Spanky Macher: Finally Some Payback

Spanky Macher: 30 months in the can.

Laurance Hammack's excellent piece in today's local daily (here) and Mike Gangloff's comprehensive article in Real Estate Investors of Roanoke* (here) give a good look at Spanky Macher, whose fall from wherever he was to 30 months in jail was not mourned by many.


Macher, who wanted so much to be a loveable rogue, turns out just to be a rogue. Nothing loveable about a slumlord in my neighborhood, even if he does try to cheat the IRS--and gets jailed for it.

Macher's going to jail for a lot of bad dealing, but not for the worst dealing of all: the running of inner-city tenaments where poor people were treated like they lived in a Third World nation.

Macher is not going to jail for his most important shortcomings and he likely could be if local judges considered the smashing of the city's rental ordinances and the ill treatment of people in those rental properties to be the immorality it is.

Macher's code violations on his various rental properties were often the subject of conversation at city hall and in neighborhoods. Jeff Campbell, president of Old Southwest Inc., was once quoted as saying, "With regards to Spanky's record and how he maintains properties, he needs to be picked on by code enforcement." That was in response to Macher complaining about "being picked on" by the city.

This time, the city wasn't picking, but he gets 30 months to think about the whole package, in any case. Maybe it'll make him a better human being. Don't bet the first-born male child on it, though.

(* This is a heck of a good blog I just discovered. Lots of goodies on it.)


(Photo: reiofroanoke.com)