And another one...

I just looked out my window and saw another car getting towed from our parking lot! The parking lot is practically empty—not just because people are going off to work, but because residents are now parking in the visitor slots to avoid getting towed. But there aren't enough visitor slots to accommodate every resident who hasn't yet been able to satisfy management's requirements for a parking permit. So inevitably—someone gets picked off.

This is harassment. Towing a car a day—at least?! Are they trying to pressure people to move out? How else can this aggressive enforcement be explained? What really galls me about it is that even as they're towing cars, they still expect people to pay their rent, of course; and I know of at least one case where a resident would like to move somewhere else but the management won't let her out of her lease, meaning that if she bends to pressure and moves, she'll forfeit her deposit. It's exploitative. It makes me burning angry. I'm this close to storming over to the office and launching into a tirade, except that won't do any good. Instead I attend meetings at town hall and write letters to the papers, and so far it all feels more ineffectual than otherwise.

Someday the people who run this apartment complex are going to stand in front of the King. And the King will say to them, "When I was a resident at Abbey Court, trying to raise a family on minimum wage, you denied me a parking permit and then towed my car because I didn't have the permit you refused to give me." And they'll say, "Lord, when did you ever live in Abbey Court?" And then the King will answer . . . well, you know the rest.

Melodramatic? I won't argue with you there. But we're talking here about rich people f***ing with poor people's lives. Melodramatic scriptural language about judgment and "wo to the rich oppressor" exists for situations like this.

Visit AbbeyCourt.info.