The mileage business allowance increases from 48.5 cents to 50.5 cents per mile. Charitable deductions for the use of a car will remain at 14 cents per mile driven. The rates will apply for mileage on or after January 1, 2008.

Yes, we were there from 5:15 to 10:00pm tonight. After some specific parcels were voted on, they finally took up the measure of the “Interim Measures for Community Character Protection.” After all was said and done (many times), they finally decided (I think) to give individual neighborhoods 90 days to get 50% + 1 of the residents, to decide if they want to participate in the measures. Wales Garden is immune from this, as they have already qualified themselves to move to the next step of “character protection.” When all is said and done, they may regret it.

One major contention from moving this motion forward, is that it seems that only a handful of residents shouldn’t speak for an entire neighborhood. The glaring example is Shandon. It seems that maybe 20-30ish folks attend the meetings four times a annually, to discuss the issues of a neighborhood of 1,600. Obviously, there is a concern here.

The bigger issue in my mind, is property rights. I can tell you, that if a person has purchased a home in Shandon (or any other downtown neighborhood, for that matter), they may very much regret such a purchase, if some of the talked about measures become city ordinance.

Someone is bound to ask the question, “Do I own my property, or does the neighborhood?”

We all strive for a more perfect Columbia. Having said this, there must be a better way than painting incredibly broad stripes on such a pinstripe situation. Some would argue the contrary, but the nuts and bolts of it is, that the property owner…owns the property.