Housing
By its nature, advocacy journalism glosses over the details that many would consider crucial. Headlines from a pair of such articles by Katie Mulvaney in the Providence Journal illustrate the point: Six months pregnant with nowhere to go – an unhoused woman’s plight on RI’s streets After months of sleeping on the street, pregnant woman finally…
Lance Lambert, who appears to be a reporter on the housing beat, shared a table of increases in housing prices in the 50 largest metro areas. As the following snip from the table shows, Providence experienced the third-largest increase over the past year: Various contextual points are important to remember. Metros can vary in size,…
Yeah, officials will complain about the danger of uninspected residences, but as somebody who grew up in an era when fiction was filled with secret communities in society’s hidden corners, I have to admit these homeless caves are cool:* I wonder if there’s anything comparable around here. * I should specify that the coolness of…
Economically illiterate activists are laying the groundwork to make housing harder to find, and make life worse, in Rhode Island: This is how economics works. The rent goes up to reflect the real value of the property. Other property owners see the value of their space and reconsider their usage. For example, instead of renovating…
Amidst all the other happenings in Rhode Islanders’ lives, it’s worth a moment to consider that we’ve reached the point that the General Assembly is delving into such levels of micromanagement as housing setbacks and in-law apartments in local zoning. That’s a sign that we’re doing things wrong. In the mania of the day (or…
John DePetro and Justin Katz go over the slow-rolling perpetual disaster of RI politics and government.
Progressive state representative Enrique Sanchez is entirely wrong, here: Housing is a store of value. People will put up their own money for their own homes and for investment properties. If they’re not doing so — especially as the demonstrable value climbs and climbs — then government is doing something wrong to prevent it. This…
One hesitates to make too much of an activist article like Steve Ahlquist’s August 9 report and transcription of a conversation with a Woonsocket city worker. However, two observations are worth making, considering Progressives’ ascendance in Rhode Island and beyond. The first relates to the underlying issue. The city has installed armrests in the middle…
John DePetro and Justin Katz kick off the week with political talk.
Homelessness may be the most striking issue on the table in the degree to which proposed solutions conspicuously ignore causes. The attitude of the advocates and journalists seems to be that homelessness falls like an original cause on a metro area and can only be addressed through direct government reduction. That’s a careless approach; an…