{"id":6989,"date":"2023-11-10T04:51:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T05:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=6989"},"modified":"2023-11-10T06:04:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T06:04:47","slug":"dont-be-a-larry-loser-oppose-development-up-against-the-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=6989","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Be a \u2018Larry Loser\u2019 & Oppose Development [Up Against the Wall]"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/oppose-development\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The title of this column should include the subtitle \u201cWhy is there a shortage of housing?\u201d because the current shortage of housing can be attributed to a few distinct reasons.<\/p>\n

First, seniors. I\u2019ve read a lot about seniors and how their brains think. As people age, their brains have been hard-wired through repetition. For example \u2013 if they have been going to the same coffee shop for decades, their brains turn on their internal autopilot and they don\u2019t even have to think about how to drive there. My mom is like that. She could easily drive to the same places each week, like the hair salon, but not to anywhere unfamiliar.<\/p>\n

Then along comes a developer who proposes to tear down their coffee shop or hair salon, upsetting that whole delicate balance, forcing a re-routing of their drive and a re-wiring of their brain software. It can be very upsetting \u2013 even if the proposed development is the best thing for the future of the community.<\/p>\n

Likewise, seniors have a lot of time on their hands, and I find that many of them are in coffee klatches where they talk amongst their own circle of friends, with no outside contrary information.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only natural, therefore, for seniors to be opposed to change \u2013 any change. They are comfortable with their lives as-is and don\u2019t want to risk upsetting their habits and ingrained brain waves that get them through their daily routines.<\/p>\n

Second, local politicians\u2019 personal agendas. I noticed over many years locals will use a proposed new development as their ticket to get elected to the council, or re-elected, or to climb the ladder \u2013 using a project to go from council to mayor or mayor to assembly, etc. I\u2019ve seen this so many times. These individuals have their own political agendas as first priority even though they\u2019re supposed to be working on behalf of the voters, and they don\u2019t give a crap about their local community. They\u2019re so desperate to get to higher office, and they try to paint the proposed project as bad for the community, in spite of the need for housing, the need to redevelop a blighted area or to improve the downtown. They\u2019ll even tell dozens of lies and engage in a misinformation campaign.<\/p>\n

This has happened even in small communities like Waunakee, Watertown, and Wausau, not just Madison. It\u2019s really sad, but it happens a lot.<\/p>\n

Third, city regulations ever increasing. New regulations usually come from Berkeley, California, New York, Boulder, or Portland. Hair-brained ideas that get passed along in city conferences to Madison. Then after Madison implements them, they leak out to other Dane County communities and, within five years, they spread like a cancer across Wisconsin. The fact that these adverse regulations increase the costs of housing and make it that much more difficult to develop doesn\u2019t matter; they love the new regulations, they love being the person who helped push it through, and they don\u2019t care about the negative impacts.<\/p>\n

Ironically, developers are probably right up there with lawyers and used car salespersons in terms of dislike, yet unlike those others, developers are necessary. There would be no housing, no retail stores, no offices, no neighborhoods, no industrial facilities, no hotels, and no entertainment venues if it weren\u2019t for developers. But of course, everyone forgets that.<\/p>\n

If residents ever want to see lower rents and lower housing costs, they need to gang up on the local politicians and make it clear that more housing is needed. It\u2019s easy to be a Debbie-downer, a Larry-loser, or a negative-Nancy opposing development, and sure, you\u2019ve got your house or apartment, so it\u2019s your children who pay the price.<\/p>\n

Think about that next time you want to oppose a new development or choose not to show up to support a new development at a public hearing.<\/p>\n

\n

\"OpposeT. Wall holds a degree from the UW in economics and an M.S. in real estate analysis and valuation and is a real estate developer. Disclaimer: The opinions of the writer are not necessarily those of this publication or the left!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/oppose-development\/ The title of this column should include the subtitle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":6991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6989"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6993,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6989\/revisions\/6993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}