Reply to Opinion | America’s Cities Are Unlivable. Blame Wealthy Liberals.

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Reply to "Opinion | America’s Cities Are Unlivable. Blame Wealthy Liberals. - The New York Times"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree there are problems but most of this I'd lay at the feet of the GOP and their out of control spending on defense and huge deficits brought on by tax cuts for the wealthuy.[/quote]

How does that have anything to do with the heavily blue cities and their housing affordability problems? I suspect you didn't read the article.

Zoning regulations are not a federal responsibility. They are local responsibilities.It has nothing to do with the GOP in Washington and out of control spending on defense and huge deficits.

The power to zone is wholly at local government levels. And zoning is what affects housing prices more than anything else. Just to use as an example: Bethesda is infamous for teardowns and replacing small starter homes with McMansions selling for 1+ million. That happens in part because zoning only allows SFH on those lots. [b]If Montgomery County rezoned to allow SFH on a quarter acre lot to be replaced with rowhouses or apartments, you'd find a lot more affordable housing in Bethesda..... But can you imagine the uproar? [/b]

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Sorry, but a lot of those people that would and do uproar are conservatives. MoCo may be dominated by Democrats, but those NIMBY's with the deepest pockets are often not liberal AT ALL.

Look at Chevy Chase Country Club that used a lot of money and power to try to scuttle the Purple line and higher density development near their club. You think they are "liberals"? They are not.

The problem isn't "liberal cities." It's those who have the money and power to tie up the system from making meaningful changes. San Francisco has actually been trying to increase density, but the wealthy NIMBY's keep suing and gumming up new policies in the courts. Here's a hint: they are NOT uniformly liberal. In fact, I would posit that they probably trend conservative, even in San Francisco.

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+ 1

They might call themselves Democrats but on a local level, they don't practice what the party preaches. They don't want dense low income housing built near where they live and they don't want to share their school district's resources with other poor school districts. And they don't want poor kids being able to choose to come into affluent schools.

They're libertarians at best which is not a progressive party.[/quote]

What is this shit? You're claiming they're not real Democrats even if they've always voted Democratic?  :roll: You're just making excuses for the failures of people on your side of the political spectrum to tackle genuine issues. MoCo is heavily, predominately, overwhelmingly liberal as per voting records go. There is no excuse. The Nimby people are solidly liberal democrats. There's no avoiding this.

All the anti growth people I see in most major urban areas are hardcore Dems. Anti gentrification? Always Democrats. Anti tower blocks/skyscrapers? Always Democrats. Do you know why? Because Republicans don't live in the cities in any meaningful numbers. [/quote]

Concur.  I was at a cocktail party yesterday evening and the hosts, who presently live in Edgemoore, were spouting off about the change in the Old Georgetown Road church's development plans (well publicized if anyone wants to search it).  They said they were preparing their house for sale, that this was the straw that broke the camel's back.  That project now looks to be a multi family nightmare on the corner of their neighborhood and they are worried about the low income ratio that Erlich and company will set aside, how it will affect Bethesda Elementary and hence, their property value.  Funny thing, the guy is a zoning attorney, he knows where this is going and he wants nothing to do with it.  Btw, he is a flaming Trump hating lib.  Go figure.[/quote]

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