HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-29-24 Public Comment - P. McGown - eyes wide openFrom:Patty McGownTo:Bozeman Public Comment; Takami Clark
Cc:Erin George; Chuck Winn; David Fine
Subject:[EXTERNAL]eyes wide openDate:Monday, October 28, 2024 4:06:30 PM
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Dear Commissioners, Community Development, Planning Department and Economic Development;
I live at 222 S 13th Ave in Bozeman. I have lived in the Gallatin Valley since 1987.
The Better Bozeman Coalition, (BBC) whose membership is made up of many, many residents who love Bozeman, has written several excellent blogsregarding the UDC and up zoning in Bozeman. Below is the link to part 2 from September, 2024. As a property tax paying and voting resident, I insist thatyou take the time to read and study this critical document. It is “chock-a-block full” of facts about Bozeman’s current housing debacle. Yes, I am angry aboutthis situation. I think that I am not being heard and it feels dismissive. Nobody likes that. I recently read in the Montana Free Press that the deputy mayorstated that the “…home owning liberals who have long controlled city hall” may be responsible for the lack of affordable housing. This is incorrect andfactually wrong.
Please, as my brother in law used to beg me, “grow a brain” and use it!! This assessment of home owners is inaccurate, incorrect and misleading. While it is critical to use judgment, it is not relational or helpful to pass judgment.Don’t judge me based on my owning my home. I worked tirelessly and endlessly to afford it. Just like me, you probably don’t like to be judged based on onething about you. You don’t know me, so please do not judge me.
But, reading this post from the BBC, you will understand me better, as I agree with everything written. The BBC blog post explicitly explains why up-zoningdoes not create housing affordability. You can read the BBC blog post at this link where it Bzn+vs.+Austin+Production.png
Cracking The Code Part 2: Is Bozeman’s Zoning
Preventing Housing Creation?
betterbozemancoalition.org
discusses whether Bozeman zoning is preventing housing creation. The fact is, current Bozeman zoning is NOT preventing housing creation. It is actuallypromoting the building of heaps of unaffordable luxury housing!!!
After enlightening yourselves with this blog, you can clearly see that increasing housing density does increase supply of housing. However, increasingdensity does NOT produce affordable housing. Density by design allows for developers to build more luxury housing almost anywhere they want.
This absolute lack of affordable housing is evident in Bozeman with the dramatic increase in “urban camping” also called “homelessness” or “residents whoare unhoused” in the last 10 years. And unfortunately, now it’s basically a crime to be unhoused or homeless. This is so sad and wrong to me. But the truth is:Increasing density does not create affordable housing. Increased density has caused affordability problems and has created homelessness. Density createsunaffordable luxury housing. This serious flaw in up zoning needs to be addressed and corrected.
Increasing density has increased the number of luxury condos and apartments. Regardless of how many times Mark Egge and Alice Buckley roll their eyesand call me a NIMBY while they promote “YIMBY” (which is Nationally funded with outside money from the likes of Big Real Estate, Big Tech and theKoch Brothers, according to Reddit). And the idea that density will create “trickle down affordable housing” is a myth! It does not happen.
Please accept this fact, that increased housing density does not create affordability as the baseline for your UDC and zoning changes, moving forward.
Please don’t just take my word for YIMBY not working! Read the article attached below by P.R. McDonald from November 2023. YIMBY does not work!!!Please! read!
Bozeman does not need to continue to make the same mistakes made in California, Texas and Minnesota. I support affordable housing and up zoning is notthe answer.
The Collapse of the YIMBY House of Cards
In News by Patrick Range McDonaldNovember 15, 2023
YIMBYism has hit a rough patch. “Yes In My Back Yard” built its reputation on a series of false premises that have been propped up by
boatloads of Big Real Estate and Big Tech money. But the reckoning has arrived.
The core YIMBY belief, pushed by lobbying groups such as California YIMBY, is that building housing of any kind, no matter howexpensive, will bring down the cost of housing. This wacky idea says that building an endless number of Ferraris will help people who
can only afford a scooter. This experiment has been in full swing for several years now, and it has been a miserable failure.
Studies by Zillow and Harvard found that developers overwhelmingly build luxury housing and very little affordable housing for middle-
and working-class residents. And while luxury buildings pop up everywhere throughout California, the number of homeless peoplecontinues to soar. A recent Stanford University study found that between 2014 and 2020, homelessness increased by 42 percent.
Homelessness is only the tip of the iceberg of California’s housing affordability crisis. Renters paying most of their income for rent andstruggling to pay for food and other necessities is the largest part of the problem.
A report by the O.C. Register found that California has the most rent-burdened residents than any other state. As corporate real estate
vultures descend on the state and gobble up private homes, more and more people become permanent renters at the mercy of robberbaron real estate oligarchs.
Housing is more than just a place to lay your head. Where we live nurtures the community that feeds our human desire to belong andto be supported. The YIMBY trickle-down craze has resulted in rapid gentrification of working-class communities and communities of
color.
YIMBYs’ contention that simply increasing the housing supply, no matter how unaffordable it may be, will bring down prices defies all
logic and common sense. Plunking luxury buildings in the middle of working-class neighborhoods drives up all rents, and, as a result,destroys the fabric of those communities. The elderly person who relies on a neighbor for a ride to the doctor fades away. The multi-
generational culture that nurtures community institutions is replaced by Teslas driving into underground garages.
YIMBYs might be more credible if they actually supported tenant protections. Instead, their trickle-down, luxury-housing push is directlyresponsible for displacement and the shrinking pool of available low-income units.
The unholy alliance between YIMBYs and Big Real Estate and Big Tech exposes their real interests – making cities safe for a lattecrowd far removed from the gritty realities of city life. Follow the money that YIMBY relies on from Big Tech and Big Real Estate. It
shows where their loyalties lie. Their total lack of support for rent control and housing justice – and their routine silence about thepredatory business practices of Big Real Estate — only underscores the truth.
The YIMBY zombies no doubt will still roam the land, but stripped of any semblance of truth to back up their wacky notions, they are
doomed to wind up on the trash heap of history as so many other fake movements have before them.
Follow Housing Is A Human Right
Another very important issue I want to address is landscapes. Please Save the trees!!! Climate change is real. Keeping trees and plants and open land iscritical for reducing environmental temperature increases. Save them all. All trees, every single one and especially trees 10 years and older. Trees grow soslow in the Gallatin ecosystem. Keeping the old growth city trees must be a priority. Why? Well, for example: In Medellin, Colombia, a third world country,the temperature has cooled by 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) by planting 2.5 million plants and 880,000 trees across the city. How do we get more trees? Whenyou update the zoning codes, make it mandatory to plant trees. Require future development to plant trees and plants and lots of them. The UDC must includekeeping some of the land available for plants and trees (i.e. setbacks) and require plants and trees on the roofs of buildings. We must save the plants and trees!Our future quite literally depends on it.
Please look around at all the density and construction and luxury and what the actual costs are. Now residents are being asked to fund more police andemergency services for the growing population. What about charging the developers specific fees to cover the need for more police and emergency services.Think outside the box!! Add this cost to the new zoning codes.
What is currently happening in Bozeman is NOT working to produce affordable housing. Please sit at the table with open minds as you listen to the residentswho want affordable housing. Listen to their concerns, their thoughts, their ideas and their solutions. Together we are stronger.
Standing by,
Patty McGown