Parish
Don't Be Fatalistic About Affordability
RECEIVED Mon., Feb. 12, 2007
Dear Editor,
What I find strange about Austin is the fatalism people have regarding its affordability [“Going Vertical,” News, Feb. 9].
There are very simple mechanisms to make a city – even a popular city – affordable and keep it that way for much of the population, mechanisms that this paper has even discussed in the past.
The two best are community land trusts and mandatory (not incentive-based) inclusionary zoning, mandating that a certain percentage of any new development be "affordable" with a clear and strong definition of affordability based on working-class wages.
Honestly, no, it's wrong to say that only the rich should have easy access to treasured local landmarks. The rich didn't create Barton Springs; God and nature did. Developers just built fences around the damned thing. Developers didn't create the Hill Country; they just fenced it off and built mansions on it.
If affluent folks are drawn to Austin because of its vibrancy, a vibrancy that goes hand in hand with a creative, artistic, working-class setting, where people can devote themselves to craft and artisanship and make enough to survive, then they're shooting themselves in the feet when they price working-class people out of homes and drive them to the periphery of the city.
What I find strange about Austin is the fatalism people have regarding its affordability [“Going Vertical,” News, Feb. 9].
There are very simple mechanisms to make a city – even a popular city – affordable and keep it that way for much of the population, mechanisms that this paper has even discussed in the past.
The two best are community land trusts and mandatory (not incentive-based) inclusionary zoning, mandating that a certain percentage of any new development be "affordable" with a clear and strong definition of affordability based on working-class wages.
Honestly, no, it's wrong to say that only the rich should have easy access to treasured local landmarks. The rich didn't create Barton Springs; God and nature did. Developers just built fences around the damned thing. Developers didn't create the Hill Country; they just fenced it off and built mansions on it.
If affluent folks are drawn to Austin because of its vibrancy, a vibrancy that goes hand in hand with a creative, artistic, working-class setting, where people can devote themselves to craft and artisanship and make enough to survive, then they're shooting themselves in the feet when they price working-class people out of homes and drive them to the periphery of the city.
Donald Jackson
