ZONING CHANGES DESERVE DISCUSSION

spectator By Stephen Tuttle

The Traverse City Planning Commission recently recommended several zoning changes designed, they say, to help alleviate our current housing shortage. Any debate should come into sharp relief when the proposals are next discussed by the City Commission.

Though you won’t find it in our constitution or statutes, many people believe shelter in the form of housing is a fundamental human right to which we are all entitled. Others talk as if that right extends to the housing we want in the location we want for the price we want.

The primary goal of the zoning changes is to provide the opportunity for more housing in more locations, including multi-family housing in areas it is now prohibited by some zoning, more accessory dwelling units (ADU) in backyards, and, most controversially, more rentals in single-family neighborhoods that would not require property owners to be present.

There are multiple schools of thought on the impact such changes might bring.

Research by the Brookings Institution indicates owner-occupied rental requirements reduce the availability of a community’s rental housing inventory, driving up both demand and costs and increasing housing inequalities that already exist. They even call it a “back-door attack on renters.”

The other side of the argument seems to have more advocates. Trulia, Shelterforce, Habitat for Humanity, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and others believe owner-occupied housing is a key factor in maintaining neighborhood stability and fostering a sense of community. The owner-occupied housing advocates point to communities like Aspen, Colorado, and Sedona, Arizona, where rental properties, especially short-term rentals, have decimated the housing inventory and destabilized neighborhoods.

The fear among some Traverse City residents is that without owner-occupancy requirements, real estate investment groups, already existing or newly created, will buy existing single-family homes as they come to market, then either convert them to multifamily if possible, tear them down to create multi-family structures, or slap an ADU or two in the backyard as would be allowed by the proposed zoning changes.

Those investors will want to recoup the cost of those conversions—plus a reasonable return on their investment—so new rentals in that scenario will be at market rate and will not fall into the elusive “affordable housing” category. Additionally, converting singlefamily homes or home lots into multi-family rentals will reduce the single-family home inventory, further driving up home prices in an already over-priced market.

Additionally, without owner-occupied rentals, there is some question as to who will maintain, repair, and enforce rules on the property. If ownership is an investment group located elsewhere, even out of state, how is that going to work? It’s likely a property management company will be required, and that adds additional expense to pass on to the renters.

Maybe the biggest mystery is whether or not the kind of rental opportunities now being proposed actually fill a need. We’re told Traverse City should cater more to a so-called “missing middle,” or middle income families with children. But there isn’t much evidence that that demographic is interested in small apartments or ADUs in someone else’s backyard. Nor is there much evidence that already existing homeowners have significant interest in filling their backyard with an ADU and renters who are strangers

It may be some zoning changes will help facilitate more rental properties, helping to at least somewhat mitigate an ongoing problem. It’s also possible urban living with greater density is not why people want to move here at all, that we should be focusing our efforts away from downtown where land, construction, and rents all need to be taxpayer subsidized for developers to make a profit.

And are we even asking the right questions? Are all those zoning changes, if enacted, going to negatively impact neighborhood stability and the sense of community that comes with that stability?

All of the above is speculative on all sides of the discussion; there is no objective right or wrong, and the only truth is we don’t know what the proposed zoning changes might create.

Increasing the number of available rental properties seems likely, but will that be an additional stressor on the single-family home inventory? Will such a change destabilize existing singlefamily home neighborhoods? If we fail to take any action, won’t that further squeeze the available rental inventory and drive those prices even higher? Does requiring owner-occupation depress the rental market? Does permitting off-site ownership reduce landlord involvement and accountability? And if we rezone or not, is there any way short of massive subsidization that provides reasonable housing opportunities for those already economically marginalized?

We have questions aplenty but no definitive answers. Those questions deserve both time and discussion as we try to figure this out.

Guest Opinion

by Isiah Smith, Jr.

The nightmare that haunts my dreams and disturbs my sleep is the prospect that America’s flirtation with authoritarian rule may yet blossom into a full-fledged romance from which we will never divorce ourselves.

Some people think we are obsessed with the man elected President of the United States in 2016. In their minds, we continue to pay far too much attention to that authoritarian figure.

However, to them I say, “Sadly, you are not paying enough attention. He remains a clear and present danger to American democracy and the rule of law. One day he will be gone, but the poisonous politics he unleashed upon our country may well live on.”

Contrary to these assertions, we are not obsessed by the accidental president. The man is unimportant, dispensable, and irrelevant. He, like all of us, will eventually be consigned to the dustbin of history, unable to cause further harm. As the Greek Stoics remind us: memento mori, or remember that you will die.

What doesn’t die so easily is authoritarian philosophy making a mockery of truth and the rule of law. Toni Morrison once wrote that “facts can exist without human intelligence, truth cannot.”

Anyone interested in fully understanding the clear and present danger inherent in the threat the former president poses to our democracy and the rest of the free world should read Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. Ben-Ghiat argues that, as history has shown, strongmen with dictatorial and tyrannical tendencies are as inevitable as the changing of the seasons and the phases of the moon.

Sadly, the United States has proven unusually susceptible to the loathsome lure of strongmen wannabees and authoritarianleaning politicians.

Unlike diamonds, the former president is not forever. In time he will fade away, but the progeny he has inspired will not, and more are sure to follow in an unending supply of arrogance seeking power.

We are fortunate that the meanspirited man-child governor of Florida appears both too slow afoot and comedically incompetent to create much of a following. His vacant stare and robotic delivery inspire more laughter than fear. It’s profoundly difficult to create and lead a mass following by merely moronically repeating his imbecilic pledge, “We’ll defeat the woke,” whenever he gets near a microphone.

To be a successful authoritarian requires, at minimum, some fragment of an idea. As we have seen, even bad ideas can attract followers. The Florida Man in Tallahassee suffers from a poverty of ideas.

