Affordable housing, or simply undesirable?

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Jrundles@cobizmag.com - Denver, Colorado - Brief Article

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING ME SINCE I WROTE THE "SENIOR MOMENT" column last fall -- the one about turning 50 -- whether I have actually joined AARP yet.

The answer is no. I don't turn 50 until sometime this month, but in any case I still can't wrap my mind around something that certifies I am a senior citizen.

Part of it is that I really don't believe that turning 50 should entitle me to discounts on cheap motels or buffet dining establishments; I haven't lived this long to be so humiliated.

On the other hand, I have lived long enough to know a thing or two, and one of the things I know is that tinkering too much with development, particularly in a punitive manner, is not a good thing to do.

While the issue hasn't hit the front pages yet, it should: The city council in Denver is considering the imposition of a $30,000 fee on any property owner who wants to demolish a house in order to build another one.

Ostensibly, the reason for imposing such a fee is to eliminate rising property values in the neighborhoods -- which is enough reason to chuck the whole idea on its face. Proponents of this line of thinking want to maintain what they call affordable housing. They will accomplish this if what you consider "affordable housing" is also called sub-standard or simply slum housing.

But I suspect there is something more going on here.

I live in a neighborhood where there has been quite a lot of demolition and rebuilding, and some of the newer properties have been downright ugly, no doubt. Community activists call those new properties eyesores, but what they are really upset with is the increase in their own property taxes. Property values, to be sure, have also risen, but that is only important to those who...