We often hear about the struggle between progressives and centrists in the Democratic Party. Among MoCo’s Democrats, the progressives demoralize the police force and reward cover-ups of sexual harassment with severance pay. The centrists focus on policies that get resources to those who need it, such as bus service. That’s not a hard and consistent distinction, but it seems to be playing out more often over the past few months.
In my perception of reality, Marilyn Balcombe is a centrist. As an example, in her newsletter from July 24, she makes a timid case for zoning reform as a way of bringing down the cost of housing. First, the background.
If you want to find someone to blame for the high cost of housing, look in the mirror (or your parent’s and grandparent’s mirrors). All of us bought into the notion that a single-family detached residence is the way things have to be. Notions are OK, of course, but then all of us went to MoCo’s Planning Department and demanded that they dedicate acres and acres to R-60 and R-90 zoning. Then we all went to the County Council to forcefully impose that notion on the entire population for generations. Then we all demonized “the developers” who want to build large multi-use projects that include moderately priced housing. The result has been that residents (such as myself) fortunate enough to have bought 10, 20, and 50 years ago are literally using the force of law to keep their large homes and block out others from having any home at all.
People have come to their senses, something that free-market supporters did three hundred years ago. Everyone now realizes that forced zoning has caused a terrible housing shortage, and the zoning needs to change. Montgomery Planning Department, instead of drawing the correct conclusion and dissolving itself due to dereliction and complicity, issued a policy page explaining how they will rectify the situation. In that page the department declares it will make the same mistakes it did in the 1940s: work with other departments to force today’s popular housing notions on future generations. In particular, the department’s current recommendation is to redevelop single-family detached tracts into high-density apartment, retail and office districts.
This is where Marilyn Balcombe’s soft touch comes in. From her recent newsletter:
Recommendations from the Planning Board are NOT mandates that new and different housing types must be built in existing neighborhoods. The plan is still in the discussion phase and no immediate changes are being made in any neighborhood.
If that kind of hedgy language is necessary to pass zoning reform, well done. Reform is better when as few people as possible feel disenfranchised, even the oppressors. In contrast, I would have addressed the opponents of zoning reform with a quote from Argentinian president Javier Milei.
Estamos frente al fin del modelo de la casta, ese modelo basado en la atrocidad que dice que donde hay una necesidad nace un derecho, pero se olvida que ese derecho alguien lo tiene que pagar.
(Translation on Google Translate.)
Regardless, it will be several years before we see relief in housing costs. That’s a terribly long time for those thirty-somethings living with their parents, and it didn’t ever have to be this way.
