AMAC Exclusive – by Seamus Brennan
Among the policy issues quickly ascending to the forefront of American politics is the systematic effort of Democrats to abolish the suburbs by eliminating single-family zoning. Legislators in California recently enacted laws to eliminate zoning protections for single-family neighborhoods, and progressive-minded liberals in dozens of other cities and states are trying to do the same. The initiative is also being pushed by President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress. But the movement to ban single-family zoning didn’t begin in the Golden State. It started in Minneapolis, and its origins there warrant attention so that other jurisdictions can ready themselves for the arguments to abolish single-family zoning—which could soon be coming to your neighborhood.
Minnesota has been particularly hard-hit by high housing costs and the availability of affordable housing—more so than any other state the nation. As Jeff Johnson, former state legislator and Republican candidate for Governor from Minnesota put it, “Nearly everyone acknowledges that the lack of housing available for people of low and middle income is one of the most serious problems facing the Twin Cities.”
Johnson notes that according to a measure used to determine housing affordability, nearly a third of Minneapolis residents in 2017 were “cost-burdened,” or spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing expenses. As a result, 85 percent of Minneapolis residents cannot afford newly constructed homes. On top of this, only 12 percent of “affordable housing” units built in 2017 were actually affordable to low-income residents.
In 2019, in an effort to encourage the construction of more affordable housing units, Minneapolis became the first American city to ban single-family zoning in all of its neighborhoods. The initiative to tackle housing costs was described in its early phases as “a social experiment of epic proportions.”
Supporters of the enterprise generally cite three rationales for pushing this unprecedented policy: increasing affordability, atoning for systemic racism, and addressing concerns about climate change. “In Minneapolis, for now, we have a political coalition that is supportive of adding more housing and demanding a race-equity approach to housing access,” the city council president said. The Atlantic echoed this sentiment, claiming in reference to the city’s zoning plan that “single-family zoning not only segregates people by race and class, but also artificially increases prices and hurts the environment.”
Joe Biden himself has also recently advocated for such so-called zoning reform on the basis of combatting “racial discrimination,” “the racial wealth gap,” and “racial injustice.” Moreover, Biden’s campaign website advocated the use of housing policy to “battle climate change.” In particular, Biden champions “[a]ltering local regulations to eliminate sprawl and allow for denser, more affordable housing near public transit [that] would cut commute times for many of the country’s workers while decreasing their carbon footprint.”
Despite such claims, however, the fact remains that the reasons for the housing crisis in states like Minnesota have little to do with racism or lingering effects from the Jim Crow era; rather, they are largely the result of blue state government regulations and codes. “No amount of spending will solve (or even lessen) this problem,” Jeff Johnson writes, “unless government is willing to do what it hasn’t in the past: reform and actually roll back government mandates, regulations and fees that are contributing considerably to the lack of affordable housing in the Twin Cities.”
As Johnson goes on to observe, Minnesota has “the strictest codes in the Midwest” and “myriad fees and zoning restrictions” that exacerbate high costs of living. Additionally, although racially restrictive covenants did in fact prevent racial minorities from purchasing homes in certain jurisdictions over the course of many decades, such covenants have been banned in Minnesota since 1962. In fact, America’s suburbs are now more diverse than ever before, offering a welcome escape from the crime and poverty that plague Democrat-run inner cities. Today, the majority of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans live in the suburbs.
One of the leading sources of the skyrocketing housing costs in Minneapolis is the state’s Metropolitan Council, a regional planning organization comprised of unelected members charged with mandating arbitrary “growth boundaries” and “urban containment boundaries” to prevent housing development outside of the Twin Cities’ “urban core.” Despite experts’ claims that building beyond urban areas has been “a successful strategy for developers for decades” and that “people drive to affordability,” Lisa Barajas, the Council’s director of community development, said that “the region doesn’t need more single-family homes.” Thus, rather than building more suburbs that extend beyond the Twin Cities metropolitan area, the unaccountable Metropolitan Council has instead opted to break up the existing suburbs—a decision that is, in reality, only further aggravating high housing costs. Real estate developers now have an incentive to bid up the cost of land and turn former single-family lots into multi-family rental apartment buildings.
