Far from me to ever agree with the Democratic Socialists, sometimes you kind of have to agree with someone when they’re right. If a rich guy wants to build luxury apartments and is following all zoning and planning laws in the community, they should be able to do that. This is why we have laws and really the success or failure should be on them- if people want the properties they’re selling, they’ll fill them. If they don’t, they’ll fail, and you know, capitalism or something. Obviously it’s in a community’s interest to have some high income people live in their community, within reason, and so I got giving them some public help when our community’s were down. The state and local governments subsidizing development in Center City Allentown 15 years ago, or in Bethlehem in the 90’s and 2000’s, or even in Easton up until five to ten years ago made some sense. That shouldn’t become a hard and fast policy though. Local leaders don’t need to subsidize these guys. It’s not like they’re willing to share in the profits with the community- that’s literally what they’re asking to do when asking for tax credits and RACP grants. We subsidize their profits. Again, that might make sense in areas that are really down. That’s not the Lehigh Valley in 2026.

When I graduated high school, you could rent in Easton for under a thousand dollars a month. Now you’re spending an easy two grand for anything kind of acceptable. That’s because the Easton area is desirable. Now yes, this proposal in front of County Council is technically in Wilson, but that is essentially a part of the Easton area. Rents don’t need to be driven any further up, they need to be driven down. If a developer comes forward and wants to build *low* income housing in the Easton area, the local governments can and should consider helping with that. It’s needed right now. High income housing? We have enough. Really, we don’t need more.

Now, of course I have to find a few problems with the DSA position above. Bernie already pointed out that they just are opposed to the current deal, not the project inherently. They also magically left the Republican member of council off, as one kind of expects from a group that only seems to protest Democrats. Magically they also left two Democrats off, ostensibly because they probably think they’re a “no” vote anyway, but what the hell here? It feels… selective. I don’t care though, they’re right on this and it’s time for local government to stop asking the public to fund big pay days for guys who already have a lot of money.