El Avispero — Kenneth Taber

”El Avispero” considers “progressive” land use policy. Mateo Aguillano is a third-generation El Avispero nurseryman and was a vegetable grower until local ordinances forced him to stop growing vegetables. For the past three years he has been attempting to obtain permission to build a condominium project on land owned by his family, while being harassed by self-ordained arbiters of private land use. He is now coming to the unhappy realization that the country he and his family have fought for and died for is not as free as he had been led to believe. For Corona Whithereason, über-citizen and public-policy grandee, maintaining a fi rm grip on local land use is a challenge, even though she possesses the ability to turn out the claque simply by activating the ever-busy Pauline Bullard, who is Vice-Chair of “Limit El Avispero Development” (LEAD) and who can always be counted on to mobilize sister organizations, “Save Quintessentially Unique El Avispero Land” (SQUEAL), ”Beware Losing El Avispero Treasures” (BLEAT), and “Ban Indiscriminately Trespassing Crucial Habitat” (BITCH). Corona, an aging Camelotee who chairs ”Fast Altanero Rapid Transit” (FART), is frustrated in her double obsession of not only sabotaging the Aguillano family's application for permission to build a “Planned Unit development” (PUD) but also bankrupting Bemouth Construction, El Avispero's most successful real estate developer. Unable to secure cooperation from C. Jane Plento Luburts-Ibsn, Executive Director of “Altanero Soil Stewardship” (ASS), Corona is forced to gamble precious political capital. Calypso Barnrrup, Corona's arch nemesis and wife of Bonham Barnrrup (perhaps El Avispero's only mover), has a different and confl icting set of interests.