Efforts to ban single-family zoning are now rapidly spreading throughout the nation and becoming a significant component of the Democrat agenda. Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat nominee for Governor of Virginia, has called for “spearheading zoning reform”—for which he was notably attacked in a recent television advertisement. McAuliffe’s campaign website promotes his policy under the banner of “Neighbors for More Neighbors,” a slogan that was—not-so-incidentally—the name of one of the leading coalitions behind abolishing single-family zoning in Minnesota. As Stanley Kurtz recently wrote for National Review, there are reasons to believe “zoning may be on the cusp of emerging as a high-profile political issue.”
Even the New York Times has acknowledged that the elimination of single-family zoning laws would substantially increase housing prices in addition to effectively destroying suburban America as it currently exists. The path to lowering housing costs does not need to include the construction of high-density housing units in single-family neighborhoods, and the source of high housing costs is not “systemic racism”—instead, it’s very often the government imposing costly regulations and other impediments, including those being issued from unaccountable bureaucracies like Minnesota’s Metropolitan Council. Until the American people can fully understand the damage inflicted by government-driven housing mandates and regulations like those in places like Minnesota, the housing affordability crisis will not diminish, but almost certainly worsen. The Democrat plan to abolish single-family zoning will only further compound the problem.
Minneapolis is gradually cementing its status as the birthplace of dangerous left-wing ideas and movements. Is it any surprise that so-called “housing reform” movement emerged from the same city as the “Defund the Police” movement, and that combatting “systemic racism” was cited as a reason for both? Should Democrats win out in their crusade to eliminate single-family zoning, America is in danger of becoming an increasingly feudal country—a nation of permanent renters to corporate landlords.
The city of Minneapolis offers us a dire warning about the rise of alarming left-wing ideas and trends that eventually circulate throughout the entire nation. Every American—and every conservative in particular—should recognize the left’s movement to abolish residential single-family neighborhoods for what it is and do everything in our power to oppose it while we still can.
This isn’t about housing for people that can’t afford a home. It is about putting more Democrats in a neighborhood by putting high-rise buildings where more Democrat voters can be put into a voting area. The Democrats cater to the low-income and minorities for their base voting and this way they can have higher voting rates in an area.
Remember, Democrats never do anything for people unless it helps them stay in power.
A return of mortal kind to the primitive
Fossile fuels and CO2 are a great blessing. They green the Earth, increase food supply, and decrease worthless desert land. The communists–especially the US Democratic Party–and their fraudulent “global climate change” hoax are a devastatingly destructive force and a PLAGUE on Mankind and the Earth that MUST BE THWARTED.
Has the largest number of Muslim & Samoli refugees. And look at who they put into our Congress!
Higher density = higher crime
Let’s see Biden, Harris, Pelosi and Sanders build large affordable apartment blocks on their estates!
Obama sent in a whole bunch of Somali Muslims there to destroy that city!!!
Once upon a time, I always wanted to visit Minneapolis. Not anymore.
Where I live, there are no zoning laws. Instead, neighborhoods – both in the city and in the burbs – establish deed restrictions and covenants, as well as Home Owners Associations – to govern what can be built in that neighborhood and what activities can be carried out.
Deed restrictions usually prohibit commercial and industrial activity, farm animals, and apartment complexes – anything producing more than average noise, traffic, obnoxious smells, hazardous activities, and – excessive density of housing.
There are often patio homes, zero lot line housing, and other homes on smaller lots (higher density). Sometimes duplexes, townhomes, and even small apartment buildings are part of the neighborhood plan, usually at the “edges”. But large apartment complexes and high rise buildings, along with gas stations, banks, strip centers are excluded. These often appear on the perimeters of neighborhoods and suburbs, the major thoroughfares.
The deed restrictions also govern architectural standards – even your choice of landscaping, exterior paint color, and dog breed can be governed by the HOA or the covenants! It can get very restrictive, but the ability to change the restrictions rests with the homeowners of the neighborhood.
Some might prohibit a garage apartment being used as a rental or Air BnB (that would be “multi family” and or “commercial activity”; others allow it. Some might shut down a home day care center while allowing after school piano lessons or tutoring in private homes. Usually businesses run from home are most likely to be an issue where they create a nuisance for the neighbors – if you run a doggy day care or child day care, the noise might be an issue. Extra traffic is also a concern. If you are operating an online business, as long as no one complains, you are probably ok.
