IV 4 wonders: Does anyone care?

Let’s talk a little today about empathy.

How do we know if a government has empathy for its people? In the vote? The service to constituents? Returning phone calls and replying to emails?

Or is it something simpler and deeper?

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I took a drive through Inverness Villages 4 on Tuesday. I’m struck each time by the sheer irony of the entire neighborhood. Well-kept homes with beautiful lawns sitting along streets that most people wouldn’t even recognize as a road.

(I won’t get into the background about these "public" streets. Read all about it here.)

The morning was warm and dry. Last Wednesday, during a day-long spring rainstorm, an IV 4 resident sent me a video of water rushing down one of the streets, her feet sunk in mud.

I noticed two things Tuesday: A few homes with for-sale signs out front, and a dozen yard signs warning anyone thinking of buying a house what they’re up against in IV 4.

I spoke with a nice couple who moved to IV 4 in October from Minnesota. They’re rightfully nervous about the upcoming summer storms and what it’ll do to their street. They’ve already begun to fortify the yard to prevent flooding.

They told me stories I’ve heard before — elderly and infirm neighbors, struggling to leave the neighborhood during a medical crisis, and unable to drive out during bad weather. The neighbors really keep an eye on one another. They have to.

Which brings me back to empathy.

In dealing with this vastly complex issue, do commissioners have empathy for the Inverness Villages 4 residents? Are they reacting as if they had a personal stake in the problem, or that someone close to them was involved?

I have a litmus test for situations like these where neighborhoods have a specific issue and can’t seem to get anywhere with the government. I call it the Clark Stillwell effect.

Most people know Clark. He’s an attorney who represents developers and has done so brilliantly in Citrus County for 40-plus years. No one, with one or two exceptions, has as much knowledge about Citrus County’s land rules as Clark.

And he gets things done. Clark doesn’t win for his client every time, but he has earned a great deal of respect from commissioners over the decades for playing fair and straight.

So I wonder, if Clark Stillwell lived in Inverness Villages 4, would the county find a solution?

Answer: Of course it would. (Clark would help.) At the very least, it would work on a stopgap to prevent flooding and road muck this summer.

If any commissioners had relatives on these roads, sons and daughters, or elderly parents who struggle with mobility, would they find an answer? Of course they would.

That doesn’t make commissioners bad people, so don’t go there. Residents just see this in a way that commissioners do not.

Commissioners feel for their constituents in IV 4. They wanted a solution yesterday. We should believe Chairman Holly Davis when she says she’s worked tirelessly on trying to find an answer.

But she doesn’t live there. None of them do. 

For neighbors, it’s quite personal. Emotional. It feeds their anger and despair. It’s there in the morning. It’s there in the evening. Every painfully slow trip in and out of the neighborhood. And the heavy rains, just more disappointment.

They feel ignored. They plead to commissioners and are met either with stony silence or a repeat of what’s been said. Meanwhile the roads are not getting any better.

I don’t have a solution. It’s way above my pay grade. But, man, I feel for those folks. Probably why I keep writing about it.

County Administrator Steve Howard and Inverness City Manager Eric Williams are having conversations this month, trying to get their smartest minds to figure this out. That's hopeful news.

Clock’s ticking. Those summer storms are right around the corner. No one wants to imagine a person who needs medical attention in IV 4 and can’t get out because the roads are muck or pocketed with crater-like potholes. Yet, that’s exactly what this community faces. Every single day.

Residents cry out: Is anyone listening?

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