[Argie's Wife]

Originally Posted by sa meredith

Let me play devil's advocate here for a second.
1st of all...we can all play "holier than thou" if we want to, but NOT A SINGLE MEMBER OF THIS FORUM would be happy if this situation took place next door to them. I believe the old saying is, "Yes, but not in MY back yard".
Anyway...back to devils advocate.
Suppose it was me. Should I be respectful of a grieving family during a wake, as people enter and leave the funeral home? Well, of course.
However, if a wake happens to be scheduled on the same day I planned a major, all out, booze infested rip out, party of the summer, complete with a live outdoor band...well, too freakin' bad for them.
It has to work both ways. I would walk over and say..."hey, your wake is really bringing down the spirit of my guests. Could you move things along a bit?"
Tit for tat. No grey area here. If fact, in this case, she could say..."well I was here first, and before you chose this site for your business, you should have realized I am a very loud, obnoxious drunk. Leave if you want to".
With very little effort, I am quite sure I could get this funeral home a reputation of a place that people should simply not hire, for their arraigments. It would be known as the place with the loud guy across the street.
Why so passionate about this??? The funeral home is a fine idea, I have no problem with it. Commercially zoned land...all legal. No problem.
But adding the crematorium???? In a residential area. AWFUL! UNTHINKABLE!
I have news for you...I worked near one for many many years...say all you want...when they burn, it smells...and smells bad.
The saying at our place was..."oh, they just fired up the BBQ". You can smell it, and it sucks.
They should offer to buy this lady's home ata fair price and help her relocate.
How is her music drifting over there, any different than their smell drifting over to her place. SAME THING!

The NIMBY thing - I already said that and talked about the ZBA's involvement in the project (See post #22). The idea about being loud and obnoxious is yours, for sure. I don't doubt that this is a nuisance in the neighborhood, but I don't agree with heckling mourners - that's hitting people with a problem that's not theirs and something they had no control (or probably no idea about) when they came to do business. But rally the neighbors, plan civil disobedience, by all means. (Key word: civil.)