Letter: Blazingly obvious

Published 12:15 am Thursday, October 24, 2024

I was genuinely surprised and baffled to read that Ward 4 City Council candidate, Lisa Morley, is advocating for no more housing to be built in Astoria (“Divisions emerge among Astoria City Council candidates at forum,” Oct. 17). To be blunt, the idea that affordability can be addressed without more housing is ridiculous and unserious.

Refusing to build housing won’t stop people from moving to Astoria, it will just ensure that only the wealthiest can afford to buy what housing exists. This is not a hypothetical problem for the future, it is a currently-existing one. A home in Astoria (at least, one without major expensive structural defects on top of the purchase price) is already pretty much out of reach even for middle-class families, and if you’re working class, forget about it.

It’s massively unrealistic to imagine that we can simply opt out and say “no thanks” to the entire concept of new housing. Do we want Astoria to be a place where people can’t afford to raise families, and those making service industry wages can’t afford an apartment, and young people can’t find a place to live if they want to stick around after high school, or return after college? I trust that most of us do not.

For the record, I don’t live in Ward 4 and I’ve never met Vance Lump. But it’s blazingly obvious to me that he’s the only serious candidate in the race. I hope the voters in Ward 4 will agree.

DAN HUBNER

Astoria