Unless reason returns to the Royal Palms trailer court by Saturday, July 21, Queen Lo-La will be looking for a new estate.
Like her popular Eastside restaurant, Nubian Queen Lo-La’s Cajun Soulfood Kitchen, Lozina E. Stephens’ new recreational vehicle is dark, cool, and comfortable, done up tastefully in burgundy and purple crushed velvet, with recorded gospel music in the air. It is remarkably tidy for its small size, especially given that it houses not only Stephens but also her two teenage daughters and a small dog. The level of order Stephens and her girls maintain is artful: Just beyond the houseplants that serve as dividers between the sitting area and the kitchen, bags of potato chips are carefully displayed on a built-in rack on the counter. Outside, the garden is just as tidy, with windmills and other colorful trinkets sprucing up the rented lot at the Royal Palms Manufactured Home and RV Community, at Ben White Boulevard and Highway 183, where the RV has been parked for less than two months. Fourteen-year-old Lisa recently personalized the home with a carefully executed present to her mom: She painted the trim, hitch, and door of the off-white home in Stephens’ signature color, purple.
Two weeks later, Stephens received a phone call at the Cajun Kitchen. It was her daughter saying that Royal Palms’ manager Darshan Jani had just knocked on the door to inform the family that the paint job was unsuitable. Stephens called him to see what was up. “He said that he wasn’t going to have Queen Lo-La and her colors,” she explained, exasperated. “He said one of us was going to have to go.” Stephens refused, explaining that she hadn’t received any park rules dictating her color choices. A quick drive around Royal Palms finds homes painted all manner of colors in varying combinations: gold, red, teal, brown, yellow, orange, mint green, baby blue, navy, and now, with Stephens’ RV, purple.
Royal Palms’ owner, Sidney E. Lanier, says that Stephens was never formally asked to leave but that Jani did post a notice on her door informing her that while Royal Palms appreciates the efforts she has made to improve her home and lot, she needs to paint her RV by July 21 because the current paint job does not comply with community rules. Stephens maintains she hadn’t been informed of this rule when she signed the agreement; Lanier explained that the rules presented to her were abridged.
For Stephens, this was the last straw. Within her first month at Royal Palms, she was cited for breaking other rules: first, keeping a plastic set of drawers outside her RV to hold her gardening tools; she removed the drawers. Also in the first month, she says her donated sport utility vehicle was towed for what Stephens says was a bit of her tire poking out onto Palma Circle Drive, a parking violation. Stephens says she had to pay $200 to get it out of hock.
This RV is Stephens’s first home in a while: She was homeless for 2 years after being flooded out of a trailer community on Johnny Morris Road, where she had lived for 12 years. Stephens says she “hid like a mouse” in her restaurant with her children. During that time, she rode her bicycle around town, searching in the ditches and under houses for others without homes, letting them know that she hosted free meals in her restaurant’s back yard every Sunday. She also hosted fundraisers for Katrina refugees, giving all the money raised directly to those displaced. Her good works have not gone unnoticed; she has received gifts small and large: community recognition, anonymous donations of money and food, her SUV, and, most recently, her RV, donated to her by people she calls the “flying angels” of Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church.
“I’m not going to paint this RV, because I’m not going to compromise,” Stephens insisted. “When somebody gets so worked up over a color, believe me, it’s not going to end at a trailer. Next thing, he’ll be asking you to change the color of your skin, change the color of your car, change the color of your hair.”
“This has nothing to do with color anymore; it has to do with someone who draws all these forces together to get her way,” said Lanier. “Now that she is trying to mobilize all these forces, there is no resolution. We are not trying to be unreasonable, and we can’t deal with unreasonable people.”
Reason hasn’t played a major role in this situation yet – it was certainly out of town when Jani and Stephens met to talk the matter over. According to Stephens, when she arrived at the Royal Palms management office with the church members who had given her the RV, Jani “screamed” at the others to “get out,” refusing to let them accompany her into the office. Once inside the office, Jani says Stephens became the aggressor. According to Lanier (who was not present), “Lo-La came into the office and was inflammatory. She was unwilling to discuss the situation in an acceptable manner.” Stephens admits that she symbolically drew a line with “the Blood of the Lamb in the name of Jesus Christ” between herself and Jani as protection from his “evil” – a religious gesture that Jani interpreted as aggressive. Stephens says Jani is misrepresenting their conversation. “I have yet to yell about this, and I promise I won’t,” Stephens insists. “I didn’t go in there violently.”
Stephens has the support of her immediate neighbors in Royal Palms, 29 of whom signed a petition asking Lanier to “personally reconsider the eviction notice that has been issued to Lo-La. We appreciate and enjoy the improvements that Lo-La has made to her home and yard. Her flowers, plants, whimsical frogs, and bright, cheerful lavender accents … add a vibrant, cheerful atmosphere to our neighborhood.”
Lanier plans to write the neighbors and explain his position. “I don’t think the petitioners know how she behaved,” he said. He also points out that the term “eviction” does not legally apply to this situation. “We are not obligated beyond what our residents pay for up front. It’s more like a motel: You pay for four days; you stay for four days.” Stephens’ rent is paid through Aug. 4; if the matter is not resolved by then, she’ll have to leave.
Angel Kalinec, who has lived in Royal Palms for 14 years and under two previous managers, says the current manager’s style is oppressive and likens the new atmosphere to a prison. “He’s a little dictator,” she says of Jani. “I think it’s time that Mr. Lanier re-evaluate his management.”
But for Lanier, it’s Stephens’ rabble-rousing that isn’t welcome at Royal Palms. “I don’t need somebody who makes World War III out of something like this,” he explains. “Who knows how she’ll respond if a larger issue arises?”
This article appears in July 20 • 2007.