Reply to The Urbanist Cult

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

The problem is that the Urbanist Cult and DC Smart Growth Industry use "affordable housing" as a pretext and a smokescreen for a far-reaching, more laissez faire approach to zoning, planning and historic preservation.  Their goal is a substantial increase in market rate density, particularly in areas that developers see as offering the highest potential profit opportunities.  The paltry number of resulting IZ ("Inclusive zoning) units - which are not even truly "affordable" -- are grandly cited by the Smart Growth Urbanists to justify upFLUMming and up zoning on a massive scale.  When the hollowness of DC's IZ program are pointed out, together with DC regulators' lax interest in even holding developers to their IZ promises, the Urbanists fall back on a lame trickle down theory that Build, Baby, Build! across DC will result in affordable housing.  Trickle down was discredited as a general economic theory by the end of the Reagan years, and its application to housing markets, which are highly segmented and localized, is even more dubious.  The only thing that is more outrageous than citing warmed over Reaganomics to justify their laissez faire development agenda is when DC Smart Growth, Inc. hires Trumpy GOP operatives to shamelessly pretend that it's all about brining more affordable housing to the District.  [/quote]

You are projecting.

Some of us have been affordable housing advocates for many years, and were simply advocating under the tools available to create it. If you want more toold, then join with us to change the laws or get more funding. But throwing all of us together in one evil cabal does a disservice to all involved.[/quote]

DP, but I’ll be happy to join you when stop advocating policies that only serve developers’ profits. The tools available aren’t the ones that will get us more affordable housing. For that, we need land value taxes, truly finite timelines for project approvals, and high taxes on apartments or houses that are converted to short-term rentals. Upzoning is good too, but only close to rail lines because anywhere else it will cause an increase in car driving. And we should get rid of parking minimums near transit too. And stop building public parking lots. [/quote]

Land value taxes will never happen.

There is nothing wrong with developers making a profit. We do live in America.

Besides, they make a fraction of what the NIMBYs make on housing appreciation.[/quote]

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