I’m sharing this because when local government wants to ban your zoning, you have the power as the property owners to collectively establish your own zoning and other standards to preserve your family’s wellbeing, your property values, and your planned community with green spaces and parks, and lots large enough for one story houses (if you are elderly or disabled and can’t manage 4 flights of stairs for a walkup brownstone) —- large enough for a private yard larger than a postage stamp, to accommodate a dog, a vegetable garden, a swing set — or all three (if you are young and want to raise up a family… or even just a puppy and a tomato. :))
That’s because ultimately, the power belongs to the people. So take back your power!
It all started with Obama, America voted fir him believing his lies pulling everyone together, he did the opposite, he set the cornerstone of the destruction of America as we knew it.
Millions of Americans no longer deserve to vote, they vote for the wrong reasons.
The California law ALLOWS second units and local government cannot prevent them by zoning single family only as I understand it. I am not aware of any requireing second unit construction. Neighbors 5-10 acre residential zoned parcels can have a second unit, but our agriculture zoned parcel close to 100 acres had zoning preventing a second unit until this bill. This allows a child to also live on the property. If they can afford to build with all the fees and mandates that literally double the cost of a modest home. So lots of little unpermitted homes in this area.
There’s a strategy and reason for supply chain problems and no products to keep our country running., and now a sheet of plywood costs 3 times more than a year ago, fuel prices are spiraling out of control (he used the POISON PEN of his to destroy our energy system and we went from having the most efficient and largest oil reserves in the world to now having to depend onOPEC and Russia to supply our precious energy supplies??? It now costs me$140 to fill my truck and a year ago it was $80 ?? WHY? The green new deal? China is right now building hundreds of dirty COAL FIRED factories while we are tearing our facilities down? This is a nightmare and if we don’t stop this carnage it’s OVER
Ok, so it’s HIGH DENSITY housing only for the lower and middle class minions of the elites (along with compromised health care and who knows maybe BREAD LINES? The American dream is fulfilled with the privilege and honor of owning your own home (Family Structure and pride in your trade is what incentives all of us to succeed and excel in our lives) so let’s build giant housing development’s and destroy the American dream and way of life for ALL AMERICANS of every race and creed because that’s what America is founded on and it’s our way of life. The new administration and basically all of there leftist leaning democrats are determined to turn our country into a socialist nation or even worse ? There evil and none of them are believers of our constitution or the founding of our country . We should build millions of new SINGLE FAMILY HOMES and be proud of it!
Just a consequence of the satanic Left’s bringing in those hordes of leeches from all over the world.
Who do you think is going to pay?
The illegals and fake ‘asylum’ claimants? Or American citizens?
Lay your bets now…….
This policy was infecting the USA under the Obama-nation. Joe and his ilk are just pushing it to the max while they can.
The Democrat Party is the party of hell. They are trying to bring the rest of us with them to hell. Higher prices, failed foreign policy, open borders, and inflation are just a few of the fruits of hell thrust upon us by Democrats. How long until people wake up and reject their idiocy?
Minneapolis = Ihlan Ohmar’s congressional district. HMMMM?
Single family zoning is not racist!! Gimme a break.
I would support this change WHEN……Lake Washington, location of the home of Bill Gates (a 66,000 sq. ft mansion) is rezoned for multiple use.
While Biden lives in posh neighborhood and Obama creator of this lives in Martha’s Vineyard.
Bet none of this goes there .
Right !!!-
While Biden
Welcome to AGENDA 21. Brought to you by the worthless lefty marxists who do not give a tiny little S–T about you and yours.
This administration is determined to cripple this nation..Incompetent and power-seeking; don’t care about hurting the very people who pay their salaries. Disgusting.
All politicians must live in these zones or lose their seat. If they are running, they must move to these zones. MUST LIVE THERE……………………..
Another bullshit far left agenda to make sure that Biden keeps Americans last!
This is no surprise. Politicians are only interested in lining their own pockets. Why would they respect the taxpayer? We have no representation in Minnesota or anywhere else. Minneapolis/St.Paul is a sanctuary metro. Consequently, politicians there can do anything they please for whatever reason and spend any amount of money doing it. That, and they typically receive help from outside their purview. Remember. . .it was the Clintons, Obama’s, Mark Dayton, Franken, Klobuchar, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Brotherhood that brought Somali Muslims to District 5 – and we know how that turned out, eh Ilhan Omar? They hate America; they hate Minneapolis. Convince me that none of those people or organizations got BIG money for creating a social catastrophe in a Christian environment. I’m guessing that Muslims will be exempt from any law limiting THEIR family circumstances just like the fools that champion this kind of legislation.
