The Housing “Crisis” is Over
by Bonnie Donovan
The Housing “Crisis” is Over
Please stop telling me we have a housing crisis.
I just arrived home from another trip, yet this time it wasn’t only in California. For Christmas we met in Las Vegas, stayed at the Trump Hotel (very nice). No casino, strictly a high-end hotel, excellent service from the valet to our luggage, to the room, to dining.
I have been going to Vegas since the 1960s. If you were going to Lake Mead, Red Rock, or Hoover Dam, that was a day’s adventure. What was different to me was the growth. You really don’t drive the strip anymore.
You can walk casino to casino without ever going outside (there are walkways like enclosed bridges). You almost don’t know you are walking into a different casino.
The biggest surprise was waking up and looking out the 39th floor to housing built all the way to the mountains.
When we left Vegas heading to Flagstaff, Arizona, we drove past housing development after housing development the entire way. When we passed Kingman Arizona – another place I have been going to since the ‘60s – there was more housing starting at $200,000.
You see I was traveling with a couple that want to leave California because of the taxes and the politics. We were going to Flagstaff to find them either a place to build a home or to buy a home.
Flagstaff has what they want – skiing –, which we did for three days at 11,500-ft “SnowBowl” just 15 miles from the town of Flagstaff.
“Food was Great.”
We drove around every day after coming down from the mountain and ate at some wonderful restaurants. We asked the locals, what are the good areas in Flagstaff to live in?
Everyone told us to stay away from the University and College areas and we would be fine. College kids just walk in the streets and don’t follow the rules. They are partying all the time.
Sound familiar?
We had Christmas Eve dinner at Little America Resort, then we went to three different grocery stores to just look and see what we needed in our house because everything would be closed the next day for Christmas.
It was strange because Flagstaff has a “dark sky” law, which means no streetlights or parking lot lights (dim lighting). It’s nice because at any time you can look up and see the Big Dipper and Little Dipper. But as Michael said, “I wouldn’t feel comfortable with you coming here at night by yourself.” It was dark in the parking lots. We even questioned if the stores were open; we couldn’t tell due to the darkness.
Gas in Arizona $2.89 per gallon
Okay, so now I’m making the nine-and-a-half-hour drive home.
I need a shower after making the trip home in eight hours. I highly suggest following GPS. All the roads home are different. For example, I never had to go on Interstate 5.
I don’t care which town I drove through. So many houses have been built that anyone can leave California today and find a house to buy – not rent – example: Kingman, Arizona, New Homes starting at $200,000.
Pear blossom Highway I stopped using about twenty years ago due to all the added signal lights but GPS guided me that way so I took it. Again so many housing tracks were added. Thousands of acres available to buy, one sign said three acres for $5,000.00 or one acre for $3,000.00.
Do not tell me America has a housing crisis!
Oh, and by the way, let me wish you a Very Happy New Year. See you in ’25!
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Local Addenda: New Notice is Noticed
After writing about not being notified of a development being at the Architectural Board of Review (ABR) two weeks ago, look what came in the mail.
It’s going back to ABR on January 6th, for final approval.
And look what has been posted on the site.
Thank You City Administrator, Kelly McAdoo.
But we need to know why the neighbors were cut out of the process!
Thanks Bonnie! If all those knuckleheads don’t wake up very soon & reverse the supermajority of liberal politicians that demand eradication of use of oil & gas in California, the mass exodus will continue. Of late, bills for utilities, especially electricity and natural gas have spiked to unreasonable levels. Legislators want all residents to convert to electric, wind & solar! Ok, with the majority of residents (forget the word “citizens”) renting, think landlords are going to pay for solar on their rentals, never happen! Think illegals will buy all electric vehicles, wrong again! Thank God we will have a new Administration in 2+ weeks!
Now we need to rid our state of Newscum and his cronies!
Government employee self-serving internal demands are now the tail wagging the development dog. They want to grow, grow, grow because growth is required to support their own grow, grow grow compensation demands.
This is their existential "crisis"; not ours. But how do we unhinge from the unhinged, in this one company town - government employment? Agree Bonnie, let's all commit to and immediately protest, anytime any local pol ever again uses the term "crisis" ever again.
We can slowly change the political narrative - there shall be no more "crisis" except from natural disasters. And the demands of the anonymous "state" are in fact the self-serving machinations in Sacramento committed by Assemblyman Gregg Hart and state Senator Monique Limon. Neither of whom deserve re-election to anything.
I also see where UCSB students got the top "civic engagement" award in the recent election among UC campuses for the highest student voter participation.
This explains how the strong local opposition to the ill-advised half billion dollar SBCC bond was drowned out by these "civic-minded" transient out of town students. A real hit and run operation by outsiders, who overrode the depth of the local opposition from property owners who are now stuck paying for continued SBCC mismanagement. That too qualifies as a crisis.