10 minute read
OPINION
Share Your Thoughts:
TheMesaTribune.com | @EVTNow /EVTNow
Legislature outdoes its usual nonsensical self with sex ed
BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ
Tribune Columnist
When I was a kid, the fastest way to get me to read a book was to tell me it was too mature for my young eyes. I passed many nights sneaking peeks at my mom’s Harold Robbins novels to find the sexy parts. And there wasn’t a kid in my middle school who couldn’t recite by heart from Page 85 of Judy Blume’s teen lit classic, “Forever.”
You know, the page where Michael introduces Katharine to his manhood, which he has inexplicably named … Ralph.
Speaking of members, this brings us to the Arizona Legislature, which may have done more to encourage teen reading than any governmental body in America. Last year, it passed House Bill 2035, a racy little number that made Arizona the fifth state in America to mandate parents opt-in to sex education for their kids. Had the measure stopped there, I would have been okay with it, but this being our Legislature – where common sense is not so common – they had to go just a bit further. HB 2035 also requires school governing boards to “adopt procedures to notify parents in advance and provide them the opportunity to withdraw their children from any instruction or presentations regarding sexuality” – even outside sex ed class.
Which brings us to one local school district’s strenuous efforts to warn parents – about, among other things, kids cooking chicken breasts.
Times Media reporter Ken Sain detailed The Great Poultry Alert last week. To comply with the state edict, the Chandler Unified School District Governing Board in December passed a new opt-in policy concerning materials that might be deemed sexual. Sain quoted Chandler High teacher Caroline Sheridan, who last week told the Governing Board:
“I teach English and I teach criminal justice,” she explained. “Somehow I found out I need permission slips before I can teach, “Of Mice and Men,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Othello,” “To Kill a Mockingbird.” I can’t teach about Emmett Till without a permission slip. Of course, this makes no sense.”
In January, the Permission Slip Police also sent home an opt-in form to parents of cooking students learning to prepare chicken breasts. District spokesman Terry Locke told Sain this was “a misinterpretation of the legislative statute” which “was corrected and did not apply to the context or content.”
Thank goodness the curriculum didn’t include a recipe for sticky buns. Of course, the Legislature is hardly done with the issue. This new session has seen a number of sex education bills, including a measure to change the opt-in requirement back to an opt-out requirement. There’s a bill that will require a parent’s written permission before a student can participate in “any school student group or club involving sexuality, gender or gender identity.” And there’s a bill – no doubt dead on arrival – that not
only would make sex ed an opt-out class, but would also allow teachers to “discuss populations that historically have been more vulnerable to sexual abuse and assault, such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community and the disability community.” Finally, there’s a bill that would forbid educators, restaurant workers and grocery store employees from “referring to certain foodstuffs and edible materials using language that may be construed to convey a sexual connotation.” Among the terms set to be joining “chicken breasts” as no longer be permissible, as spelled out in statute? Chicken “breasts.” Pork “butt.” Hot dog “buns.” The phrase “finger foods.” And Denny’s has been put on notice that diners will no longer be allowed to order the “Moons Over My Hammy.” Okay, I made that last bill up. But with this group of elected geniuses, it absolutely could have been real. They’re just that … nuts. ■
Simple law of supply and demand driving rents
BY COURTNEY GILSTRAP LEVINUS
Tribune Guest Writer
The law of supply and demand is a basic principle of economics, seen in action daily at the grocery store and gas pump. When demand rises and products grow scarce, prices jump. When supply is high and demand is low, prices fall.
That same principle governs the Valley’s housing market.
On an average day in the Valley, nearly 300 people move in, according to Census statistics. Last year, the metro area added more than 106,000 new, pushing the Valley population to 5.1 million. Thousands of new residents require thousands of homes. Developers have not been able to build new rental housing and single-family homes quickly enough to match this surge in humanity. The population explosion has sent rent surging upward, along with rising costs for construction materials, payroll and property taxes. The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying 18-month eviction moratorium also drove rent higher, with a majority of single-family rental homeowners reporting they suffered from the inability to collect rent – including 23 percent of property owners who were forced to sell off some or all their properties.
How can we help Valley housing prices go down? We must build more housing at all price points, and do so quickly and costeffectively. If we fail to correct this shortfall in supply, Arizona’s renters, would-be homeowners, our workforce and economy will pay a heavy price.
Economist Elliott Pollack, speaking at a Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce 2022 Economic Outlook event, framed this year as a pivotal moment. Pollack reports the Valley needs to build about 34,000 new housing units annually to keep up with the population surge. Beyond that, there’s a shortage of 25,000 homes and 15,000 apartments, the economist explained.
“That’s a big hole and it’s going to take years to fill,” said Pollack.
