Booga, Booga – The Poor Are Going to Get Ya

This is about housing in Encinitas and some pretty hysterical accusations, reactions and forecasts of doom. Eavesdropping, talking, listening, fishin' and observing over the last several years of the General Plan Update (GPU) has been instructive.

To be fair, well off individuals are pretty low priorities on my anxiety index. All that comes along with institutionalized privilege is at the fingertips of these people to help them cope.  I don’t wish it on people, but I don’t worry either. I have compassion for the struggles that are life itself.  Losing some money becomes a relative measure.

Entitlement, in my observation, means all the businesses and commercial owners who believe profits need to be guaranteed. The “newest arm” of the GPU, ERAC (erase) was concocted by the council majority to give the El Camino corridor business, developer, construction, real estate group along with several residents and others input into the process. A recent meeting speaking about affordable house brought these “dog whistle’ phrases; "that kind of zoning," "those people," not "them" in areas that already have nice houses” and similar.

“The ONE representative of affordable housing at this housing element meeting tried to say that there are benefits to "that kind of zoning" and that diversity adds value, and the senior commission representative pointed out that we do have a lot of seniors and more expected, and they need to live somewhere.”

Bootstraps Boys, the Ownership crowd can stop this kind of input in a flash and they did. All the thinking is short-term, status quo without a whiff the next 20-40 years where reboot gets real. Everything becomes a goal of economic return and rewarding current property owners to enable them to maximize their return when they sell their holdings. Recall at the Sept. 19, 2011 orchestrated General Plan outrage parade when amongst so much hyperbole; Dan Ukkestad claimed the whole purpose of the General Plan was to drive profits. Really?

That’s completely backwards. If you have a city like Encinitas where nobody earned the year round moderate temperatures or the ocean or the sunshine or the beauty of nature the Bootstraps Boys can’t claim any of those things. A community that provides adequate housing and work opportunities and a safe healthy way to live and get around with ease to a wide swath of people with a wide swath of skills and interests is a bonanza for business and a council doesn’t have to bargain away tax money, land or zoning changes to woo them from the outside. And healthy towns encourage local over national businesses. Business will spring up because business goes where there is a healthy workforce AND market because owners want to live here too. Employees are customers and taxpayers, as these three aren’t mutually exclusive labels. With a livable wage, employees are the market and so much more.

But, to go further with what a General Plan entails, Melissa McEwen explains,

“My present concern is with the working poor, and the way they are regarded by the architects of the Ownership Society. Those men—and they are indeed almost all men, most of whose lives have been dictated by inherent privilege and family connections, which we're not meant to note while admiring their shiny bootstraps—believe quite firmly, and without seemingly a trace of irony or compunction, that one gets what one deserves in life.

[. . . ] If you want to live in a capitalist society that gives you the opportunity to get nasty rich, then we can't all be wealthy. And if you want to be the kind of person who doesn't pump your own gas, or make your own sandwiches, or clean your own house, or manicure your own fingernails, or drain your own dog's anal glands, or build your own car elevator, then there are going to have to be people who fill all those jobs.

[ . . . ] People who honorably dedicate their time, energy, and talents to jobs that might not pay well are indeed entitled to something—to not work their whole lives only to find themselves poverty-stricken, or hungry, or homeless after one small (or not small) medical crisis. And if we're not going to ensure that every job comes with a livable wage, access to affordable health care, and retirement benefits, then we've got to provide a robust and well-funded social safety net.

I don't think that's asking for much, in exchange for a lifetime of providing service to their chosen vocation.

Though I grant it's certainly easier to scream BOOTSTRAPS! and carelessly assert that people who don't have everything they need just aren't trying hard enough.

Funny how the Grand Advocates of Hard Work are always the ones making the easy arguments.

The poor are simply people without enough money. A great deal of energy in planning and working around the obstacle of limited funds means more money and time must be spent at tasks, travel and adaptation for survival. Unlike the people of privilege, every single day is fraught with potential disaster. One disease or medical emergency can plunge a person, a family into utter destitution – on top of the emotional devastation that comes with such an ordeal. Even so, the poor are blamed for their own condition, accused falsely and punished for a system they have not created. I know because I’m poor. I also know because I know privilege. This last is so much easier.

Images: Mobile homes were not a real thing in the real world. This was a set for a play in Europe some years ago, but a popular image on the Internet. McMansion from Canadian magazine Ad Busters.