explain how stupid your idea is.
I write a review on Yelp about a restaurant.
Restaurant gets less customers cause I said food is bad.
Your idea is now they get to sue me and make me go to trial.
Your idea is dumb.
It doesn't matter if something hurts you if it's opinion because a person's right to an opinion trumps your right not to be injured by it.
If they provably lie about something, so it's not an opinion.
Let's say they say you're a murderer and your not and now people don't go to your place because they worry about getting killed.
That's actionable.
Ugly is not actionable.
That's because the truth is always a defense against libel/slander and if someone says "I believe it's ugly."
That is true, they do think that.
Unless your suggesting you can read minds and know they are lying about their opinion it's the truth and the truth isn't illegal not genius.
@@sparkzbarca well you're definitely not an attorney that's for sure, if you yell fire in a crowded theater it may only be your opinion but its still actionable under the law if people get hurt genius.
@@Makeitliquidfast lol fire is not an opinion.
You really think fire exists what? Only in the mind?
Honest to God I'm trying to break this down for you but it's hard.
If you make a claim about the physical existence of something.
One can use your five senses to determine verifiably, empirically if it's true.
So no fire doesn't work.
Try again.
I always go to Sark's Automotive when I need work done on my vehicle. They do an excellent and honest job. I hope they win their case.
you need to recall your Mayor....
Good honest mechanics are vital to any community.
Maybe they should paint the trucks with the mayor and city Council's faces and see if they still think it's ugly. I'm happy you took this case and thank you.
What an immature reaction.
@@CirrowProductions I think it's brilliant.
@@aaronp3109 It's violence.
@@CirrowProductions 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@CirrowProductions for goodness sake violence is law destroying innocent family lives
I love the logic. Cripple or possible kill a proven thriving, tax paying business on a maybe that a developer may come in, a business that provides a much needed service in the community
We’ve had similar situations, here in Las Vegas, where the City decided to condemn or otherwise zone out businesses for their “rebranding” of the City. The City has paid out millions in tax payer money to these individuals for violating their rights. Keep up the fight
The developer could help them make a more attractive storefront . Awful developer, awful mayor! Shame on them!
If the Constitution is the supreme law of the land how are all these tyrants getting away with all these b******t fake laws that are repugnant to the Constitution?
That's the way it should be.
It's not the store front. Did you even watch the video? It's the Uhaul trucks themselves.....
That’s exactly what I thought. Developer wants to destroy another’s income so he can make money?! Make it make sense!!
I'd sue the holy fuck out of the developer, the mayor, the city, the county, and the state.
I stand behind this couple. 100 percent. Do not back down.
U-Hauls are just as ugly as Walmart, gas stations, grocery and other stores, schools, hospitals, police and fire departments, apartment and condo complexes, malls, restaurants, parking lots, roads, power lines, etc.
I'm amazed U-Haul doesn't file suit.
Don't forget the suburbian hellscapes most of these developers are building. Those are incredibly ugly too.
@@Taladar2003 agree
I don't even understand how they are "ugly". It's just a place where you rent moving trucks, they are everywhere and should just blend in. They serve a legitimate purpose.
@@coryc9040 Exactly. I vote for you to replace that idiotic city council.
@@coryc9040 People nowadays are very FICKLE at anything & everything. In some towns, semi trucks (18 wheelers) are banned. So you make your deliveries, then have to go park your semi far away from town cuz it's an "eyesore".
Hence all these "Karens" nowadays as well. Bitching & complaining about anything & everything.
Thank you for helping this company! I spent 11 years on my local zoning board fighting for property rights. The current board is anti business and is trying to do the same thing. I may be in contact with you.
Yep, which is stupid as hell. Run off local businesses if you want to kill your town. These people are idiots.
@CranialDamage KillDozer. I've heard Granby Colorado where the local govt was corrupt, hasn't improved since then.
Amortization is a threat to all property owners, allowing government officials to shut down your safe use of your property simply because they don’t like it. It can destroy your property rights just as if the government took your property-which it can’t do except in very narrow circumstances.
If your property has been amortized, please go here: ij.org/case-intake/rezoning-amortization/.
Just name the developer publicly.
@@prunabluepepper And check the pockets, of those twits who codified and approved it.
