In response to Robert McGee’s commentary titled “Embracing GIMBY: Goodness in My Backyard,” [July 10, Xpress], allow this Marshall outsider a few observations.
Last November, a nationally recognized consultant submitted a detailed report on how to create more “missing middle” housing in our big sister to the south. The missing middle refers to things like duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and garden apartments — the kind of denser and more affordable housing that apparently gives some Asheville homeowners and neighborhood associations a case of the cold cobbles.
The $115,000 report outlined zoning and other reforms intended to balance, in a practical way, competing societal interests in easing the housing shortage, discouraging suburban sprawl, combating climate change, reducing car dependency, redressing a legacy of racial segregation, preserving neighborhood character and minimizing gentrification. After review by city planners, the reforms are scheduled to come before the Asheville City Council in September.
I wonder if McGee even read these recommendations before firing off his most recent screed against denser development. If he did, he didn’t mention the report in his piece. I guarantee the group he sneered at for wanting to make Asheville a city for all has read it. Readers can find Asheville for All’s thoughtful analysis of the study on its website.
Much as I enjoyed McGee’s diverting prose, I found his commentary empty as a balloon. Although he grudgingly recognized a need “to make room for newcomers,” McGee never said how to do that. In its entirety, the piece amounted to one long rationalization for resistance to change, peppered with throwaway aspersions cast on anyone with the blinkered cupidity to think that it’s morally acceptable to make money from building homes. Homes, perhaps, similar to the one McGee lives in and around which he appears to think the universe revolves.
I suggest — and I do this with respect and affection — that he spend a little more time studying the real world of economics, climate change, environmental protection and racial justice, and less time conjuring dystopian fantasies about crazed developers and preaching jeremiads against the sin of greed. It’s a duller but more pragmatic approach to an important topic — one in which even unsophisticated rustics like myself have been known to employ on occasion.
In the meantime, one question: Have McGee’s own property values gone up as a result of the housing shortage? I’m not suggesting anything untoward here, but it’s important to know the sources of potential bias in any opinion. I would hate to think that something as distasteful to him as wealth accumulation might be coloring these high-minded objections to less expensive and more eco-friendly housing for struggling working folks and families. Just saying.
— Peter Robbins
Marshall
