Entry tags:
I have met the enemy, and the thing that is not quite the enemy
Mark Primack is the architect for the development around the corner. He is also, intermittently, a politician. I didn't vote for Mark Primack in the elections where he ran. His platform was "smart growth" but his definition of smart growth doesn't completely overlap with mine. Anyway, I had other guys I wanted to vote for.
But I have to say he was the only one speaking my language last night. He had answers for all of my questions except "how much will the inclusionary units cost?" -- which he couldn't answer, it turns out, and he and the developer explained how that goes. I thought they could have given me a ballpark estimate, and I think the reason they didn't is that the prices for inclusionary homes in Santa Cruz are too high and it would be embarrassing to them when they were tfrying to make me happy. Inclusionary means homes that must be sold for a certain price, below the median, set by comparing various economic factors which change all the time, The City keeps a chart, where you look up the kind of home and the size of the family and various other factors and then they tell you the maximum the inclusionary units have to go for. The rule is that fifteen percent of the housing in the city has to be inclusionary. Developers can get out of it by paying in-lieu fees. This developer has a requirement of two one-bedroom or one of the three-bedroom places, and hasn't decided which. After discussing floor plans and parking requirements with the architect and developer, I suggested two of the one-bedroom places be inclusionary as it woyuld go farther towards the goal of keeping working-class families in the city (there are these studies and nooks without doors built into the design which honestly could be fixed up as bedrooms for children). It looked like the developer was interested in what I said about that, anyway.
The neighbors who were upset at the idea that people might be getting in and out of their cars at night and making too much noise or might be renters and not keep their house as nice as they want them to were mollified by Mark's attention to architectural detail and the developer's personal interest in the place, and also the fact that everything was condominiums and therefore not rentals except the developer might keep a handful and rent them out himself. (which he may have said to mollify me, who knows). But the lady who called in from out of town and was so upset at the notion of rentals which might result in turnover
lived in one of her houses for a grand total of three years and now they are
fucking vacation rentals.
She is the enemy. She sits there in Thousand Oaks renting out perfectly fine family housing for four times the going rate for rent (most likely, that's the usual formula) wittering on about the quality of the neighborhood. She has removed two largeish, but modestly built houses, walking distance from everything a family needs -- preschools and schools right through graduation, parks, libraries, even a medical clinic! -- City Hall! the County Building! (The County government is the second largest employer last I knew, behind the University). For that matter, the University is walking distance in a pinch, or if you want to get a lot of exercise.
I caught Mark's eye as I gasped in outrage when she said in her smug little voice that she couldn't afford the mortgage so she moved to Thousand Oaks and mortgaged the places again to rent them out and she's "trying to get back!" He was the only one who understood what I was angry about.
One of the "homeowner" types was so dim I could just cry whenever he went muling (as in mule, not as in mewl, though I suppose he could have been doing both) about speedfuckingbumps and renters.
And this is why I say without irony that when yuppies move into your neighborhood they endanger it. Their values are completely selfish and distorted, they can't share, and everything they say about how their house is their home is delicately balanced on the point of whether they can be richer living there or contributing to the housing crisis.
Did I mention that none of the other people had lived in their houses over six years? And I've lived in mione for twenty-nine years and ten months? That I actually did raise my children here? That the nice fellow and I have always worked here -- I've worked the farthest away and that was Watsonville?
But I have to say he was the only one speaking my language last night. He had answers for all of my questions except "how much will the inclusionary units cost?" -- which he couldn't answer, it turns out, and he and the developer explained how that goes. I thought they could have given me a ballpark estimate, and I think the reason they didn't is that the prices for inclusionary homes in Santa Cruz are too high and it would be embarrassing to them when they were tfrying to make me happy. Inclusionary means homes that must be sold for a certain price, below the median, set by comparing various economic factors which change all the time, The City keeps a chart, where you look up the kind of home and the size of the family and various other factors and then they tell you the maximum the inclusionary units have to go for. The rule is that fifteen percent of the housing in the city has to be inclusionary. Developers can get out of it by paying in-lieu fees. This developer has a requirement of two one-bedroom or one of the three-bedroom places, and hasn't decided which. After discussing floor plans and parking requirements with the architect and developer, I suggested two of the one-bedroom places be inclusionary as it woyuld go farther towards the goal of keeping working-class families in the city (there are these studies and nooks without doors built into the design which honestly could be fixed up as bedrooms for children). It looked like the developer was interested in what I said about that, anyway.
The neighbors who were upset at the idea that people might be getting in and out of their cars at night and making too much noise or might be renters and not keep their house as nice as they want them to were mollified by Mark's attention to architectural detail and the developer's personal interest in the place, and also the fact that everything was condominiums and therefore not rentals except the developer might keep a handful and rent them out himself. (which he may have said to mollify me, who knows). But the lady who called in from out of town and was so upset at the notion of rentals which might result in turnover
lived in one of her houses for a grand total of three years and now they are
fucking vacation rentals.
She is the enemy. She sits there in Thousand Oaks renting out perfectly fine family housing for four times the going rate for rent (most likely, that's the usual formula) wittering on about the quality of the neighborhood. She has removed two largeish, but modestly built houses, walking distance from everything a family needs -- preschools and schools right through graduation, parks, libraries, even a medical clinic! -- City Hall! the County Building! (The County government is the second largest employer last I knew, behind the University). For that matter, the University is walking distance in a pinch, or if you want to get a lot of exercise.
I caught Mark's eye as I gasped in outrage when she said in her smug little voice that she couldn't afford the mortgage so she moved to Thousand Oaks and mortgaged the places again to rent them out and she's "trying to get back!" He was the only one who understood what I was angry about.
One of the "homeowner" types was so dim I could just cry whenever he went muling (as in mule, not as in mewl, though I suppose he could have been doing both) about speedfuckingbumps and renters.
And this is why I say without irony that when yuppies move into your neighborhood they endanger it. Their values are completely selfish and distorted, they can't share, and everything they say about how their house is their home is delicately balanced on the point of whether they can be richer living there or contributing to the housing crisis.
Did I mention that none of the other people had lived in their houses over six years? And I've lived in mione for twenty-nine years and ten months? That I actually did raise my children here? That the nice fellow and I have always worked here -- I've worked the farthest away and that was Watsonville?