This shortage of homes creates enormous competition for the few rentals that are available. In 2021, there were 20 applicants competing for each vacant apartment in Phoenix, according to RentCafe. If this shortfall in the housing supply remains unaddressed or grows – while demand continues to rise, as expected – more people will be priced out of the market. The state’s economy is equally in peril if the new employers we count on to create jobs and revenue cannot find homes for their employees. As obvious as that may be, the reality has been anything but simple. Cities like Scottsdale, Gilbert, Surprise, Goodyear and Buckeye have been resistant to building new homes and apartment communities, while proclaiming the need for more affordable housing. In Scottsdale, Mayor David Ortega has been a formidable stumbling block, constantly playing politics in an effort to foil new housing. His opposition may play well with the “not in my backyard” NIMBY crowd, who oppose virtually every new home or apartment community, but it ignores the impact of constantly saying no or demanding costly changes to projects: This resistance forces the price housing higher by stifling the marketplace or raising overhead costs in a business already operating on razor-thin profit margins.
Supply and demand says a price that goes up will keep going up until there’s enough of the product to go around. We must build accordingly.
Courtney Gilstrap LeVinus is president and CEO of the Arizona Multihousing As-
sociation. ■
THE MESA TRIBUNE | FEBRUARY 20, 2022
Long after studying Orwell’s novel, 1984 has arrived
BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist
What you’re about to read is a vision of the future,” the teacher told her class. “If you expect to read a tale of space travel…or a story focused on happy, prosperous people living in a bright, sparkling city of tomorrow, you need to prepare yourself for something completely different.”
“Jimmy Jones, if you could develop an appreciation for books that rivals your love of the Beatles, you could get into an Ivy League School.”
The teacher combined her admonition with an appeal: “JJ, I assure you that you’ll find no ‘Flying Circus’ within the pages of this novel, but the author is British and given your world view, that ought to count for something.” The large young man grabbed a box of 40 books and put one on the desk of each of his 35 classmates.
Then she said, “Class, there are three goals to which we all should aspire. We need to think clearly, speak clearly and write clearly.”
“We all know that words have meaning, and that some words have many different meanings. But what would happen if a government sought to control its citizens by the deliberate distortion of language?” “Prepare to encounter ‘newspeak,’ and discover the consequences of calculated, confusing communication, designed to discourage independent thought and action.” “George Orwell’s book is titled ‘1984,’ and that’s only 10 years from now. You’ll read of a future that’s quite distressing. A future based on language control, thought control, and collective control through a surveillance state.”
“Could something like that happen here? Read this book and decide for yourself.” For the next two weeks, the class immersed itself in Orwell’s dystopian tale, discussing the distressing, foreboding future presented in the text. And then, the future arrived.
JJ did in fact become a lawyer and Big Guy eventually became a federal lawmaker. Both marveled that the USA in 1984 was nothing like Orwell’s “1984.” Ronald Reagan carried every state except Minnesota en route to his second term. The same was true 10years later. Big Guy became part of a big class of conservative congressmen – over 70, who won a Republican House Majority for the first time in 40 years. Almost 30 years have passed.
What happened? A terror attack on our soil and a decision that collective security should be emphasized over personal liberty. A computer revolution that encouraged surveillance and enriched tech firms, which in turn offered allegiance to the business and the bottom line rather than the county that made their success possible.
The election of a President, heralded as “post racial,” who instead became our “most racial,” inserting race and other wedge issues into virtually every public debate. A public education system transmogrified into a political indoctrination system, populated with leftist grievance mongers who promote “wokeism”—a political movement designed to intimidate by shutting down debate and insisting on uniformity. And “pandemic panic,” where sound science took a backseat to political science and government curtailed our freedom of movement as well as our right to work. Through it all, echoes of “Newspeak…” Ignorance is Strength… Uniformity is Diversity… War is Peace… Equity—not Equality! Two weeks to flatten the curve. Sadly, it’s become clear…1984 is finally here. ■
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Arizona needs to tap the brake pedal on growth
Just read the article by Cecilia Chan on housing crisis. I am a Phoenix native and have lived here majority of my life some 45 years. I love the Valley – or at least did until the out of control migration to Phoenix started four to six years ago. The vertical graph says it all, a million new arrivals in the 1990s. If metro Phoenix adds (realistic) 300k folks a year this decade, that’s three million more folks and we are out of water and in a drought living in a desert!!
Population goes from current 7 million to 10 million And yet no alarms going off? In spite of that city fathers keep calling out for people and corporations to move here? One big question, at our current growth rate when does the water run out? We need a fence around Arizona, if that were possible. Many areas already out of water! AJ’s wells have been dry off and on for 10 years and many residents haul their own water. Rio Verde in Scottsdale is in serious trouble. Seems city councils are more interested in tax revenue than vital resources. Also, we’re near the ceiling of our power grid.
What is going on? Soon we are going to hit a wall! Clues to impending problems are key rivers and lakes drying up. Vegas, LA and Phoenix are the cause, not just Phoenix Valley. We live in a desert, when we’re out of water no options. Seems nobody that should be is paying attention to the outrageous overgrowth. Need to start tapping the brake pedal.
