Malta’s lifestyle dream
Lock the windows and warn your neighbors on the Nextdoor app: The Democrats might be coming.
A proposed subsidized senior housing development in Malta has brought out protesters warning that it would hurt the value of their homes. Some opponents fret that building affordable housing would ruin the town’s quality of life, lead to more police activity and open the door to outsiders — everyone from “New York City ” residents to “Democrats” — infiltrating the Republican town.
“High-density housing does not belong in the suburbs or rural areas, but they were forcing it in to export Democrat voters,” one resident told the Town Board. “You guys are supposedly Republicans. ... I don’t know why you guys would want that.”
Of course, this echoes Donald Trump’s racist dogwhistle calling low-income housing a threat to the “suburban lifestyle dream.”
Malta’s Town Board must reject this us-versus-them, not-in-my-backyard mentality and the desire among some for social, political and cultural isolationism. But these opponents
have at least accomplished one thing: They’ve made the idea of living near them in Malta sound pretty bad.
In our stern Mom voice …
Cliques, tricks, bad decisions, insults: For your average junior high school, this is just another day.
Sadly, it’s just another day, too, in the tumultuous sphere of Saratoga County economic development.
Dennis Brobston, president of the Saratoga Economic Development Commission, reportedly took swipes at elected officials and business leaders in a private Zoom meeting. SEDC board chair John Munter Jr. conceded the insults were akin to “middleschool banter.”
This juvenile behavior came to light after SEDC accused an official from a rival economic development group, Prosperity Partnership, of improperly accessing and sharing recordings of the meeting. Everyone’s pointing fingers. Meanwhile, four members have left the SEDC board. All of this is happening as the two groups are supposed to be merging.
These entities should be focused on helping improve opportunity in Saratoga County. So here’s the response this middle-school behavior merits: Grow up. And get your work done.
Cause, effect
Surprising exactly no one, developers who want to build a blood plasma collection center in Albany are suing the city after the Common Council passed an ill-advised law changing the zoning code to try to block them.
The legislation requires plasma collection centers to be more than 1,000 feet from any church, school or park. Mayor Kathy Sheehan warned the council that the city ’s law department considers it an “unconstitutional zoning action with no rational basis in law.” The council overrode her veto.
The Common Council will have to hire private attorneys to defend itself in the suit, which means more money lost at a time when the city ’s already strapped for cash.
The council has valid reasons to be concerned about blood plasma donation, an industry that has been accused of preying on the poor and desperate. But when the mayor and the city ’s lawyer tell you that your proposed solution is illegal, it might save time and money to listen.