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CookieMonster932 t1_ixw83qp wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Political vibes in Columbia? by BalancingAct247

The NIMBYism of severely restricting the housing market from building lower cost housing such as townhomes and apartments thus economically restricting who can live where specifically regarding school districts. This is systemically racist as it leads to de facto segregation, just looks at the demographics of Centennial high school, very few black and Hispanic students.

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i_live_in_maryland t1_ixwspkm wrote

> such as townhomes

Dude, townhomes in Columbia are >$600k now. IDK about new apartment complexes, but I doubt anyone living in the Merriweather District or Ten.M or whatever is going in there because it is cheap.

"High density" housing (townhomes and apartments) is not automatically "affordable". People need to realize it so we can stop gifting this stuff to developers and then scratching our heads when it's still impossible for non-rich people to live in the county.

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CookieMonster932 t1_ixww4hr wrote

The best way to lower housing costs for all but especially for people on the lower income ladder is to increase the supply of housing. The White House recognizes that the housing shortage increases home prices for everyone. The most expensive type of home to build and therefore buy is a single detached home. Townhomes are cheaper and apartments less than that. And yes affordable is relative to the costs of housing in the community and that cost is very high, median price 570k in HoCo.

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[deleted] t1_ixwmotr wrote

[deleted]

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CookieMonster932 t1_ixwru4a wrote

Columbia is a wonderful place to live, but there is also racism. That racism reared its ugly head in the school redistricting fights. This is not just something in the news, it’s something I’ve heard in private conversations and basically anytime I just look at NextDoor. Relative to most parts of the country, I think the racism is relatively low, but I do argue that there are systems (school districting as well as the systemic blockages of new/affordable housing) that are racist in the county.

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i_live_in_maryland t1_ixwt6u3 wrote

> That racism reared its ugly head in the school redistricting fights.

I am not saying there isn't racism, but just because some schoolboard and county council members tried to make redistricting about race does not mean that opposing that redistricting plan is racist.

If you look at the results of that "successful" redistricting you'll see that it had basically no impact on school diversity but it opened up a bunch of new areas for fresh developments. It all goes back to developer money in this county.

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FranciscoSolanoLopez t1_ixx4vy9 wrote

So redistricting can make some areas that were previously unfavorable to development suddenly favorable to it since those areas are now in a "better" school district? Which would naturally increase profits for developers. If so, do you have any past examples to share?

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tptips420-69 t1_ixxcs7p wrote

Weee everything and everyone is racist, well unless I say it isnt!

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