Ridiculous how there are so many injustices in this day and age be it small or large. It sounds like this business is more helpful than harmful. I bet there are so many other businesses around there that have their quirks about them that some don't like so why pick on this one?
Should be illegal 100%, no one should be allowed to prevent a business from thriving just because someone with power does not like it, there has to be grounds of criminal activities to withhold a licensed and up to date business from growing its front to the customers. Corruption to its pure form, misuse of power and management, now that should be grounds to remove the people taking these decisions.
Im tired of these politicians who give themselves "god-like" powers.
For clarification, as I used to be one of those “40,000” cars that passes through beautiful “North Main Street” everyday commuting from Greenville and cutting through this town of Mauldin ( 0:50 ). Directly across from this families auto shop is a GIANT mayonnaise factory pumping out Dukes Mayo by the truckload…. Rounding out the rest of North Main is a pool store, a double-wide trailer store, probably 5 gas stations, a Dollar Tree, 2 or 3 tire stores, coin laundry, probate court, Autozone/Advanced and OReillys, a car wash, long term storage, a consignment shop, Jiffy Lube, Wendy’s, and a Western Union… Not to mention probably a dozen other defunct or empty buildings in between. Then it’s City Hall where Mr. Mayor Terry Merritt resides… The Uhauls aren’t an eye-sore, I honestly never noticed them in 10 years of driving by because the entire strip of road is not some picturesque downtown. Mr. Terry is just upset he’s surrounded by better towns and cities that have improved over the years and he seems to be singling out one business…
Thanks for the information. If it is a industrial factory on the other side of the road, any commercial / retail business is much less of an eyesore.
Mayor Terry probably has grand aspirations to remake it all in his image and "revitalize" that part of town. He thinks the U Haul business is just the one easiest Domino that has to fall first for his plan to move along. This family owned and operated business is a LOT easier to target than Dollar Tree, Autozone, and the others.
To echo others, when I was a child, the city of Birmingham let a contract to destroy the beautiful train station. To this day, sixty years later, it is an empty lot. Was done for a developer.
Same thing happened near where I live. A 150 year old building was leveled for a developer. Then they backed out a week after the land was cleared. Now it is an overgrown vacant lot. It has sat untouched for 40 years
Same thing is happening in our little town. They just destroyed one of the oldest buildings because of a developer. A building that was on the Historical list. Doesn't matter when money gets to swapping hands.
😲 why didnt the historical aspect protect it?
@@jennycothern6375 because sometimes the people can't spend that much money operating a historic building is quite expensive and if you keep the owners in courts long enough they will have to give in I agree this is wrong but it's unfortunate
Somtimes buildings really are not that historical and historical societies really reach to classify unnecessary buildings as historical simply because its old. The first time I went to London I asked a random person how they felt about the blitzkrig and I got the best response. He said, "I'm thankful for the V2 bombs because they killed everyone on the zoning board and now we can build skyscrapers."
If the city has changed the laws this should be grandfathered...or...the city should be responsible for the costs of moving them to a appropriate location.
Similar to eminent domain although it sounds like they can't claim that in this case sounds more like a slander also that should be up to the purported representative folks vote rather than unilateral Boss Hog forward slash hazardcounty like crap
As a small business owner, I was told by a developer AND my bank that "A small business is 5 MILLION and above" Quote unquote. So $75k isn't even ACKNOWLEDGED to them. They sure will take your mortgage interest without a blink of the eye though...Sickening, and I hope they win or get a BETTER location!
Whole lot more going on here besides u-haul trucks. Look at all the ugly billboards and other junk that on the roads. Major Karen for a Mayor.
Wow, I hope this gets resolved in their favor 🙏
This is a great asset to the town. This is every reason to support your local business's.
Follow the money, I'd lay odds the developer has donated to the campaigns of the politicians pushing this through.
The true goal is to drive them out of business. The city will go after the landlord and take the property under KELO for "public benefit" at pennies on the dollar.
IJ wants another shot at overturning Kelo vs New London so they're always on the hunt for good imminent domain abuse cases.
I agree. This happens across the country, big cities and small towns. Developers can persuade local governments and governments take the land for "public good" and turning it back over to private developers, thus increasing the tax base is a public good. This is a convenient way to get rid of those mom and pop businesses, low income mobile home parks, etc.
I bet this town's ultimate goal is to have that land developed, so even if they get rid of the Uhauls, they will come up with other tactics to drive them out. Just wait.
The problem is, is what goes up in the name of "public benefit": usually vast tracts of cookie cutter McMansions and very heavily travelled stroads lined with strip malls, big boxes, and corporate outlets all with vast seas of parking. They turn out over time to be such a drain on city finances that the services deteriorate until people and businesses move out. If they keep this up eventually the whole country will be one vast Detroit and everyone who can will move back to the old country.
@@edwardmiessner6502 exactly.
KELO declared that there is no private property rights anymore.
Property can be taken by local gov't and given to politically connected developers.
47 states states tightened property rights after KELO and greatly limiting what any level of gov't could take property for.
CA and NY were 2 that made it easier for developers to coerce people into selling. All they have to do is threaten to have city hall condemn the property and take for pennies on the dollar.
CA passed a law that put 78% of all private property in the state subject to taking for (private) economic development.
They should also sue the developer for tortious interference .
Looking that up, right now!
What they need to do is get all their employees, and their families and friends, and churches, and everyone else they know, to write and call the mayor and city council. And go on the local news while they're at it. Bad publicity always makes politicians' day. Pointing out how they're shutting down business and costing citizens jobs will not make the voters happy.
Depends on how many citizens agree that the UHaul business is ugly and needs to go. Just because news reporters and online activists are upset doesn't mean the majority of citizens who live there are or care. Local dynamics is real.
@@n.d.m.515 I highly doubt there are ANY residents who would want to lose the option of renting a U-Haul just because it's a supposed "eyesore"
I guarantee no significant number of people had ever made such a complaint before.
Most residents would be more likely to value practicality over perceived beauty.
What's next? Letting voters decide to tear down a high school just because it's ugly? No. That's silliness.
@@Jhfisibejoso8pkabrvo2is8 silly or not, if the voters decide to do that, then in a democracy they can. They do that all the time by the way when voting to shut down a high school and build a whole new one.
I financially contribute to IJ because they do the best thing anyone can do to fight government overstepping its bounds- take them to court! Hope you win this one!
Since they keep saying U-Hauls are ugly has anyone asked the council which moving trucks they find to be the attractive fleets?
Yeah, and what about the garages that work on various types of trucks and industrial equipment, gonna railroad them out of business, too? How about the places that work on farmers' tractors? How beautiful are those places? Better outlaw the local landfill, too. This has the stink of sleazy local politics all over it. One of the mayor's golf buddies is probably looking to put one of his businesses there and is scheming to get the property for cheap.
Their logic is all rental moving trucks are ugly and they shudnt exist in their town
The aerial shots show there's more than enough room to keep them on the rear of their lot.
Also a lot of interstates go through the industrial part of cities because the noise isn't an issue there, so most people's first impressions of a city are the factories and tractor trailers and oil tank farms.
@@MannyBrum
That makes sense.
Two responses:
1) In Florida we have the "Burt Harris Act" which says if government changes your zoning and devalues your land, you have standing to make a claim for that loss. If that happened here it would just become non-conforming and allowed to continue. If destroyed by 50% it can't be built back. They still have that claim.
2) Someone I knew had a "used building material" company where they sold old doors, windows, toilets, anything used to build a building. So a developer buys land across the street and gets a development order for over $1B worth of waterfront highrise condos. The used building parts guy across the street lines up all his toilets at the fence line and the developer bought every one of them and donated them to Habitat for Humanity. Then the development goes bankrupt and it was the largest bankruptcy in this history of the nation at $179MM, only to be outdone a few months later by an even bigger one in the same county. This was Florida 2008-ish. It was on national news.
Developer bought all the toilets because they didn't like the look of them? Mature response. But I can see why developers went bankrupt - they weren't shady and cutthroat enough.
When everyone is grandfathered except one business, that's call discrimination and it's very clear to see in this case!
Anytime a city and developer get sued I'm a happy man.
IfJ doesn't sue private entities it's only the city being sued
There are good developers out there too. Extremely rare, but they exist. Not every developer is a greedy piece of sh…..
I’m guessing a friend of the mayor or council is going to magically open a uhaul business they approve of.
Most obvious first thing that came to my mind, I ctrl-f for this knowing this is obvious to others as well.
Where are they going to go for repairs?🤷♀️
@@dlbstl hopefully, they'll have to tow it to the next town over....
Ugly road, across from an ugly factory surrounded by an ugly chain link fence. Ugly dollar stores, ugly gas stations, ugly tire shops, ugly insurance offices. There's no way the private developer has even noticed this one business. Downtown? You mean where the six lane road meets the other six lane road? About a mile away? This isn't about rezoning and beautifying. This is picking on one individual. Very fishy.
Any town that looks like THAT should just disincorporate. The water and sewer services can be taken over by the county just like the streets and drains would be, or privatized.
The mayor saw all these rich city people with high paying remote jobs moving into small towns and said he wants a piece of that action..
This looks like an actually decent place to pick up a uhaul! They don’t look like they need to change anything to me! They sincerely look like they run 2 respectable businesses out of this location.
_Kelo v. City of New London_ is a textbook example of eminent domain abuse. The town took someone's house away from them, in order to build a mall, and then the mall developer couldn't get the financing. This went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the town.
it's still a vacant lot to this day as far as I know
Did they remunerate the home owner, or was there a provision for government to simply take it if they felt it necessary for local growth? Either way, that's awful. Sometimes people lose property for the good of a community, but this just sounds corrupt to the core.
@@noctisocculta4820 Totally corrupt, I don't know if the home owner was ultimately compensated, but obviously they lost their most valuable possession that can never ben restored. The one consolation here is that Connecticut is a dying state; they've lost most of the insurance companies that were the biggest taxpayers, all the manufacturers fled years ago, and young people are moving away. This is the end stage of uncontrolled liberalism.
@@ChickensAndGardening How long will Sikorsky Aircraft last now that they've lost the bid for a new aircraft to Bell? Lego is moving their U.S. headquarters out of CT, to Boston, GE left, all the firearms manufacturers, the Pratt and Whitney in North Haven closed almost 30 years ago,
Too bad Uhaul can't collect the names of the Mayor, the developer, and the entire damn city council, and black ball them and their entire families from ever renting from them ever again.
Yeah, this kind of thing happens all the time. Usually the city just takes the land using eminent domain and gives it to the developer so this is a slightly different method but the outcome is the same.
Yeah they do that where I live. As the cities grow, they take farmland away for pennies on the dollar. Then turn it around and sell it for millions to a developer who also makes millions. Meanwhile the family that farmed that land for 80 years doesn't have enough money to even replace the land that was taken without moving so far north that the land is almost useless.
It would have to be for public purposes otherwise lawsuit
@@johnree6106 Nope, they simply say that the increased tax revenue is the public benefit. criminal.
@@pastrami00 I do know that they abused the intent of it, but it really was made so that it was to be used for improvement of public area like making more roads or other things. It was never made for such years ago here we had someone fighting it as the claimed his property for a road widening project but it never happened.
@@johnree6106 That's crazy, they took the entire property to widen the road? You'd think they'd just slice off an easement for that. I suspect the reason the project never came to fruition was rampant corruption pocketing tax money and bribes.
Gee, regulatory tyranny, who would've guessed.
Bet you any money the city is doing this to hand over the property over to a connected person with a sweetheart deal for a development project.
Cities are corporations, they are not government. They work with other businesses with the perceived power they have to benefit those that have the influence on city governmental services corporations.
City for Champions in my hometown of Colorado Springs is a prime example. The influence of those with more money than sense to displace businesses and homes from the downtown area, get money from the "taxpayers" to the developers has been going on for decades.
Smaller cities and towns are now seeing a similar push. The goal is to find out what the master plan is and uncover what's next. It sounds like they risk losing their entire business if there is more going on. Their landlord may be enticed to sell for something "prettier" than an automotive repair shop. It's happening here, it can happen in smaller communities too.
That has to be the most incorrect statement I've ever heard about government and unfair business practices. What do you think gives them the authority to do this? Just because a government hires a business, does not make them a business themselves, literally or figuratively, and it doesn't take away their unconstitutional power grab. The reason they can do this is because they are the government, not becuase of their greed, as horrible as it is. Their power doesn't come from their business practices, even if they are bad, it comes from the "authority" of being an official governing body and the powers they have. Do you think, without government, companies can just somehow boss their rival companies around magically with money alone? That is naive. Do you think that the US military is a private military contractor just because they buy equipment from private companies like Sig Sauer or Lockheed and Martin? Yes, they may be running the government like a corrupt business, which is wrong, but that's the point...they're the government. Any other company in the private sector doing this would have their higher ups arrested and the business shut down.
@@randyb3851 Seems to me that you need to begin unstuffing the information you "learned" and start paying attention.
Look up your city on Dunn and Bradstreet. Look up various fed gov agencies, all are incorporated.
These are not government, they are governmental services corporations. When you understand the difference, it all begins to unfold. Or you stay in your protected space because you choose to stay in denial.
Be as defensive about it as you choose, it doesn't change the reality of what government is and isn't...how they are supposed to operate and how/why they operate the way they do.
COS represent! It really is little better than the local corruption exhibited in shows like Boardwalk Empire. Crooks posing as businessmen/politicians expecting us to be grateful for their benevolent guidance.
cities are incorporated as a corporation. i get that you mean it in a different context but its important to get the facts right.
Government officials are servant's PERIOD servant's work for the people PERIOD 🇱🇷 we Americans have a document called the constitution of America and it is top law
Not really. Cops have safety which over ride your const rights. That's why cops are allowed to break the const for their safety per SC. So, govt protecting govt & eff the citizens.
They work for the highest bidder. Always have, always will!
And gov officials everywhere, are ROTFL, as they read this, because they flaunt the Constitution, and luxuriate in being drunk on power; the power to ruin other people's lives.
These town officials need to be looked into for taking bribes from the developer.
What will look even worse is the empty, abandoned building when they close up shop and take their business and tax dollars elsewhere. That's the kind of place that will sit empty and rot to the ground for years
I used to work in that area. Almost every other place around them has been turned into sub divisions. That looks even more ugly. This has all happened in about 5 years or so. Even worse, I could see it happening much longer than that.
I've just sent the city an email, saying shame on them and asking them to reverse the decision. If thousands of us do it. They might listen. Good luck everyone
To me, those "40 - 50 thousand cars passing each day" are *far* more of an unsightly blemish. They should remove the roads. As a bonus, then they won't be afflicted by seeing some ordinary trucks parked by the side of the road in a parking lot.
I found it interesting too how they were talking about "50 thousand cars seeing..." as if it is the car that sees anything. The car truly seems to be the superior being and humans are just an afterthought in the eyes of some.
city counsellors (and majors) are often corrupt and enjoy kickbacks from developers in exchange for suddenly and quietly rezoning, or changing 'pesky rules' that everyone else had to do with for decades if not longer.
In this area, several long time businesses (over 40 years old) have had real-estate developers buying up all the land around them, developing 100s of houses on them, then complaining that the business they engulfed is ugly, or makes too much noise, or doesn't fit well in a 'residential area' after they made it into one.
The most recent local example is just a few km from here, its a 80 year old tree nursery on the outskirts of town.
I would believe that Corporate U-Haul would want to get involved here. A thriving business about to be destroyed by some Num-Nuts needs reciprocity like proposing a future black-balling any business in the town from renting their equipment or relocating the business out of the city's Tax enforcement. Harsh treatment but there has to be money being paid by the developer to the City officials. That is the Carolina way.
Gentrification is ugly and boring. Cookie cutter Starbucks and targets everywhere with your crumbl cookie store. What a bizarre thing to be mad at.
Yeah, or the parts of some towns that are dominated by pawn shop and payday loan businesses. I'm just giving an example, I'm not advocating that they get run out of town. I don't like a lot of those places and I think a lot of those business owners are scumbags but if they're operating within the law, they have the same right to be there. The landfill is unsightly, gonna make those illegal, too.
Gentrification results in better looking areas with higher property values.
The only people who complain are usually renters who didn't take the opportunity to buy themselves.
I heard about this story on Steve Lehto's channel. So glad Institute for Justice is helping!
Aren’t they ‘grandfathered’ under the law?
