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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 25, 2005 Earn the housing you want By Mike Rice Ashland I've lived in Ashland for 5 years, and I really want the community to remain diverse. But I am amazed by the widespread sense of "entitlement" to affordable living in Ashland expressed by many of your readers. I grew up close to Washington, D.C., in a nice large house on a half acre lot that my father could afford because he had worked hard and saved. When I went out on my own, I never felt "entitled" to live in a similar house so close to the city. When I was in my 30s, I could finally afford to buy a very small condominium townhouse with an hour commute to work. Ten years later, I took a job in Manhattan, and my commute expanded to an hour and a half to afford our first (small) house. I spent the entire '90s in Atlanta before moving here, and my commute grew from 30-45 minutes to 45-75 minutes over 10 years. I endured these commutes so I could find a good job, work hard, progressively buy better housing and save money to someday live in a place like Ashland. So I'm unsympathetic to the pervasive sense of entitlement, and I think it's counterproductive. Likewise, I'm angry about the proposed housing sales tax. Essentially, the proposal would take hard-earned money from me when I sell my house and give it to someone else who undoubtedly did not make the sacrifices I did to live here. How is that justifiable? Realistically, Ashland will always be expensive. There are solutions to affordable living here, but they require personal responsibility and compromise. D.C. was expensive, so we started with a condominium townhouse - not a house. With all of the parks in Ashland, you don't need to own "land," which is what makes Ashland so expensive. Why not build some condominium apartments? I support commune-style living in Ashland, but there's not enough land to create a "Walden Pond" setting. Why not buy, renovate or erect a communal building that doesn't have additional land? Your "yard" can be all the wonderful parks and community places in Ashland? You don't even have to mow the lawn! Or, how about getting a college degree and/or advanced training in an in-demand field like health care that pays well here in the Valley. Maybe you even have to work in L.A. or the Bay for awhile to enhance your credentials. Then you could afford to buy property here not because it's subsidized, but because you make enough to buy a home here. Finally, please don't turn Ashland into "cookie-cutter housing." Let Andy Cochran build interesting and distinctive housing on Clay Street. I like Clay Street, but if you force all the housing to be alike, you diminish the aesthetic value of all of them. I've seen the results many places, and they aren't pretty. By the way, we practice what we preach. When we moved here, we bought a custom 2,600 square-foot house above Ashland Community Hospital on a quarter acre. Last year, we sold it and moved into a 1,300- square foot townhouse off B Street in a community townhouse association. We have a small back patio, and that's it. But our community borders the bike path, and we just have to open a gate to bike, hike or walk to the park. We didn't need the larger house, but we're glad we had the option, and I'm glad Ashland has a mixture of small and large homes. That's diversity. Affordability is an important issue for Ashland because it's desirable to maintain rich diversity -not because it's an entitlement. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange web conferencing Online Casinos Community Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams