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Comment by 78124781 | Hacker News Reader

Wow, Pine Bluff is quite a place to move to out the blue. Still, there's good interstate access and a local state U. Curious why the city is so reluctant to support new businesses.

You might try Jonesboro, Fort Smith, or Hot Springs if you're looking for cheap nearby places. North Little Rock or someplace in NW Arkansas too would have more nearby amenities, albeit at higher (though still quite affordable nationally) prices.

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>Curious why the city is so reluctant to support new businesses.

I'm guessing the town wants him to do very basic stuff to get the property up to code, and he doesn't want to. Anther person pointed out in a comment that comment chain OPs twitter had posts about about holding somebody at gunpoint in apparent frustration. To me it sounds like OP knew absolutely nothing about commercial real-estate, absolutely nothing about local laws, and plopped down a bunch of money on a property without doing some homework.

> I'm guessing the town wants him to do very basic stuff to get the property up to code, and he doesn't want to.

It looks like he wants to but the city won't let him. e.g. https://twitter.com/pontifier/status/1534754382885052417

This is a process problem. The correct order to do things is: pull permit to fix plumbing, that permit will allow you to connect to the city water for testing purposes once you've proven the system will hold pressure (initial inspection), then when you're connected to the water an additional inspection will be done to verify working plumbing, if thats the only outstanding issue you can apply for a certificate of occupancy, otherwise you move onto other work.

Dealing with the government on things like this can be EXTREMELY frustrating especially if you're not used to running in those circles. Its a lot of things to learn and the people involved assume you know everything and when you get difficult they have a million ways to make your life more annoying.

The city will not issue the permits to do the work. FULL STOP.

I literally already have a city water connection and it's costing me a hundred bucks a month just to sit there unused because I can't get the permits to fix the plumbing... So what would you do in that situation?

Whats the justification for not issuing plumbing repair permits? Or is it an issue of getting it inspected?

Lawyer up, and get some private security preferably armed with tasers at a minimum.

You got a great bargain, now these expenses are the price of doing business.

Lawsuit has already been filed.

I know a lot of businesses that just put up brown paper and do the construction in secret because local governments are such a PITA.

Im not offering advice... but I see this often.

According to the city website, there is a vacancy in the planning commission. Apply for it, you'll probably have a lot more success getting the permits you need if they see an official making the requests.

It took me about 4 minutes to find out that he was robbed for the ~15th time, called the police, and held the criminal at gunpoint for less than ten minutes until the police arrived. Quite a bit different than "holding somebody at gunpoint in apparent frustration," and with how quickly I found out what actually happened I can only assume you're intentionally misrepresenting the facts.

>It took me about 4 minutes to find out that he was robbed for the ~15th time,

You do realize between his comments here, and a cursory look at his Twitter, he's told about 57 tall tales too many, right? If it was such a bad experience, why did he go on to buy an alleged SEVENTY-FIVE more properties there for starters?

Because the bulk, if not all, of this is probably entirely made up.

I mean, the guy claims he's developed a fusion reactor, all by himself apparently, for crying out loud. https://twitter.com/pontifier/status/1488959967235219458

I'm happy to verify anything. It's easy to type my last name "Fenley" into the county website at:

https://www.actdatascout.com/RealProperty/Arkansas/Jefferson

And see the property I bought and what I paid for it.

You can find out more about my fusion reactor at http://www.DDproFusion.com

My YouTube has tons of videos of my experiences here. http://YouTube.com/pontifier

I even started recording all my interactions with city zoning at https://murfie.com/dist/list.html

You can accuse me of being a lot of things... Oblivious, overoptimistic, naive... maybe even incompetent or delusional. But I am not a liar.

I can back up everything with evidence.

You have me at fusion reactor.

Stranger than fiction

Seriously, what a ride this thread has been.

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