This is in response to Mr. Gustafson's comments. While I can't speak
for Mr. Nolley, I can say for certain when it comes to myself, that, yes,
the need for people to have a place to live comes above the 'right of
property owners' (or as I refer to it... the privilege of property). What
sort of society do we live in when the needs that people have to be fully
functional citizens become somehow undemocratic?
I think that the solutions to this vary from temporary housing in RV's
to the carriage house model to legalizing squatting in abandoned housing
(on the premise that they improve the housing... sort of the homestead act,
only we won't be stealing land from Native Americans). Eventually I would
hope that there would be more livable affordable housing built.
In the mean time, the least we can do is stop demolishing the
affordable housing that we have now. There has never been a point where we
have said that we don't have the resources to build luxury housing. I
think that it isn't an unreasonable thing to say that perhaps we have our
priorities mixed up.
In regards to fair rent, I think it would be defined by the ability on
the part of people to pay that rent. A fair rent would allow an indivdual
with full employment to also take care of a family.
Robert Wood
anti-authoritarian marxist (the folks who came up with the term 'the
dictatorship of the proletariat') St Paul resident, U of M
employee/student
_______________________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
http://e-democracy.org/mpls