If all else fails, create a roadside eyesore, call it art and claim protection under the 1st Amendment.
I'm pretty sure there's no automatic legal "grandfathered". Any criteria for wavers need to be part of the law or regulation. Hopefully the adults will prevail without childish reactions that also don't help the business.
@@lantrick I can tell you've never owned a business and probably never worked for more than a cpl bucks over minimum wage
@@lantrick I was talking about the 2nd part of your comment douchecanoe
@@deusvult6920 I can tell you have no basic knowledge of laws and regulations and probably get all you information from some guy on the internet. There's still no automatic "Grandfather clause" it has to be an actual clause in the regulation. You don't really care about that anyway. You're just pointless and negative.. 😘
Steve Lehto did a video covering this. Iirc their auto business and all other businesses on that strip of road are grandfathered in EXCEPT for the U-Haul.
IJ has done some amazing work through the years. They get results. I am proud to donate to them every month.
Zoning out the business to increase the property value and development potential of the piece of land is one thing, but what usually happens is is that the old business is destroyed and the developer builds a shiny new corporate retail outlet or power center with lots of parking, which perversely brings in less tax revenue into the city than before! Check out Not Just Bikes' latest video featuring Lafayette, LA or any Strong Towns article on Brainerd, MN (a block of old storefronts vs. a new Taco Hell)
Yeah, the big businesses always worm their way out of taxes and legal requirements and never deliver on the trickle-down for locals.
THIS is why I support the Institute for Justice on a monthly basis and why you should too!
This has the stink of small town politics all over it. I'm betting one of the mayor's golf-buddies is looking to acquire some town land for cheap to put one of his businesses on it.
That’s crazy. Our downtown U-Haul has a truck on top of their building. It’s visible from the expressway and a landmark that’s fun to see as you drive by.
3 uhaul...wow.
Sue the SHIT out of them.
Locally-owned mechanic shops are the most grassroots American business. To see a mayor more concerned about "ugliness" rather than a thriving locally-owned business is true ugliness!
High traffic zone would be good and convenient for their business and others.
This reminds me of the guy in Colorado who decided to destroy the town because they treated him in this way.
Find "Killdozer" videos on RUclips. In Florida, if a county is over a certain population, a town must be 5000 residents to be incorporated as such. I have property in a small town there which consistently has been under that amount. Sadly no law exist that demands a city LOSE it's incorporation in such a case. There should be a law that removes a town's charger (incorporation) as such when it couldn't currently qualify as a newly chartered town.
"Not only do we rent U-Hauls we also work on U-Hauls"
also
"Mr. Bishop is one of our regular customers as well, met him because he had broke down in a U-Haul actually."
😐
🤣🤣🤣
At the head of the stupid line are some politicians !!
Leave the town. Stop giving people that hate you your money.
that's a massive oversimplification of a complicated issue that affects at least 17 families.
they cannot all simply move, your suggestion is not even 5,000 miles within reason
Mauldin SC is a corrupt small town. Around 2007-2012 they had regular dui checkpoints in the town and the police would walk around your car with AR style rifles with lights attached and shine the lights in all your windows, including at the passengers (aka me as a kid), like we were in afghanistan or something. One person I know was arrested after buying a beer at a gas station and was not told why he was arrested until after he'd been released. Turns out he was accused of stealing the beer, which he could have proven to be a false claim if he had known about the allegation since he still had the receipt in his car, along with the beer. He sued the city and received a 100k settlement.
That mayors face gives me the creeps. Bad vibes. Not a man of integrity!
That's so stupid. I've seen uhauls many times in my 33 years and I've never once thought, "Well that's ugly."
Hey wait a minute !!! Doesn't the South bragg about how they don't put up with this kind of shit ???
Though it was several years ago, I used to live in the "Upstate SC" area (next town over from Mauldin). This is not a new thang. Mauldin SC is a continuous ego trip.
What a horrible mayor. Instead of going after real problems, he decides to hurt businesses like these.
And this is why people drive bulldozers through the town Square.
South Carolina have to be careful with Representative Krystle N. Matthews running for senate.
