This Just In ...

There are many reasons to flat out dislike government. Here's one. When government busybodies, lacking common sense, intervene when and where they shouldn’t, it can leave citizens shaking their heads in disbelief, wondering whose side are they on?

Consider what’s going on in Green Bay. The mere mention of Green Bay conjures up one and only one immediate topic: the Packers. One would think that on Packer Sunday, the whole town is one big happy green and gold fraternity. It seems that in Titletown USA, there are football parties, and then there are football parties, and not everyone’s pleased.

I’m not talking about drunken brawls that lead to arrests. I’m actually referring to civilized indoor affairs with responsible adults. And yes, some people are upset and some local officials want to “review” the matter. You know what that means. They want to stick their big, fat bureaucratic noses in and ruin a good thing.

Shadow Drive is located across the street from the NFL’s greatest shrine, Lambeau Field. Packer fans from just about everywhere are buying properties on Shadow Drive, refurbishing them, transforming them into Packer-themed vacation homes. Some owners are renting the homes out to groups that hold Packer parties.




A view of the Lambeau Field Atrium is seen from the living room inside the house of Paul Hillens, of Minneapolis, Minn., off Shadow Lane in Green Bay before the Minnesota Vikings game at Lambeau Field on Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. Photo by Evan Siegle/Press-Gazette

A giant football with the Green Bay Packers logo is designed into the bricks at the Packers party house of Paul Hillens, of Minneapolis, Minn., off Shadow Lane in Green Bay before the Minnesota Vikings game at Lambeau Field on Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. Photo by Evan Siegle/Press-Gazette

The Lombardi bedroom inside the Packers party house of Paul Hillens, of Minneapolis, Minn., off Shadow Lane in Green Bay before the Minnesota Vikings game at Lambeau Field on Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. Photo by Evan Siegle/Press-Gazette

Green Bay Packers decorations inside the house of Paul Hillens, of Minneapolis, Minn., off Shadow Lane in Green Bay before the Minnesota Vikings game at Lambeau Field on Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. Photo by Evan Siegle/Press-Gazette



A crew from Coppens Metal & Roofing in Green Bay works atop a house along Shadow Lane just north of Lambeau Field on August 22, 2008. Many of the homes are being gutted, remodeled and rented as executive rentals. Photo by Corey Wilson/Press-Gazette


There have been no problems with these homes, their owners, or party occupants. No one is bothering anybody. But, as you can imagine, government interlopers can’t sit by and allow property owners to have football parties on their own properties on Sunday afternoons!

Some Green Bay officials are now raising the question of whether these rental homes are zoned properly. Maybe they are really hotels or motels or boarding houses and need to be licensed as such.

You know what’s really going on here, I’m sure. These guys just want to stick their fingers in the pie and make some government money off these entrepreneurial souls.

One of the meddlesome officials is Green Bay Common Council Vice President Chris Wery. I mention Wery because his actions don’t surprise me. It was the flip-flopping Wery who last year helped put up a Nativity crèche at Green Bay City Hall. Then he changed his mind on the issue, largely in part because of the bad feelings that erupted over it. "I'm going to vote to take it down," he said. The issue over this year’s display is now in court.

This new construction near Lambeau Field appears to be beautifying the area and adding to the community spirit, not to mention the fact that it’s simply ingenious.Leave it to government to step in to try to throw up roadblocks. I say there’s no need for a government review. Leave these property owners alone.

Here’s the story.