_Snob Zones_, Lisa Prevost
Jul. 4th, 2018 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitout#25
Subtitled “Fear, Prejudice and Real Estate” and featuring places like Darien (Auntie Mame’s “Aryan from Darien” remark is discussed), Ossipee (oh, New Hampshire) and a variety of other towns, New England and otherwise, Prevost’s book was written over a period of time. Some parts were published in the NYT. Some parts pre-date the bust; some are post. None are from the most recent years of massive increase in prices and homelessness. Seattle was still looking pretty good when this was written. Ooops!
Prevost’s perspective is unambiguous: she doesn’t approve of slam-the-door attitudes. She never calls it that — she uses the more standard NIMBY. But I like slam-the-door better. It captures the idea that I get to move to some place and then stop change cold, including new entrants. NIMBY includes a lot of other stuff.
Prevost does _not_ chalk everything up to racism, which honestly, I think is good. Racism is real, and a lot of snob zoning has disproportionate racial impact and that is also real. Classism is _also_ real, and a lot of snob zoning is more about classism than it is about race. Many of these communities are perfectly happy to welcome people of color who can afford the results of four acre minimum lot size. They are _NOT_ perfectly happy to welcome “white” people who can’t.
I could wish that Prevost’s discussion of business interests backing legislation that undermines snob zoning in the interest of workforce housing had been more extensive. On the other hand, that probably is because I wish this were happening a lot more than it is. It’s hard to cover something that is as nascent as business interest support of workforce housing.
Lots of great stories here, altho I could easily imagine that some readers might take Great Offense at the author’s undisguised contempt for people who oppose affordable housing. I know I have a bunch of neighbors who are currently freaking the fuck out about a house down the road that is due to be torn down and replaced with a small cluster of four houses. They also freaked out about the parcel they _thought_ was wet that had an $800K house built on it (I really like that house — I also like the Chinese-American family that bought it). And before I moved here, they freaked out about the condos built down the street across the road from the school campus. And they freaked out about the people who owned the land my house was built on selling it and it being subdivided into two houses. They also freaked out about the idea that the sewer might be extended to the loop I walk around and that I live on (my house is on the sewer). They are Concerned Citizens who fear what might happen if the sewer is extended. I mean, _apartments_. They could _happen_. And _traffic_.
But if you are like me, and you want people to move into your neighborhood, and make it a vibrant, changing, diverse place where interesting things happen like good restaurants, and you value walkability and want to share it with more people by building more housing near things like commuter rail stations, you might just love this book.
Subtitled “Fear, Prejudice and Real Estate” and featuring places like Darien (Auntie Mame’s “Aryan from Darien” remark is discussed), Ossipee (oh, New Hampshire) and a variety of other towns, New England and otherwise, Prevost’s book was written over a period of time. Some parts were published in the NYT. Some parts pre-date the bust; some are post. None are from the most recent years of massive increase in prices and homelessness. Seattle was still looking pretty good when this was written. Ooops!
Prevost’s perspective is unambiguous: she doesn’t approve of slam-the-door attitudes. She never calls it that — she uses the more standard NIMBY. But I like slam-the-door better. It captures the idea that I get to move to some place and then stop change cold, including new entrants. NIMBY includes a lot of other stuff.
Prevost does _not_ chalk everything up to racism, which honestly, I think is good. Racism is real, and a lot of snob zoning has disproportionate racial impact and that is also real. Classism is _also_ real, and a lot of snob zoning is more about classism than it is about race. Many of these communities are perfectly happy to welcome people of color who can afford the results of four acre minimum lot size. They are _NOT_ perfectly happy to welcome “white” people who can’t.
I could wish that Prevost’s discussion of business interests backing legislation that undermines snob zoning in the interest of workforce housing had been more extensive. On the other hand, that probably is because I wish this were happening a lot more than it is. It’s hard to cover something that is as nascent as business interest support of workforce housing.
Lots of great stories here, altho I could easily imagine that some readers might take Great Offense at the author’s undisguised contempt for people who oppose affordable housing. I know I have a bunch of neighbors who are currently freaking the fuck out about a house down the road that is due to be torn down and replaced with a small cluster of four houses. They also freaked out about the parcel they _thought_ was wet that had an $800K house built on it (I really like that house — I also like the Chinese-American family that bought it). And before I moved here, they freaked out about the condos built down the street across the road from the school campus. And they freaked out about the people who owned the land my house was built on selling it and it being subdivided into two houses. They also freaked out about the idea that the sewer might be extended to the loop I walk around and that I live on (my house is on the sewer). They are Concerned Citizens who fear what might happen if the sewer is extended. I mean, _apartments_. They could _happen_. And _traffic_.
But if you are like me, and you want people to move into your neighborhood, and make it a vibrant, changing, diverse place where interesting things happen like good restaurants, and you value walkability and want to share it with more people by building more housing near things like commuter rail stations, you might just love this book.