I Googlemapped this place. Sark Automotive, 728 N. Main Street, Mauldin SC. Have a look at it and answer me this: if the developer does not like U-Hauls at this garage, why is he OK with the _enormous mayonnaise factory_ right across the street. I mean seriously, how beautiful can this stretch of road get if there's an _enormous mayonnaise factory_ along it.
_Enormous. Mayonnaise. Factory._
It wouldn't surprise me that these small town mayors and other higher ups get under the table handouts from the developers. They have very deep pockets. I hope it turns out well for the Sarks.
Follow the money always
I'd be surprised if they didn't
These small town governments have a business model that only works for them.
Aurora Colorado tried that, and lost big time.
so did Granby Colorado.
Making money is an action. Keeping money is behavior, Growing money is knowledge.
please how do i contact him??,my income stream is in a mess.please
I gave Brian Nelson power of attorney over my fortune and things have never been better.
Yo IDIOTS. This is a thread about someone losing their business. NOT A PLATFORM FOR YOUR INVESTMENT SCAM.
Bring the mayor to court - ask him if he ever used the same U-Haul tricks he is trying to get rid of and where does he plan to get other trucks when he or his office needs them?
Start a move with other local businesses to refuse the Mayor and his family entry to shop at their business.
Got UHaul service right next to a church in my region and it's all fine, better fine that developer for being unqualified.
It's like a fashion designer who can only work with already beautiful models and is inept at bringing out the beauty in the average, totally unqualified for the job and overpaid nonetheless.
It's that developers job to make it nice with what he got, not demand outrageous changes, because obviously a cherry blossom tree would be pretty, but awkward next to the street.
Happening now to me also in SC. Zoning out my business of nearly 30 years.
Typical Corporatism
How much do these people Pay in property taxes? & Other taxes?
What? lol over uhauls? I see them all the time in dc because people are getting out of big cities and moving south or more affordable. Wow
What’s ugly is a cookie-cutter development in a small town. It doesn’t look clean, it looks like everywhere else and takes away whatever character and charm there once was.
The developer and the town wants to property. Wait and see. They have an ulterior motive other than ugly.
I bought a salvage yard once and it had been in continuous operation for 51 years with a state license. During that time the nearby town eventually annexed land past the business but did not say anything about whether or not it conformed to any zoning. A few years after I owned it they sent a letter stating the land wasn't zoned for that use and the business didn't conform to the zoning and needed to cease business until brought into conformity and rezoned. I got a lawyer and at the first hearing the city caved in and dropped all the complaints because they knew they couldn't retroactively zone property and the business was grandfathered in by the state as it didn't conform to all the current salvage rules either. Cities just trying to control things they don't have the right to control. Best 900 bucks I ever spent on a lawyer.
May St. Marvin Heemeyer bestow his blessings upon you.
How about the city pay for a security fence to hide any blight they imagine?
Steve Lheto brought me here
Now only if Steve Lheto would reupload that episode about South Dakota and their drug campaign again
This is happening in every small city in the nation! A decade ago a town in Los Angeles county, actually confiscated over a 1000 pieces of property including running operating businesses so they could tear them down and beautify that particular avenue, and they did so without reimbursement to the landowners, the courts would even here the lawsuits..
Killhaul is in production.
sounds very similar to the case in Wilsonville OR where the downtown hardware store had a U-Haul side business. Lots of games with the city and zoning changes until the U-Haul business was forced out. This was in the early 2000s
Marvin Heemeyer comes to mind.
Wonder if the word went out in the whole county not to do any repairs/service on the mayors family vehicles, appliances......everything what would happen? After all some of those businesses may have used those ugly unsightly rental vehicles at some point in time
Would be nice if stores refused to allow him entrance. No repairs to his house. Everyone should condemn him everywhere he goes.
They seem like ordinary, hard working folks. They must be destroyed
Don't forget to sue the private contractor.
Come to TEXAS!
WE'RE BUSINESS FRIENDLY!
Ah yes. Move over 1,000 miles to start up a new business and hire employees…
As long as no one working at that business requires health care, their children require no education, they aren't LGBTQ, they are incapable of getting pregnant, and they don't mind walking around in a state where any idiot can carry any gun they want whenever they want. Oh, and don't be anything but white, cuz otherwise there is a target on you for that, too. I wouldn't move to Texas for 10 million dollars.