Dino City had been built to provide for Dinotopians to live with some degree of comfort for their sizes, which in the case of those like Rex, Tyra, Heather, Jeremy, Regina, Andrew, Jen, Luke, and Marjorie well exceeded the size of the largest modern Animalians. And when William Tarr and Candace returned from their honeymoon, there was some sense of happiness between the two of them and that William would now fit in Candace's home. His old trailer was on the market again, and most of his things had been moved over to Candaces when their courtship began to grow serious, though the things that had built for Candace's scaled up size, as a Parasaurolophus Dinotopian had been too big for him. Now, he did fit them and that was pleasing.
Of course his return as a Dinotopian also earned a few chuckles and cheers, even from some of the hippies that had moved to Dino City. They were mostly still Human as they were either waiting their turn for conversion, figuring out what kind a of Dinotopian they'd actually want to be, or waiting for Horizon to acquire the fossil material needed in case the specific kind of Dinotopian was not one that had already been created. It was something that would continue to make some things interesting, though they also fit a lot of what Horizon had said when they'd begun working out the deal with Glen Rose, William Tarr and the other human residents of what would become Dino City when it was constructed that it would be built for largely middle class people. And that shaped out a lot of how Dino City was built up. The buildings were bigger, yes, but that was to suit the size of the Dinotopians. The homes weren't built to be mansions or anything like that, as it wasn't expected. Though, that changed shortly after his return home...
"Mr. Tarr?" came a voice from his secretary at Dino City's City Hall building, getting William to look up from his desk as there was a knock at his door.
William looked up to his secretary opening the door. She was one of the modest number of Humans that like him, had ben the more rural residents of Glen Rose before Dino City was built and they were incorporated into the new city. Normally business at City Hall was pretty slow in Dino City because of the low population was. It was something that often let William work with some of his other jobs and employment as there wasn't enough that went on where he was drawing a salary and until the previous January, his post as "Mayor" was only a temporary one until city wide elections could be organized. He never expected to hold it after the election and he half expected that someone like Rex or Tyra would actually challenge him. But they never did, which surprised him and with the exception of a few joke votes from the hippies that had moved to Dino City, he'd won a great deal of support. Two of the "temporary City Council members" had also won reelection for their seats and they would have a full roster for City Council meetings, though their meeting schedule was still going to be in the evening and handling limited business, again playing to issues that were due to Dino City's small population, even when compared to Glen Rose.
And William did enjoy the general quiet, though he found that there was some moderate growth that came after his honeymoon ended. Some of it was keeping track over both population growth and how certain things had to be kept track of, some of it related to how conversion into Animalians or Dinotopians restored youth and provided some measures of restored youth and health. His own conversion included that, which had meant catching up with what was expected and how Dino City was working for local management in dealing with with both local and state laws. Most of it related to the pandemic and the various vaccine roll out plans and how they would work. But a lot of it was fairly peaceful and mundane, given things. What work had arrived while he'd been on his honeymoon was pretty busy work and the biggest thing was in having the money for filling out actual Dino City police, firefighters, and ambulance crews and thus their conversions so that they could handle the care for Dino City's predominant residents. That was pretty normal, all things considered.
The look on his secretary's face and the nervousness it showed was not something William Tarr looked forward to. Part of him was worried it was some political group over bigger issues that Dino City really didn't have an effect on. Though it thankfully didn't relate to that.
"You have some "guests," sir," his secretary spoke, "petitioners, more like, and they seem a bit curious over zoning or mansions or something like that..."
"Mansions?" William asked back raising one eyebrow, now a line of heavier dark blue scales on him since all his human hair fell out in his conversion.
"Yes, sir," his secretary answered, "I'd ask if you want them sent out... but I'm a bit old to be tossin' people out..."
"You can let them in," William answered, "I'll see what they're up to."
His secretary nodded and then waved toward the office with the arm that was outside the door and then scooted his body inward so that she pushed the door inward. From there about five people came in together as one group. They were all wearing surgical/health masks though they were all rather special. One man had a 49ers icon on the mask. One had the logo for Boeing. One was a woman that looked like her mask was something from a high end flower garden. Another was a man that the B2 bomber with its wings spreading across the mask. The last was a woman who had a mask that had the skull of the Sue specimen of Tyrannosaurus Rex on her mask with the name "Sue" going into the skull's open jaws. Other than that, they all appeared to be in fairly high end clothing that looked comfortable for people, but was also something that William hadn't even seen in his time as Dino City's Mayor and talking with his counterpart in Glen Rose.
"I'll leave ya'll to it then... though one scream and I'll have Slash on speed dial," his secretary spoke.
"Slash?" the first man asked.
"Dino City's chief of police," William answered, "Now... what can I do for you five? Did you all come together... or?"
"No, we came separately," the woman with the "Sue" mask answered, "been working to get things arranged to afford the move and then find that your housing here is substandard."
"Substandard?" William asked, "the company that build the homes here in Dino City did a good job. My wife's was very well built and she has no complaints."
"They're all fine... I'm sure," the man in the 49ers mask answered, "but when we talked with the realtors... they're all either two to three bedroom houses or a two bedroom apartment."
"And that's good for common people," the woman in the flower garden mask, "but we've all worked hard to build our wealth, and I'd think we deserve residences that can accommodate that wealth. More rooms... more room to relax outside and be separate from those not of our class."
"Well... I'm glad you had success, but I'm not sure on what you think I can do," William answered, "the homes have build and most have either placed into the control/ownership of the realty companies that helped contribute to Dino City's building. Many of which are for sale, and we have gotten a fair amount of interest from those wanting to join Dino City. And with some of the scale issues that some of the larger Animalians based on modern animals have faced being difficult, you can imagine how tough it would be for Dinotopians outside of Dino City."
"Can't you put in a word to have some taken down to be rebuilt?" the man with the B2 mask asked.
"I could ask... but that would then have interfering with the housing market to try and set things up for just you five," William answered, "which wouldn't be fair to those haven't been as successful as you but want their chance. Now... if you buy up the land and pay for the that to be done, that's one thing. But I can not and in the spirit of how capitalism... I shouldn't."
"But that could drive up the price of building a mansion on its own," the woman with the flower garden mask spoke, "and it'd be cheaper to do that elsewhere."
"And that may be the thing to do," William spoke, "if that is really what you want to do... you might find some open lands in other parts of Texas that would be open for sale if you have the money for it. You wouldn't be in Dino City... as there isn't the land available to build mansions. And if you want to have mansions built... you'll need to pay for the costs of doing so. I cannot involve myself in doing so."
There was a moment of silence and some rather narrowed eyes as they looked to him. William only glared back with his own determination.
"And speaking as someone who has moved from a poor man's trailer and living at the mercy of tornados who has moved up into the homes you look down on," William then spoke, "I would add on a personal level... that you have an explanation for why you'd want to drive up the costs of living in Dino City for those who aren't as wealthy as you... or at least have the charity to assure that others that come here after you are not finding the local market beyond their reach because your personal comforts were hurt by the fact that it was not expected that the super rich would be interested in moving to Dino City."