By a show of hands, how many of you Democraps will be affected by your policies. How many of your large pieces of property will be rezoned to battle this “systemic racism”. When I see that happen I’ll be a lot more likely to think you really care about anyone besides yourselves. Which of course means I’ll never see that day. All this means is not only do we have to vote out the liars and crooks from the federal levels of government, but those that want to protect their communities at the local level need to eliminate those in their local city councils, school boards and other community controlling bodies from their positions. Until conservatives, Republicans and those that want to protect their individual freedoms get as proactive and “radicalized” as those that are attacking us, they will continue to march forward and trample our freedoms. Get active!
This is AGENDA 21 in motion.
Are these woke, socialist creeps who live behind gates and guarded buildings going to subdivide their lots? “Limousine Liberals” is what they are (quote attributed to Mario Proccacino in the late 1960s NYC). Still true today.
I find it both hilarious and scary that the government created the affordable housing shortage with regulations that over reach and now they want to make it even worse with abolishing single-family zoning. Government and the people who run it will always manage ruin anything and everything and in the process, crap all over it.
We should tell all politicians they need to live within 20 miles of where they work.If they work in DC then they have to live there.It must be their primary residence not just where they are when in session.
If this is what is being pushed, FIRST change all zoning to multi-family in ALL the neighborhoods where the wealthy politicians and elites live, THEN build many apartment buildings all around them. See how they like the population and resource crush this will cause. Then, maybe, continue with the plans to make life miserable for all us poor and middling people.
They can call it whatever they want but I’ve lived and policed areas where similar actions have been implemented. Al it does is ruin good neighborhoods. Speaking from personal experience, the crime rate goes up, many residents move out and slowly but surely a once good neighborhood becomes a part of the “statistics” involving crime and drugs. Maybe these politicians should put these low income buildings in their own neighborhoods and let their children and grandchildren attend school with the children from these low income neighborhoods. Hmmmm, even the most left of the left don’t send their kids to these schools. People have to stop living in a fairy tale land. You can call it racism but the truth is that blacks in America are responsible for the overwhelmingly amount of violent crime in the US. That is a fact. We have to stop trying to blame racism for this behavior. It is something that needs to be addressed through education. Simply sticking your head in the sand and pretending that it isn’t true is never going to fix the problem. It is only creating more victims. The first step in fixing a problem….. is admitting that there is problem.
This is a bunch of BS, these kinds of laws are forcing you to make your neighborhood to eventually, become no better than intercity, but you know what, people will set on their back sides and not do anything about it. Just follow the arrow the slaughter is this way.
Millions of people ( of some MEANS ) are leaving metro areas for fear of what is coming. Many have predicted that the civil war WILL break out in those ( metro ) areas across the nation. Retirees of all ages are buying homes at record setting prices in SAFE areas away from the big cities and surrounding suburbs. They are afraid of what they see. What were once safe neighborhoods are now gang infested “combat zones.”
‘ONE’ of the only ways to stop the advancement of this Communist regime in our country is, if 100,000,000 Americans marched on Washinton DC. The media would go wild and there would be no way these demon Marxists could stop it, especially the way they would like to, by wiping us all out, because this nation would be seen in the world as committing the largest scale of genocide ever seen, other than the holocaust committed against the Jews, while the media covers it all! The other way to fight against this is for Americans to repent and turn back to the Lord and then Pray with all their might in the Spirit of Christ.
Period!!
The correct approach for affordable housing is to create millions of real jobs like Trump did and let people WORK for their living. But the Democratic party’s way is to “distribute” wealth. which takes from the working and gives it to others whether they work or not. I don’t care what they call it, it’s socialism. It has never worked and it will never work. Taking away the incentive to work along with “give away” programs is a sure way to kill productivity and eliminate the middle class. One of the biggest problems with our government is the politicians that push these kinds of programs don’t understand and don’t care because none of them are middle class.
What about the fact that there will be far less people paying property taxes? How do the counties get funds for schools, roads, bridges, etc.?
This is what you get when you vote for a Democommunist. You deserve what you get
Developers who are able to buy up enough lots to build multi-unit housing are going to do so only if profit is involved. No low income housing will be built. This is all about a give-away to politically connected developers.
Control, control, and control. Let’s put all of the eggs in one basket to keep an eye on you because there will be plants inside to keep tabs on you and what you do.
