Update on Wilmette Affordable Housing
Quick, go read the Backyard Conservative's great post on Wilmette and "affordable housing," an Illinois real estate developer's relief act (and "thank you" by legislators for their hefty campaign contributions) wrapped in a pneumbra of good works and the always popular Marxist ideal of income and wealth redistribution. Of course, the Marxists never seem to volunteer much of their own income and wealth, preferring to redistribute your income and wealth, instead.
Wilmette has done a bad job in taking a "wait and see" attitude on affordable housing. There are some real legal questions to be answered about the act, but all I suppose fools rush in where angels dare to tread. I wasn't terribly suprised to read in Thursday’s Wilmette Life that the Wilmette Trustees had hired a consultant to offer advice about affordable housing. The consultant, by the name of Roberta Nechin, was quoted as follows:
"You want the sales clerk, divorced, with one kid, who wants to stay in the community, in the school district," Nechin said [last] Friday.
You see the problem? The consultant knows nothing about Wilmette at all! In Wilmette, women don’t work as sales clerks anymore. That was the “little job” done by a previous generation, who liked to work nearby for a few hours a week and obtain a store discount in a time where discount stores just didn't exist. It also predated today's profile of a typical Wilmette woman, who is most likely to have a profession or advanced knowledge of business, even if she spends a great deal of time raising her kids. While I am all for divorced women staying in the community, let’s get realistic. You can’t afford day care on a typical sales clerk’s job, much less housing.
Why are our Trustees paying this person? Wilmette is loaded with talent, all sorts of it. It’s likely someone with excellent credentials, who actually knows the community and would be willing to volunteer their time to look at affordable housing would come up with a far better result. The amount spent by Trustees on outside "experts," when we have no shortage of local-know how, likely free for the asking, is just an attempt to "pass the buck" and refuse to take responsibity for our community's future.
Wilmette has done a bad job in taking a "wait and see" attitude on affordable housing. There are some real legal questions to be answered about the act, but all I suppose fools rush in where angels dare to tread. I wasn't terribly suprised to read in Thursday’s Wilmette Life that the Wilmette Trustees had hired a consultant to offer advice about affordable housing. The consultant, by the name of Roberta Nechin, was quoted as follows:
"You want the sales clerk, divorced, with one kid, who wants to stay in the community, in the school district," Nechin said [last] Friday.
You see the problem? The consultant knows nothing about Wilmette at all! In Wilmette, women don’t work as sales clerks anymore. That was the “little job” done by a previous generation, who liked to work nearby for a few hours a week and obtain a store discount in a time where discount stores just didn't exist. It also predated today's profile of a typical Wilmette woman, who is most likely to have a profession or advanced knowledge of business, even if she spends a great deal of time raising her kids. While I am all for divorced women staying in the community, let’s get realistic. You can’t afford day care on a typical sales clerk’s job, much less housing.
Why are our Trustees paying this person? Wilmette is loaded with talent, all sorts of it. It’s likely someone with excellent credentials, who actually knows the community and would be willing to volunteer their time to look at affordable housing would come up with a far better result. The amount spent by Trustees on outside "experts," when we have no shortage of local-know how, likely free for the asking, is just an attempt to "pass the buck" and refuse to take responsibity for our community's future.
posted by Publia at 12:35 PM
2 Comments:
Let me guess, the consultant will say we need to raise taxes so people who do not want to pay to live in Wilmette can charge others to live in Wilmette.
I could save the Village the consulting fee by writing the loony recommendations before pretending to study the issue.
JBP
Case in point: We already have a volunteer, and one with a remarkable amount of insight!
Thanks, JB! We always love your blog!
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