February 8, 2023

Dems Attack Suburban Homeowners

The Biden administration announced Jan. 19 that it will require all towns across the U.S. to submit “Equity Plans.”

If you’ve worked hard to afford a suburban house with a patch of lawn where your kids can play, you’re under attack.

The Biden administration and Democrats in New York, Connecticut and other states are fighting local zoning laws in order to build high-rise apartment buildings with “affordable” units in tree-lined, single-family neighborhoods. All in the name of equity, meaning everyone can live in a tranquil suburb, whether they’ve earned the money to pay for it or not.

The Biden administration announced Jan. 19 that it will require all towns across the U.S. to submit “Equity Plans” showing how they will make it possible for low-income people to live there by providing affordable housing, transportation and other resources.

Towns that don’t meet the cookie-cutter requirement for economic diversity will lose federal funding.

No one’s denying there’s a housing shortage. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing some reasonable proposals such as allowing mother-in-law apartments and relaxing environmental restrictions on residential building.

But Hochul’s biggest proposal, the Housing Compact, is another misguided attack on local control and single-family zoning.

It will compel each town and village in the New York metro area to increase its housing stock to meet a uniform, state-imposed target and rezone for high-density housing — apartment buildings — within a half-mile of every MTA train stop.

Say goodbye to quaint downtowns lined with two-story buildings and older houses.

If a town fails to meet state targets, the Compact will allow developers to build big in defiance of local zoning boards in almost all cases.

Hochul is seeking legislative approval for her plan by April. Suburban homeowners are battling a powerful alliance of real estate developers in it for the money and social justice warriors determined to end single-family zoning.

Local control will be obliterated. Albany will call the shots on what your town looks like, how much traffic there is and ultimately what your home is worth.

Slate Magazine’s Henry Grabar bashed Hochul’s critics as “a band of recalcitrant, remorseless ne'er-do-wells.” He’s wrong. Their concerns are legitimate. For most people, their home is their biggest asset.

Opponents of single-family zoning are also playing the race card. ERASE Racism President Laura Harding says she’s fighting for a Long Island “free of structural racism and de facto segregation.” The same phony pretext is being trotted out everywhere.

Racial discrimination is abhorrent and should be prosecuted. But as a Brookings Institution analysis of the 2020 census shows, race isn’t a barrier to suburban living. Blacks are moving to the suburbs at a faster pace than whites. Anybody can be suburban. It just takes money — especially in Connecticut. In 2017, developer Arnold Karp purchased a colonial house on tree-lined Weed St. in small, ultra-wealthy New Canaan. There are no commercial or multifamily buildings on the street. He now wants to build a five-story, 102-unit apartment complex with 30% set aside for affordable housing.

Weed Street is only a 10-minute drive, or a 17-minute local train ride, to Stamford, a midsize city where the quantity of affordable housing (nearly 16%) exceeds state guidelines.

Ensuring a supply of affordable housing within a region is more reasonable than demanding every town alter its character.

Local officials explain that New Canaan’s six-person fire department doesn’t even have hoses or trucks to fight a fire in a building as big as Karp’s design.

Weed St. neighbor Chris DeMuth Jr. warns Karp’s plan “is to cram over 300 people into a lot currently occupied by a single-family home.”

“If they destroy Weed Street, they could come for your neighborhood next,” says a flier DeMuth circulated to his neighbors.

In fact, Connecticut’s Senate Democrats announced they’re making housing equity “in every community in the state” a top priority.

Democrats seem to believe everyone has a right to the same lifestyle, whether they’ve earned enough to pay the tab or not. So why stop with housing equity? Government could also compel fine restaurants to set aside a certain number of tables for “affordable” dining. All for the sake of — you got it — dining equity.

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.