OmG this news is eye opening! I’ve been following current events
My hypothesis is ;
Mr Soros and his entourage are Global manipulators !!!! His :OPEN SOCIETY CONCEPT has invaded America, our government INCLUDING OUR CONGRESS AND THE pathetic DEMOCRAT PARTY .AS WELL This self made multi billionaire is playing role of GLOBAL INFLUENCER AKA GLORIFIED DICTATOR!
It’s ALL ABOUT $$$$$ POWER AND CONTROL , Folks! Many many successful. American billionares ie B Gates , Bezos Zuckerberg, and numerous others are the same Some say they are donating to the poor ??? I View that explanation as a RUSE TO COVER UP their true sinister motives ITS ALL ABOUT POWER $$$$$$$ AND CONTROL! FOLKS
IS IT KING MIDAS SYNDROME$$$
College social psychology taught me about population overcrowding. When rats are given a lot of space to live, they live in relative harmony and peace. When they are overcrowded, they fight and kill each other. Humans are different than rats, but the social effects of overcrowding are similar. Reference:Calhoun JB. Population density and social pathology.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13875732
scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup
See also: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2636191/
Interesting! After living in an overcrowded city filled with row houses and blight, I figured this mindset has been the plan for decades. The only difference now, instead of houses being attached width-wise, they will be high rise style and low to middle income families will be packed in like sardines. Watch the movie, Idiocracy…this is a clear indication of what the future may bring if the liberal comatose people don’t wake up and get the Liberal Elite Communists out and anyone affiliated with them once and for all. This is our lives we are fighting for people!
It reminds me of “The Projects” that were tried in the 60s. They did not work out so well. Pride in ownership leads to taking better care of the property. We see this with the homes that are now rentals in our neighborhood.
Why do people want a home? What makes that possible? In my life, establishing my own home was a goal that fired the effort to work hard, gain financial security, and, in the end buy a place of my choosing. It is one of those dreams most people aspire to. The concept of getting your own home is part of what many call “the American dream”. That idea that you can pull it all together and have a place you can call your own. The process is often hard, takes time and work and builds character as well as things like a good credit base, progressive savings and all the related things that mean you are a viable citizen and can surpass obstacles to reach that goal. Part of the support for this was and is the single housing zoning…along with all the attachments of mortgage banking and escrow and personal investment. To pull the zoning base out from under it all means government control right down to the choice of place, style, and design of one’s personal dwelling. To pursue that means the individual no longer has incentive to work, save, build and aspire for a better life….the destruction of what has been an underpinning of our culture and economy for generations. Granted, for some, for many even, because of a variety of reasons,, it is harder than for others. Be it, race, income, or other factors (laziness, lack of education, poor planning, etc)….still the goal can be reached. To have this all taken away is criminal. To have it “given to you” is a destructive venture, not unlike the system that says, “no need to work, I will subsidize your every need.” termed the “welfare or nanny state”…better defined as socialism. What is being driven is the prospect that no one has the right to property, and if you have property, it belongs to everyone else, all to be doled out by the government, as they see fit. In the end, the standard of life declines, the people remain controlled, and the desire to better one’s self is wiped out of existence. This is not the way. Zoning laws are the leverage that will be and are being used to destroy what we term the “middle class” thus relegating us to just two positions…those in power and those put in subjection of that power. That is firmly anti-American, culturally destructive and spells the end for the Republic. It is pure power grabbing politics.
Group people in smaller areas, preferably in high-rise housing where they HAVE to depend on supply chain provided food and other essential items so they can be more easily controlled by tightening the “chain”. We are seeing a little of that strategy right now.
Anyone remember the mysterious empty Chinese cities spotted in satellite photos about 20 years ago? The mystery was solved a few years ago when word leaked out of Red China that the government was forcing some rural people into those cities.
Would that opposition go about the same way every other opposition has gone since November 2020?
The plan of the NEW WORLD ORDER, the blue bloods,the CFR, the U.N., the Bilderbergs.
Puppet Biden and his puppeteers are going too far. This needs to be stopped.
Another program to force folks under the control of the elites in this country! The corporate landlord raises the rent, the tenant can’t pay, they are forced out, and now more homeless or will tent cities pop up all over the landscape? More poverty, less freedom, and America ceases to be America but now becomes the Amerika – another socialist utopian failure!