Mixed Income Neighborhoods

Dan Voelpel has a piece today about mixing low income from the Winthrop in to the Hilltop Neighborhood. He's generally against it. As were most commentors on Exit133 about the same subject. And I am generally against it too.

This quote was in the Voelpel article and I think it's important:

“This neighborhood has more than our fair share of low-income residents and way, way too many sex offenders,” said Bockwinkel, co-owner of Ex-Press Printing. “I’m not sure what the population is like of the Winthrop residents, but those residents should be spread around the county, with none coming to the Hilltop."

My quibble with this is slight, but important. Low income residents should not be spread around the county. The housing available should be in our neighbhoods with the best access to transportation and services that a family without a car could use. This means putting low-income into some of our most livable areas: Downtown; Stadium; Proctor; pieces of 6th and other neighborhoods with good business districts.

I'm sure a lot of business-owners and current residents may not be in favor of this, but it makes no sense to put low-income residents in areas where you need a car to live. It may be true--it likely is true--that MLK already has its fair share of subsidized housing. But it has qualities that make it very attractive for a family without a car and that should be taken into account too.

I do totally understand that if the subsidized housing was going to go on the former site of the former Browne's Star Grill it is a questionable "turn around" and I'm not sure it would justify the purchase by the city. This is a very tricky and sensitive issue, and I hope Prium will do the right thing and the City will not let them off the hook in their eagerness to get the Winthrop re-developed.