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Unless you buy a home simply to rent it out to others, you need to be an active participant in its affairs. At the bare minimum, it means staying abreast in wha
by Apocryphon 3y ago
Unless you buy a home simply to rent it out to others, you need to be an active participant in its affairs. At the bare minimum, it means staying abreast in what’s going on. Any responsible homebuyer would have done their due diligence in at least asking the realtor what is the current trend of the local community, long before any papers are signed. Zoning law changes should never come as a “sudden” surprise, especially since they are universally a source of controversy.
- CubsFan1060 3y agoI'm going to guess you might be young? People in my neighborhood have owned their houses for decades. Are you saying that someone buying a house in 1988 should have foreseen all the changes in the following 35 years?
- Apocryphon 3y agoIf you’ve been living in the same neighborhood in 35 years you should be even more familiar with the changes going on to it, hell, you should even be an active participant in aiding or resisting change if you’re such a firmly-established local. There should be no surprises if you’ve been there since 1988. The talk of “suddenly changes” - which is the whole point of this subthread - does not apply to you.
- Geisterde 3y agoAnd then 8 people show up at a city council meeting and set you on a path of financial ruin. The whole point of american government is that it shouldnt interfere with your life.
- Apocryphon 3y agoLocal homeowners are an incredibly powerful bloc and have successfully thwarted development and upzoning in myriads of communities. The idea of “outside agitators” coming in and having the power to change your community is a specious, pernicious myth. It also undercuts the principles of American democracy. If you want things to stay exactly the way they are, then you must fight for it, you cannot expect others to do it for you.
- kbolino 3y ago> The idea of “outside agitators” coming in and having the power to change your community is a specious, pernicious myth. Pessimistically, one could view the missions of HFH and and many HUD programs (esp. FHA) as exactly that. Every house built, bought, or renovated can affect change, and external assistance can tilt the changes. Ditto big developers coming in to "revitalize" urban areas. However, while I would agree that local government is still generally pretty answerable to local voters, state and federal grants and other "external" sources of money can and do alter their priorities. Changing demographics, esp. simple population growth, can attenuate or amplify various voting blocs over time. Most change happens very slowly at first, but then suddenly accelerates. No matter your politics, I think there are good examples of this. Whether it be poorer neighborhoods that suddenly get gentrified after decades of stability, pricing out families who've lived there for generations, or richer neighborhoods that suddenly get a low-cost complex built nearby to qualify for a grant or comply with a DOJ "consent agreement", the character of a neighborhood _can_ change quickly even if it generally _doesn't_. In these situations, the most that participating in local government will get you is advance warning, which is a lot less useful for the poorer example than the richer one.
- Apocryphon 3y agoThat is a much more nuanced and even-handed description of the state of things than a simplistic “housing activists have invaded my council meeting” bogeyman.
- Geisterde 3y agoSorry you lost me at "american democracy".
- Apocryphon 3y agoIt is simply an echo of “the whole point of american government is […].” Did you lose yourself too while writing your own comment?
- 3y ago