Expect either the worst or the best, and get it
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
Goldendale is still a Golden Dale in my mind, so don't take this the wrong way: I recently heard about something a Goldendale resident said that struck me as wildly incongruent with the nature of this town, which I like so much.
Names, of course, will go unrevealed, including that of the person who shared this information with me. We were talking about how hard it is to get a rental in this area lately, whether it's a house or an apartment. Then the story was shared with me about a landlord who continually refused to fix up his very dilapidated properties. "I don't have to," the person is reported to have said. "Goldendale people will live in anything."
Hmm. I doubt that. I had to wonder if this particular landlord would be willing to live in his own decrepit dwellings. Most landlords are very concerned, rightly so, about their renters and their sense of responsibility in properly maintaining a home. I have people renting my place back in Arizona, and I count among my blessings that I have very responsible people there. So here we have a landlord who, if the story is true (and the source struck me as eminently reliable), is utterly unconcerned about his renters-so much so that he feels it unnecessary to provide them minimally decent housing. Maybe he got tired of trying to find good renters.
In my experience, one gets what one expects. If you expect irresponsibility, why would you get anything else?
That just isn't the nature of this community. This town, from what I've seen, supports people and rallies around them in misfortune. That's what I saw when people around town informally organized themselves into a support organization for the Bartz family, who saw their home go up in smoke last week. There were donation jars at area businesses, and high school students were doing fundraising drives.
If you expect good people, you get them.
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