anyone watching this? David Simon, creator of Generation Kill, Treme', and of course The Wire, did a 6 part miniseries on HBO about Yonkers NY, in the late 80's. The story centers around a housing development decree that was basically forced onto Yonkers, they had to build low income housing in neighborhoods spread out all over Yonkers and needless to say, people were pissed. This young mayor gets elected because he opposes the housing deal, and the federal judge starts holding the city in contempt and fines the city a million dollars a day for every day that goes by where the city doesn't approve a deal. Along with that are potential layoffs, and a cease in public services. The mayor has to to fold and so do city councilmen with the exception of 2. It got me thinking, I don't know where I would stand in this. I mean the ethical thing to do would be to approve the deal, but part of me can't help but put myself in the shoes of the homeowners. They fear crime will rise, drugs will move into their neighborhoods, their property value will decrease etc, etc and keep in mind this is right when the crack epidemic is in full force. It's a good series, but where would you fall if you were in this situation?
I have no ambivalence at all. A housing project should stay in the projects. There is no doubt whatsoever that crime would rise and property values would go down the toilet. People work hard to stay away from that kind of shit and shouldn't be penalised by some liberal politician's idea of utopia.
people should not be forced to have a project in their neighborhood, no more so than you should be forced to have someone live with you. people should bee able to be free enough to live where they want. if the people in the projects want out of the bad neighborhoods they can freely move also.
That's where I am right now too. I've tried to see this from the perspective of what's considered by David Simon as the moral and ethical side of if, and I just can't agree with that side. I would move if that happened in my neighborhood.
Your Federal Government is trying to do it on a massive scale now: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles...racially-economically-integrate-neighborhoods Before I moved to New York, I lived in a gated golf course community in Florida. My next door neighbor was Indian as well as the doctor around the corner. We had a retired basketball player on the same street (person of color). This was all on the same block. If you could pay the price for the house and the association fees, no problem, no discrimination. Now they want reporting information so they can slide low-income housing into just such a neighborhood, as pointed out earlier driving the property values down.
See I think this is just another example of the middle class getting fucked. None of these low income housing units are going into affluent neighborhoods. They system is completely rigged to service the rich and the poor, meanwhile the middle gets squeezed.
It would be fine if you could just move. But if you owe a lot on a house and the value's plummet, you can't just move. They have all these rules in neighborhoods that keep you from painting your house a certain color or parking your boat where it can be seen. And then the same government drops in low incoming housing. Ouch.
I liked our neighborhood, but you are right, the boat parking, my jeep top and yard issues are why I live out in the country now on six plus acres that I can shoot on and park my boat wherever I darn well please.
I read something where an HOA tried to jail this family for having a purple swing set in their backyard.
There is a balance to be achieved here. My neighborhood association essentially does nothing at all. So we have a couple of fat cats who ostentatiously park their giant offshore fishing boats in front of their $900K houses instead of taking them to a marina or parking them in a boatyard like reasonable people do. And we have some absentee landowners who are letting their rental properties deteriorate and allow their trashy tenants to let the yards get seedy and overgrown. It brings down the values of the $300K resident-owner houses nearby. And don't get me started on student renters living four to a 2-bedroom house with 6 cars parked in their mudhole yards. It's just a matter of time before these run-down properties turn into Section-8 housing in many places. Fortunately in my neighborhood, the mini-mansions are keeping values up and some of the run-down properties are getting bought by flippers who renovate them and resell to affluent customers.
