I knew it would be bad but leaving your tour bus on the lawn? That's ghetto!


from Chicago Tribune:


He believed he could build
Olympia Fields mayor says R. Kelly makes a better pop star than neighbor
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By Jo Napolitano
Tribune staff reporter

June 1, 2006

Between behemoth tour buses parked outside his mansion, unlicensed dogs and the garage-sized guardhouse built without a permit, R&B megastar R. Kelly continues to find new ways to exasperate Olympia Fields officials.

The village sued the Grammy winner over the buses, dogs and that pesky guardhouse last year, and now Kelly has filed suit asking the court to let him keep the guardhouse.

Village officials say elements of Kelly's estate just do not fit in Olympia Fields, an upper-middle-class, racially diverse community filled with stately colonials and Tudors on sprawling lots. The 79-year-old village, which grew up around Olympia Fields Country Club, describes itself as "a place where old-world charm meets contemporary values."

Sometimes it's like a head-on collision. When Kelly asked village trustees to give him the thumbs up for a permit a year after his guardhouse was built, they voted 6-0 in April to deny the request.

Mayor Linzey Jones said the singer "didn't make a case for it. The only argument that he had was, `I'm a celebrity.'

"We thought, if you want to put [a guardhouse] in your yard to occasionally use it to manage your party guests, that does not meet our standards. It's just a status symbol," Jones said.

And then there are the parties--the shindigs that end past 2 in the morning and include hordes of women "in various levels of clothing," the mayor said.

Jones, whose home abuts Kelly's 7-acre property, hasn't been invited to the parties, but said even if he had been, he wouldn't lighten up on his neighbor.

He said living next to a famous musician is a lot less glamorous than it might seem.

"He's not neighborly," Jones said. "He's not concerned with being neighborly, and he contributes nothing to the community."

Ouch.

Still, Jones expressed some degree of admiration for the troubled artist, who sings about qualifying for free lunch as a child, saying, "he's made his way up from difficult circumstances, and I respect that."

But Jones said the parties, the barking dogs and unkempt debris stacked near his home have to go.

"My issue is compliance," Jones said. "Get the buses and trailers off your property, and now that the board has decided you can't have a guard shack, take it down. Clean up the debris and manage your dogs."

Kelly's lawsuit asks the court to overturn the village's denial of his variance, arguing that Jones, because he is a neighbor, should have recused himself from the vote.

The singer said he erected the guardhouse under the mistaken belief the permit was in place.

If only he could turn back the hands of time, as he sings in his hit song. Kelly spokesman Allan Mayer said his client wants to be a good neighbor. He said Kelly wants to resolve his dispute with the village and keep his guardhouse so he can protect his family from those who might scale his fence.

"In the times we live in, you've got to protect yourself," Mayer said. "He doesn't want to fight with anybody. He just wants it to be resolved amicably. He certainly doesn't think he deserves any special treatment. Whatever the outcome is, I'm sure he will honor it."

Mayer called the dispute a tempest in a teapot, saying Kelly is aware of the problem, but noted it's not his largest legal issue.

Kelly is was charged in June 2002 with multiple counts of child pornography stemming from a videotape that allegedly shows him having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Some of the charges have been dropped, but he still faces multiple counts.

The zoning complaints are "certainly not of the same magnitude, but he does take it seriously," Mayer said.

Darrell Dotson was among several of Kelly's neighbors who said the singer is almost a non-presence in the community.

Dotson reserved judgment on the child pornography allegations but said they would concern him more than the guardhouse without a permit.

Still, for village officials, Kelly's violations remain a costly problem because of the litigation. Most residents who break Olympia Fields' ordinances commit small infractions: parking a truck overnight in their driveway, cutting a tree down without permission or allowing their grass to grow beyond 6 inches. Not Kelly.

"Anything he does is out there," said Village Trustee Susan Ormsby. "It's big. He stands out because everything he does is bigger."

Ormsby, who oversees building within the village, said Olympia Fields officials do not want to lose Kelly, they just want him to follow the rules.

"As long as he complies with the code in this village, of course he's welcome," she said.

For all of the ruckus surrounding code violations, Kelly remains an elusive figure in his neighborhood.

Even Jones, who seems keen to his every misstep, hasn't laid eyes on the pop idol. If he did, he wouldn't know it, the mayor said. Jones said he doesn't own any of Kelly's CDs and cracked that he was glad the singer didn't play any of his own music during his parties.

Other neighbors say they're not offended by Kelly.

Neighbor Arieana Desadier, 17, who has lived next to the singer for less than half a year, is a big fan. She owns all of Kelly's CDs and once spoke to him long enough to get his autograph.

She acknowledges, though, that living next to the star has its downside.

"My close friends know that I live next door to him, but I don't brag about it," she said. "People are always driving by, taking pictures on their camera phones. I don't want to make it worse."

Unrelated to the story but, damn, this dude won't be on trial 'til he's 80 at this rate. What's going on?

If I live to be 100 years old, I will never understand the appeal of this man. His music is and always has been sooooo trite.















































Except for Chocolate Factory

"megastar"?

does anyone know why he isn't on trial yet?

ufoclub said:

cuz america is full of shit thats why

It could be worse. He could be eager to join the local PTA...

ufoclub said:

Money talks...

ABeautifulOne said:

True, but R. is neither a hero nor a threat to mainstream (White) America. So his crimes are really no big deal.

ufoclub said:

Might as well just say them were charges were dropped. Kellz aint goin on trial.

do you need a permit to have a golden shower installed

theghostoftonym said:

and i was just about to stroll up on this thread and comment about how surprised i was that nobody's made a pee joke on this r. kelly thread...

btw, your username cracks me up.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

His username frightens me.

Adisa said:

And here I thought you were gonna say TP2



I was MAD when I couldn't bump that anymore - but I just can't listen w/o thinking about it, it just ruins every song where he sings to & about WOMEN. His ass needs to be in jail already, fuck a tour bus.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

*hears murmuring in the background*

"...the hell was that? Who started up the Goldnigga CD?"
[Edited 6/2/06 20:24pm]

I am waiting for the Chapelle send up of it, R Kelly goes over to his neighbour "I wanna pee on you"