I think that Dave DeVarti’s comments to the DDA are a good starting point. He has identified where the new units belong, who should pay for them (DDA pays for the property and the DDA and City both contribute to the cost of building), and thereby, he has asked that we acknowledge that we really want them somewhere in our City. That is a good starting point. I agree that we need to address Ms. Smith’s other questions, too.

Mr. DeVarti has been involved in housing issues for many years and that is why I applauded his efforts to begin this discussion. No one person will have all of the answers, but the discussion is overdue.

I would rather raise the level of discussion on this topic. This is not about the sinister plot of the DDA to demolish neighborhoods. While one could focus on my intent behind the use of a word, I would prefer a more *robust* discussion about affordable housing in the City. I think it is fair that I asked an incoming Councilmember about his ideas for addressing the issue of affordable housing, but it is certainly easier to attack me than to face the really hard issue.

Some questions that we could focus on:
* How do we build more units?
* How do we provide maintenance for new and existing units?
* Where do new units belong?
* Who should pay for them?
* Do we really want them anywhere in our City or our we just saying so to make ourselves feel good?

The paradigm of “Your city is either growing, or it’s dyeing”, which seems to drive the local business community (the real estate sector in particular), is not merely unrelated to sustainability: it is the exact opposite of sustainability.

There seems to be an element of the Ann Arbor community that uses the word “Sustainability” merely as a cover for old fashioned economic boosterism.

Ah…’refreshing’ the FOIA policy…Guessing NOT to make it more transparent? Correct me if I’m defining ‘refresh’ incorrectly.

And yes, sustainability. Building new units without a plan for long term maintenance is doomed for failure.

The DDA has been very clear that it wants to move all affordable housing, and certainly that for the most distressed population, way away from the valuable real estate downtown. There was even a thought to assign affordable housing premiums for downtown development to be payable into a fund for locating such housing away from the downtown area that such premiums were designed to diversify.

And the solution? To impact the near downtown neighborhoods with this and other troublesome formulas. DDA would transform the near downtown into the downtown’s overflow basin.

I am not sure that the SRO model is one that we want to replace. We do, however, need to replace those lost units and design a sustainability plan to maintain them.

I hope that we will not allow the downtown to develop into an area full of 1/2 million dollar (or more) condominiums and $1,000 (or more) per bed, per month apartments.