Calgary’s Newest NIMBY
May 18th, 2007 posted by CanprideThe newest in Not-In-My-Back-Yard trends is low income housing. Who wants to live next to the stereo-typed poor families, theft ridden, noise radiating, dirty eye-sore? The stereotype itself brings up images of mud-smeared toddlers running around in diapers and bare feet. Of porches falling apart in decay. Of litter blowing around the front stoop and spilling onto the neighbor’s porches.
The residents in Eau Claire are faced with these mental images the words “low income housing” provide. But not so says James Robertson, a city employee.
“In the affordable housing we are moving forward with, you are seeing high-quality design that allows people and the residents living in those projects to have a sense of belonging and pride in where they live,” Robertson said.
The city aims to embrace a mixture of income brackets, including the low end. In this case, an 88 unit apartment building would be designed to blend in with the surrounding neighborhood.
But Robertson does concede that it’s tough to convince a community to embrace such a low income unit.
Add a new fire hall to the mix and the convincing gets even tougher. Eau Claire residents are getting some new sirens, bells, and whistles – in the form of fire trucks – along with the low income housing.
While fire insurance costs may go down with the new department in the ‘hood; so will real estate values. Residents, justly, fear that the apartments will lower it even further.
SOURCE: www.cbc.ca
