Frustrated by Ward 8 rhetoric

The Eastporters complaining about the “overdevelopment” are not the Bohemian care free welcoming spirits being victimized by “greedy developers” that they keep pretending to be. They’re sitting on $800,000, $900,000, $1,000,000 homes trying to keep anyone else out. Look at the opposition to ADU’s coming out of the Eastport.

Hysterics coming from individuals predicting that their entire community character will change, that more “out-oftown DC types” will come with them, that a disaster will happen if someone converts their garage into an apartment. They can praise the virtue of Ross Arnett representing them, but that representative has called renters transits several times. That representative in his own town hall while referencing ADUs said “this will help younger families move here, whether or not that’s a good thing, I don’t know.” That is the heart of all of this. Keep others out of the rich parts of Eastport.

It’s why a strip mall, one of the worst stormwater offenders in the city, being converted into housing and mixed retail is being fought tooth and nail in the name of environmentalism. When it’s pointed out that modern building techniques alone are better than the status quo for the environment, it’s screamed “they won’t be affordable” while ignoring that it will cost less than renting a home valued over $800,000. When you point that out, they go to the tried and true “but our parking!” As if they’re entitled to not walk an extra 100 feet because they can’t park directly in front of their destination. Oh the minor inconvenience!

That is the nature of Eastport screaming about Kati George. No, Ross didn’t take developer money, but taking $500-$1,000 contributions from NIMBY’s sitting in million dollar homes and complaining about the potential of a neighbor building a flat in their basement isn’t virtuous.

The most frustrating this is when walking through Eastport seeing all the “Hate has no home here” signs from these same people with no sense of the irony. Well hate may have no home in Eastport, but unless you’re rich, neither do you.

Mark King, Annapolis