To the editor: 

I read the front-page article in the March 1 Alexandria Times, “Councilors mull affordable housing set-aside,” with interest. The article talked about how the council is looking at five options to help with this city’s growing affordable housing crisis.

In the article, five options were laid out. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that two of the options receiving strong consideration were raising property and/or personal property taxes. Is that what a couple of council members meant by a “predictable” funding stream?

So you want to raise property taxes, and the car personal property tax, in order to make housing more affordable for us? Really?

For a lot of people, a car is not a luxury – only the more wealthy folks among us can afford to live within walking distance of a Metro station. And as expensive as the Metro is, it is more so when you add the bus fare to get to the station. A car means being able to go into work on short notice when a coworker calls off or extra help is needed, even at odd hours.

For people who work as tradespeople, like my neighbor who is a handyman, a van is not a luxury.

Don’t higher property taxes get passed on to renters too?

Making the cost of living here even more costly will not help the affordable housing crisis.

Every time you rezone to lure fancy high-end and density development, you displace way more people than your token set-asides cover – like with the Beauregard Plan. Government-run “affordable housing” set-asides are a fig leaf as you help richer developers get richer.

Wow – you folks really don’t get it.

-Julie Meynick, Alexandria