Creeping authoritarianism is nothing to sleep on, nor ignore, not after the disaster of the past seven years. Politics is all about the pursuit of power; thus, anyone who enters politics is thirsting for power. The only thing that will quench their thirst is more power. Those power-seeking “public servants” waiting in the wings are no doubt salivating over the prospect of obtaining boundless authoritarian power. The “former guy” has already given them the road map and shown that it’s easier than they thought.

Ben-Ghiat warns us to beware of wouldbe leaders who attempt to sell themselves as pure and noble champions of the people and who claim that they are fighting against greedy and corrupt elites who disdain ordinary citizens. They resist all limitations to their powers and launch sustained attacks against established institutions that undergird our democratic institutions and our constitutional norms and laws.

From Mussolini to the present, these strongmen move swiftly to stack the judiciary and the legislative bodies with their hand-picked toadies. Then, to tighten their control, they declare war on the press. (Both Stalin and the former guy declared the press to be the “enemy of the people.”) Drunk on power, they proceed to scrap the laws the founders designed specifically to prevent such abuses of power.

When strongmen make absurdist comments such as, “Only I can fix it,” “I am your retribution,” and “They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you—and I’m just standing in the way,” they present themselves as messianic saviors, the people’s champions singularly able to resist the evil and voracious elite and defeat them on behalf of the people. The only surprise is how easily the authoritarian dream can be realized.

The strongman’s most powerful weapon is his war against truth. Because, as Voltaire said (in translation), “...those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Nothing explains Jan. 6 better than those elegant words.

The last thing you need to know about strongmen: They never leave voluntarily and will do anything to hold on to power. Even resorting to violence.

Sound familiar?

“Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.”

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Isiah Smith, Jr. is a retired government attorney.

AN ANTI-SOCIALIST TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR MICHIGAN

Guest Opinion

by David Bessmer

Recently, in response to civil rights groups’ advisories against travel to his state, U.S. Senator and former Florida governor Rick Scott issued this statement: “Let me give you a travel warning: if you’re a Socialist, Communist, somebody that believes in big government, I would think twice—think twice—if you’re thinking about taking a vacation or moving to Florida.”

Well, we can all admire Sen. Scott for wanting to keep socialist thought from infiltrating his state. However, it seems to me even more important to hold off at the border actual socialist behavior. This is especially critical in today’s brainwashed, woke culture where most people don’t realize the extent of socialist oppression to which they are already subject. So I have composed a fairly detailed travel warning which I strongly and fire departments or EMT services or from hospitals that receive public funding or accept government insurance.

Do not travel on any communally owned roads, streets, sidewalks, or conveyances. Enter the state only by private aircraft, landing at a privately owned airfield and paying no attention to deep-state air-traffic control.

If you are moving to Michigan (in addition to all the above)…

Avoid taking up residence in any municipality where you are forced to buy your water from a socialized public system. Choose a dwelling or building site in the country, where you can pump your own free, unfluoridated water straight out of the ground. By doing so, you will also avoid one of the

U.S. Senator and former Florida governor Rick Scott issued this statement: “Let me give you a travel warning: if you’re a Socialist, Communist, somebody that believes in big government, I would think twice—think twice—if you’re thinking about taking a vacation or moving to Florida.” advise our own state’s leaders to promote in order to discourage visitors from engaging in socialist activities while in Michigan.

If you are traveling to Michigan…

Do not set foot on any socialized, publicly “owned” land, such as federal and state parks, forests, campgrounds, and nature preserves or municipal parks and beaches. Remember that a “commons” is a theft of both private property and taxpayers’ money.

Similarly, since almost all our waterways are considered a commons, do not use them for boating, fishing, swimming, paddling and so forth. If you come here specifically to enjoy Michigan’s water wonderland, you should be able to find a private farm pond whose owner will charge you a fair admission fee.

If you should fall into one of our Great Lakes, please learn to swim rather than summon the big-government Coast Guard. (They’ll just ticket you for not wearing a USCGapproved personal floatation device.)

Don’t even think about exercising your riparian “rights” by walking along a beach in front of private property.

Do not attend sporting, cultural, or entertainment events at venues such as colleges, schools, arenas, stadiums, theaters, museums, or open spaces that are to any extent publicly owned or funded. Make sure no cultural event you attend is supported by federal or state grant money.

For the love of God, stay out of public libraries.

Take care of your own problems. Do not seek help from public agencies such as police most disgusting of all socialist afflictions— the one where you can’t go to the bathroom without paying the government to carry off and “process” your own personal metabolic byproducts via public sewers. And don’t be fooled: most local governments charge your septic-tank pumping company to empty their trucks into municipal processing facilities, so the best practice is probably to surreptitiously divert your household outflow into the nearest body of water or wetland.

Do not seek employment with any public agency or governmental unit. Home school your children or send them to parochial or for-profit schools. Do not send your offspring to any college or university, except Hillsdale. Be prepared to pay for all your own medical expenses, out of pocket or via private insurance. Do not let Medicare pay any of your medical bills.

Do not spend any money that you have received from Social Security or any other publicly funded pension program, veterans’ benefits, or other kind of welfare. This is stolen money. Until someone finds a way to return it to its rightful owners, it’s probably best to bury it in your backyard, uphill from your septic field.

That said, we want to extend to you a warm and heartfelt welcome to Michigan—whether you are coming here for the vacation of a lifetime or to start a new life in the Wolverine state. And please know that by complying with this advisory you are helping to ensure that the prosperity engendered by our sacred system of private enterprise will never be crushed under the weight of big-government socialism—that Michigan will always be a thriving state where people love to vacation and live.

David Bessmer is a retired writer and editor living in Grand Traverse County.