In last week’s edition of The Fountain Times, Sheila Corzine writes that she is “shocked” to learn that Fountain Hills has “no affordable housing programs.” She feels a need to do something about this.
To begin with, what’s affordable means different things to different people. I moved here from NYC in November and I bought a nice condo in a nice community. Do you know how I was able to do that? It was affordable, for me. Maybe it wouldn't have been for others.
How would building housing that would be affordable for those who cannot afford to move here now benefit the current residents of Fountain Hills? It wouldn’t. It would just bring down the town and, having spent my life living within 20 miles of where I was born in Manhattan, I know plenty about bringing down a town
Personally, I am happy to see property values going up in Fountain Hills and though I have no intention of selling my condo, I hope they go up more. I don’t want to cater to those who can’t afford to be my neighbors. We should all live within our means and not expect society to change in order to cater to those who expect more than their means can afford them. As a guy who grew up in a small, one-bedroom apartment in Jackson Heights Queens, NYC, sleeping on a Castro Convertible in the living room where we rarely had a TV and never had a car, I am a textbook example of what taking personal responsibility can do for a person.
I’ll leave you with an old and often quoted adage, Ms. Corzine. It goes like this: “Be careful what you wish for ‘cause you just might get it.” Then what would you do?
