Moneybox

No Room For Renters In Chesapeake, VA

Once again the United States can’t have nice things:

[NIMBY activist Miguel] Walker also says the quality of Hickory schools would draw families with school-age children to the Chapel Hill Apartments.

“I couldn’t blame anybody who would want to,” he said. “But it also comes down to renters. I don’t know if this sounds terrible: Renters aren’t really going to be invested in the community.”

A similar saga played out last month in Western Branch, but on a larger scale, when City Council killed the massive Breckinridge development.

Walker said he’s expecting a call from John Arthur, who spearheaded the fight against Breckinridge, but he also has picked up pointers about the Western Branch efforts from reading newspaper accounts.

Note that “the schools here are good and people will want to send their children to them” operating as a reason to not let people move to a neighborhood has a particularly toxic impact on educational equity and effectiveness. See Dana Goldstein on this point.