By Adam Pagnucco.
Our interview with Takoma Torch founder and Nimbee creator Eric Saul got a lot of buzz but not everyone is laughing. Elizabeth Joyce of Silver Spring sent in the following reaction to Saul, his advocacy and the recently passed Thrive 2050 plan. While she is no fan of Saul, her commentary reflects the influence of YIMBY (yes in my back yard) activists, which is one of the newer themes in county politics about which I will write soon.
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Hi, Adam. I’m enjoying your recent blogs, which are very well done. However, I’m among those who often find Eric Saul less than amusing, and I am concerned about your long and respectful airing of his YIMBY views. I hope you will consider interviewing others such as Kim Persaud of EPIC of Montgomery County, who strongly believes that Saul’s supposed “affordable” housing agenda will not help people buy or rent homes more easily and would badly hurt minorities. Massive evidence suggests more gentrification and displacement will follow any enactment of his proposals, which the County Council is hurtling toward passing next year, as a follow-up to Thrive. (I realize the Council belatedly added to Thrive some language about “developing strategies” to reduce displacement, but I suspect their “strategies” will be no match for the upward pressure on housing prices that Thrive will unleash, as the Nspiregreen consultant who conducted the recent racial equity study for the Council pointed out in presenting the study results.)
Also, Saul’s treatment of Marc Elrich is inaccurate and unfair. (Your interview with him, though, was nuanced and fair.) Elrich does not oppose affordable housing (or hate developers) but rather resists handouts to developers that do not increase the housing supply or yield any benefits for the County. Right now, there are at least 35,000 housing units in the pipeline that developers are sitting on rather than building, probably to achieve even higher profits. So why would rezoning the entire County yield any different results? Also, those of us on the east side of the county know well that we will pay a heavy price for “Thrive” and the densification agenda of the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative lurking in the wings. Land is much less expensive here than on the west side of the park, and we will be hit hard while council members and residents who live in historic Takoma Park and far-out sections of the county will not be similarly affected. .
Here is a great presentation on his views that Elrich issued in July.
I wish more people had seen it so they wouldn’t have been influenced by the cartoonish Affordable Maryland PAC ads, which villainized Elrich and of course did a lot of damage. Money always does, which is why people hate billionaire-funded PACs.
I am also attaching a summary of a recent presentation on Thrive by award-winning architect Alissa Luepke Pier of Minneapolis, the former vice president of their planning commission. Thrive- and Saul-like measures passed there did irreparable harm, and Montgomery County seems to be headed toward the same results. I understand you lean toward the YIMBYs, but I trust that you (unlike many Council members) will grasp the importance of her warnings for our county.
Elizabeth Joyce
Silver Spring
Editor’s Note: The summary of Alissa Luepke Pier’s presentation referred to above can be downloaded below.