As recently reported by the Wall Street Journal Scottsdale now has the distinction of being America’s top city for inflation. We can think of better accolades. Related to this topic is something Laurie Roberts from the Arizona Republic recently wrote about: rising housing costs.
Here is something very powerful and disturbing she wrote: “You’ve heard the stories, or maybe you’re living one of them. Like the single mother hit with an $800 rent increase-a stunning 50% jump in what she pays to house her family in an older 3-bedroom apartment in central Scottsdale. ‘That will take almost 100% of my income, and my 82-year old father is on fixed income,” Kathleen Black told The Arizona Repbublic. ‘Our apartment isn’t that nice.'”
The 5 members of the Scottsdale City Council who have hoisted a mostly anti-business reputation around the city’s neck need not look in the mirror. They need to look to Mrs. Black.
These 5 members tend to think NIMBYism the most powerful poll and policy in the city. They are wrong. Voter attitudes change. A city like Scottsdale is not better for being the most inflationary one in the country, especially when that is pricing out its people.
We are not advocating every apartment and development project be approved. But when the marketplace is now afraid of the politics in Scottsdale — as it is — and private business is not willing to risk here any more Scottsdale will soon gain more infamy. Just ask the Wall Street Journal and Mrs. Black.