The pain of decreasing housing affordability reared its head briefly in my town. Northern Virginia around Fairfax, Loudoun, and Fauquier counties is one of those regions where the workers who service the area – auto mechanics, retail salespeople, custodial personnel, etc. – cannot afford to live where they work.
Oregon passed a bill in the last few years that requires its larger cities, such as the one that I live in, to modify their zoning to allow more units on existing lots. The allowances depend on the size of the lot.
These cities, like so many other cities, have a housing crisis and a homelessness crisis that depend on housing not being affordable. The NIMBY crowd does not like this statute, but it went through anyway.
Agree completely. Same here in my downtown Silver Spring neighborhood. People put up lots of Black Lives Matter signs. But they oppose more density as threatening to our "traditional way of life."
If traffic is a worry, then more density is better than more sprawl.
Just wanna point out: race is an element of NIMBYism, but it's not all racial. I live in the fancy part of Newark, NJ. Our nabe does everything it can do to retain its (comparatively) low density and (comparatively) high prices. Racially, we're impeccable: blacks, browns, and whites united against the poor.
Oregon passed a bill in the last few years that requires its larger cities, such as the one that I live in, to modify their zoning to allow more units on existing lots. The allowances depend on the size of the lot.
These cities, like so many other cities, have a housing crisis and a homelessness crisis that depend on housing not being affordable. The NIMBY crowd does not like this statute, but it went through anyway.
Details from our NPR affiliate are at https://www.opb.org/article/2022/05/25/how-oregon-is-bringing-missing-middle-housing-to-the-state/
Yes I wrote about that in my review. Kahlenberg gives it a lot of play in his book.
Agree completely. Same here in my downtown Silver Spring neighborhood. People put up lots of Black Lives Matter signs. But they oppose more density as threatening to our "traditional way of life."
If traffic is a worry, then more density is better than more sprawl.
Just wanna point out: race is an element of NIMBYism, but it's not all racial. I live in the fancy part of Newark, NJ. Our nabe does everything it can do to retain its (comparatively) low density and (comparatively) high prices. Racially, we're impeccable: blacks, browns, and whites united against the poor.
Totally agree. I lived in the North Ward for a time, around 1973. I didn't know there were any fancy parts left.