. . . end life as we know it,
- threaten the existence of the universe,
- hurt a single poor person,
- make a whit of difference in the availability — or lack thereof — of affordable housing in Takoma Park,
- gentrify the whole city or otherwise change the progressive ethos of Takoma Park,
- damage other structures,
- harm children who need to cross the street,
- inconvenience more than a few people due to traffic (it won’t have much impact on traffic at all).
Takoma Junction development will
- replace an ugly impervious surface with a nicely designed two-story building that will improve quality of life in our city, following at least 30 years of inaction,
- force the Coop to adjust how it operates.
As for the Coop, not only has it refused to engage constructively over the past five years, it has whipped up an ideological frenzy, in which a small and positive change to our city becomes the moral equivalent of
- separating families at the border
- GOP theft of the Supreme Court
- police violence against people of color
- collapse of liberal democracy
- hating the poor.
Opponents’ arguments have at times been amusing, more often been baffling, and now have become outright offensive. By turning their opposition into the Moral Issue of Our Time, they are distracting themselves and the rest of us from the more serious work needed in the face of resurgent racism, international collapse, and climate change. Heck, every breathless moment they spend on their struggle is a minute they are not spending countering the very-present threat to our county from the Washington Post, the development industry, and Nancy Floreen. If you hate over-development, that is the battle to be waged. (Go Marc Elrich!)
Reason will prevail at City Council on July 25, because the majority of councilmembers and residents know the difference between reality and frenzy.
PS. Jarrett Smith: now that you have no political future, how about regaining a shred of dignity by resuming your support for Junction development? You switched sides in an instant for no good reason, so it shouldn’t be hard for you to switch back.
©2018 Keith Berner
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