Reply to MoCo is diverse, for sure, but MCPS schools are not

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Reply to "MoCo is diverse, for sure, but MCPS schools are not"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

There ARE apartments and condos in Bethesda.  Unless you make them public housing developments, the rent and cost to buy will rise with the market.  The demand is huge, so even basic 2 BR apartments will rent at $2400 and up, and 2 BR 1400 sf condos will cost $500K and up.  And there are houses that are available for rent.  Just drive around.  But I think most rent for $4000/mo.  I wasn't aware of any rule against renting rooms.  Again, unless you're talking about public housing projects, how will you control for market pricing?  And the issue is not "allowing" developers to build apartments and condos -- really, the state/county should be *requiring* developers to set aside some lower priced units.  Otherwise the developers will only build luxury units.  Developers are not interested in building affordable housing.  They want top dollar for their projects.[/quote]

Supply and demand works in the housing market just as it does everywhere else. So, why is the rent so high in Bethesda? Because demand for apartments in Bethesda far exceeds the supply of apartments in Bethesda. What happens if you add supply (i.e., build more apartments in Bethesda)? The rent gets cheaper. Nobody has to force anybody to do anything. It's the free market at work!

As for renting an apartment in your house, yes, actually, there are rules. A lot of rules. See here:

http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/apps/dhca/licensing/pdf/Fact_Sheet.pdf

Also, the county does *require* developers to set aside some lower-priced units -- specifically, 12.5-15%. The county has been doing this since 1973. See here:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DHCA/housing/singlefamily/mpdu/index.html[/quote]

And they are building MORE apartments/condos in Bethesda, in the Westbard area.  Where will those kids go?  The school that is zoned for Westbard is something like 150 students overcapacity, at over 800 students.  Should the school go to 1000 students, so the kids can start lunch shifts at 9:30 am until 2:30 pm?  There may never be enough housing made available in Bethesda to make sure that everyone who wants to live there can live there affordably.  The MPDU units are gone in a flash.  So I guess the solution people here want is to make a county-wide lottery so that people who spent their life's savings on houses in certain neighborhoods (and left DC to avoid constant school lotteries) will just have to suck it up and go wherever their lottery draw sends them?  And when the entire county is in gridlock because people are schlepping their kids all over the county daily, then what?  I mean, really -- this is the utopia people are hoping for?  You won't get diversity because the people who have the means will leave MCPS or MoCo altogether if they have to bus their kids out of what they consider a good school cluster.

In any event, my kids' classes ARE actually pretty diverse.  It's not like it was in DC, that's for sure, but it's not lily-white...in part because MY kids are not.  [/quote]

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