We don't like your kind round here

I received an e-mail today from the Lake Highlands Area Improvement Association soliciting my help in petitioning legislators to do something about "the increasing presence of payday lenders," which, according to the LHAIA "seem to be popping up on almost every corner of Lake Highlands."

Back where I come from, these payday lenders were known as "loan sharks" and they operated behind other businesses such as candy stores, repair shops, etc. They are featured prominently in almost every gangster movie. Remember Rocky Balboa was an enforcer for a loan shark in the original "Rocky." That's the sort of element the LHAIA is talking about here.

In its e-mail plea, the LHAIA said:

"We believe these payday lenders attract an unsavory element and prey on those least able to help themselves, and with current economic distress, we are worried that they will continue to increase in our community, making it less appealing to restaurants and other quality retailers we would like to attract."

I have a couple thoughts about that. For one thing, Lake Highlands has been trying to attract "restaurants and other quality retailers" for as long as I can remember without much success. From what I've heard, the spending power is just not there -- similar to the problems in making businesses like this work in the Casa Linda area. I'm thinking maybe these payday lenders could put additional money into circulation that might attract retailers and create more sales tax revenues. But I'm not an economist.

It also makes me uneasy when people say "Sure, we want new business in here, but only the types of business we approve of." Folks, we live in a free country and those freedoms need to be extended to everyone, whether you agree with their line of work or not. What these businesses do may be unsavory, but it's not illegal. I could probably make a good deal of money and improve the shopping center at Audelia and Walnut Hill by locating a nice, clean, safe sports-oriented bar there, but because the idea of an establishment serving alcohol would be so abhorrent to the LHAIA-type folks, it could never happen. The area is never going to become what these folks want it to become with that type of restrictive thinking.

The final thing I question is the Association's method for solving the problem. In one point in its e-mail, the LHAIA says the payday lenders "continue to fend off efforts to rein them in, thanks in no small part to very active lobbyists in Austin, as well as their ability to funnel some of those record profits into sizable campaign donations to the very legislators deciding whether they should be regulated." Then, right after that, the association says: "We urge you to contact our state legislators representing the Lake Highlands area ... and let them know that the residents of Lake Highlands want to put a stop to the rapid spread of these predatory lenders in our community before they overwhelm us, and that we want them to support legislative efforts for sensible regulation."

Sure. Fine. Whatever.