Coming right on the heels of my last post at TMV, a story from my own backyard seems appropriate… because I live in Katy, TX — a very fast-growing exurb west of Houston. It’s home to the Rice Harvest Festival, an excellent school system (by Texas standards), and soon, Friday Night Pig Races.
All snout and tail, the pink and brown pigs contentedly rooting in the wire pen behind Craig Baker’s stone shop seem piggishly comic. They’re racing pigs, after all, and that’s got to be funny. But few in the sprawling subdivisions along Baker Road are laughing.
These pigs are subtle weapons, here to show the new neighbors — the Katy Islamic Association — they aren’t entirely welcome. Tension has been growing in this west Harris County community since September when the Muslim group announced it had purchased 11 acres south of Interstate 10 to build a mosque, school, community center and athletic facilities.
Mr. Baker says he’s got nothing against Islam. Really. His pig races on Friday night (a Muslim holy day) are just his way of saying that he ain’t movin’; he’s got rights, dangit, and he also says the Katy Islamic Association (KIA) told him he should move. (They say they never said such a thing.)
Mr. Baker’s solution is a deliberate religious provocation, thus rendering any statements that he’s not upset about their religion laughable.
As in… haha look at us here in Katy. We’re such a bunch of hicks hahahehe.
For the record — Baker Road is a beautiful area, and if we could have afforded it, Polimom and family would have bought property there a few years ago. Unfortunately, it is also a narrow two-lane, and there are obvious problems with drainage; these are valid concerns.
If only that was all there is to this little brouhaha — but if it were, they wouldn’t have decided to race pigs, would they?
Claims and counterclaims have flown. Critics raise concerns about traffic congestion, flooding, possible adverse impact on property values and the “unknown.”
Ah. The dreaded “unknown”.
Lovely as Baker Road is, I wouldn’t consider buying property there now… and not because somebody’s planning a mosque. I’d much rather have a place of worship nearby than Friday Night Pig Races.
What a lovely way for Katy to hit the news. This is so embarrassing…
More here.