This article was originally published at FrontPage Magazine by Daniel Greenfield.
The war on the middle class must go on. And on and on.
Single family homes are the new villains in the housing cost debate. Single family home areas are being accused of segregation. And thus the new “desegregation” becomes destroying traditional residential and suburban areas, and replacing them with housing projects.
What a brave new hellhole.
In a bold move to address its affordable-housing crisis and confront a history of racist housing practices, Minneapolis has decided to eliminate single-family zoning, a classification that has long perpetuated segregation.
As usual, in media Newspeak, lefty policies are bold and conservative ones are controversial.
The Minneapolis City Council voted last Friday to get rid of the category and instead allow residential structures with up to three dwelling units — like duplexes and triplexes — in every neighborhood. Minneapolis is believed to be the first major city in the United States to approve such a change citywide.
In Minneapolis, the decision came as part of a sweeping plan to propel the city into the future by addressing issues like housing, racial equity and climate change. The plan, called Minneapolis 2040, drew thousands of public comments, “Don’t Bulldoze Our Neighborhoods” yard signs and a last-minute lawsuit, but ultimately passed on a 12-1 vote.
Despite that, the only people quoted in the article are proponents until the very end when one opponent is allowed one line.
Experts say adding density to single-family neighborhoods is a powerful tool to address housing affordability and chip away at segregation. While going so far as to eliminate single-family zoning might not be politically possible everywhere — the Minneapolis City Council is made up of 12 Democrats and one Green Party member — success there could offer one model of what is possible.
Cue the claim that single family housing is racist.
Single-family neighborhoods rose to prominence across the country after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1917 that zoning based on race was unconstitutional.
Apparently individual homes did not exist until 1917. Nor did much of human history.
“Single-family zoning became basically the only option to try to maintain both race and class segregation,” said Jessica Trounstine, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Merced, who has studied segregation.
Anyone who studies segregation has the common sense acumen of a conspiracy theorist who can blame the sinking of the Titanic, the popularity of tuna fish and the arrival of a comet on racism.
Today, Minneapolis has a growing population of about 400,000 and is about 60 percent white, according to census statistics. The racial disparities are stark: Black and Native American babies in Minneapolis die at three to four times the rate of white babies
Clearly the fault of single family housing.
