Bi-partisanship Worth Praise

 

I'm a partisan Democrat. Never tried to deny it. My druthers are totally out in the open. But I hope I'm not a "partisan hack" -- one of those robotic hatchet-men who can always be depended on to cheerlead the Party, no matter how wack, and attack the other side, no matter how sensible and sane. Partisan as I am, I know a really good bi-partisan deed when I see one.

The best recent example: The agreement between the Watauga County Commission and the Boone Town Council to build a bridge at Brookshire Park to link the county's walking path with the Town's 30 acres of public land, which will have trails and plantings along the South Fork of the New River. A good idea, well executed.

Chair Braxton Eggers led the initiative on the County Commission, and Boone Mayor Pro Tem Dalton George led the Town Council. This proposed new infrastructure will benefit the wide population who enjoy the outdoors at Brookshire Park and the adjacent soccer fields.

Being Young Isn’t Enough – We Have to Be Courageous

By Jon-Dalton George 

“Young gets it done!” I said grinning ear to ear in a Boone Town Council meeting. We had just gotten a big infrastructure win that I was proud to play a part in. It’s been awhile since that meeting, but one of the folks in attendance still brings that phrase up when he sees me about town. "Young gets it done!"

If you’re under the age of 30 and you’ve attended any sort of political gathering or meeting, you’ve likely heard some variation of “It’s so good to see young people! You're the generation that will save us!”

It’s a sweet sentiment, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t inspire me at times to do more, trying to deliver on the lofty political and organizing expectations placed on an entire generation. 

When I was running for political office at the ripe age of 22, folks took notice. And while a few skeptics had some unfair criticism because I hadn’t had enough revolutions around the sun, others cheered me on, even without knowing much about me or my platform. Young people across the state continue to grab positions of power, win elected office, and more. But, unfortunately, being young doesn’t automatically mean that you’re the perfect person to step up.

Here’s the thing: I’m so confident in young people that I think we have every capability of being as terrible as previous generations. The trappings of politics impacts everyone, regardless of age, and young people can make the same missteps generations before them did. Trust me, I’ve seen egoism, nepotism, infighting, selfishness, and more among my peers. The allure of some of these eternal political traps have snuck into my mind at times too, so this is not meant as a critical piece of writing, but a cautionary one. 

The reality is, any aspiring public servant that’s seeking elected office for themselves will only continue to add to the problems of our political landscape. 

That’s not to say that there’s no truth in the message that this generation has the potential to save our political process. Young folks in the political arena have the ability to look at our political history to learn how our political system hit such a snag. On how we’ve ended up in a place where we need saving to begin with. 

So the task before our generation, as we work to create better communities, is to challenge the way things have always been done. To find our own voice, not to emulate what a “politician” looks like. 

As both a young elected official and a person from a working-poor background in rural North Carolina, I’ve heard both messages — One, that young people will save us, that we alone can right the direction of our nation. The other, that anyone in political power will not care for those seen as less than, that to wait to be saved by those in power is to be resigned to defeat. And in all honesty, I think that the second message has a lot more going for it to justify its sentiment. 

I’m always conscious of this dynamic and I truly hope to be a small part in that cultural shift. to alter that latter message and belief and to be one of the “young ones who get it done.” 

To end positively, I’ve had conversations with young electeds and power holders across the state who seem keenly aware of the trappings of politics, who work hard to defeat those negative cultural forces and keep the danger of ego in check, who understand well the plate they’re stepping up to when entering this world. 

Anderson Clayon, the Chair of the NC Democratic Party, is another excellent example. And while some may see her and seek to emulate her, they miss the point. Her power comes from the fact that she’s herself. She’s taking on politics authentically and with courage. I think we’d do well to learn from that as much as we learn from her youth.

Jon-Dalton George is Mayor Pro-Tem of Boone and works for the Endangered Species Coalition.

Is There A Quick Fix For Our High Country Housing Woes?

 

Guest post by Dalton George

Housing is the issue, and it has been for quite some time. The Housing Council — a group that was created from the ambitious and successful series of housing forums conducted earlier this year -- has been working towards some possible solutions, and they’ve got some great folks on the case. This energy isn't only relegated to activism. Local elections may now hinge on the issue. 

Still, as time goes on, it seems like a quick local fix to the housing crisis is nearly impossible. While some published articles (like the one in the recent NC Business Magazine) provide a prescription of extending town services out of town, allowing development with little regulation (and in turn creating a potential disaster for our natural environment — see The Cottages), most data doesn’t really support that. See Oregon, where once they eliminated those pesky zoning laws, rental rates actually increased. 

Even more troubling, housing can be framed as a NIMBY v. YIMBY choice (Not In My Back Yard v. Yes In My Back Yard) that introduces a level of polarization to an issue that otherwise typically should create some unity. While I don’t strongly identify with either NIMBY or YIMBY, I can say this — We desperately need more housing, but I have never been a fan of giving the keys to developers and expecting them to do the right thing. Boone has been bitten in the ass by this countless times. 

Then we have our Congresswoman, Virginia Foxx, writing an Op-Ed damning local regulations and championing the cause of the YIMBY, all while never participating in any of the housing movements in her district. I could write a whole piece criticizing her, but she’s been in Congress since before I was born, so her inability to improve the district she represents speaks for itself. 

I’ve said it a few times, to little effect, but Boone has tried already to deal with some of these issues, so some solutions are already in place that we can utilize. I’ve continued to reexamine our minimum housing code for the safety of tenants and have introduced an agenda item for breaking up the discrimination happening in student rentals, which would open the market in an impactful way (the only items related to housing affordability/safety since the Air-BNB regulation in December of 2021). Boone even recently tried to adopt a penny for affordable housing on every hundred dollars of valuation, though we ultimately compromised by moving the revenue equivalent from our general fund. 

In April of 2020, the Town Council introduced a resolution detailing some of the very problems newer housing groups have identified. It gained some traction, resulting in a response from the state’s Attorney General. However, our two state representatives, and ever passionate-about-housing-Congresswoman, did nothing. Here are the items that Boone asked our reps to take action on:

The $800 per apartment in non-refundable fees to pursue credit checks on tenants and their parents, while potentially not using that money for a credit check.

Landlords not publishing or disclosing certain rental charges and non-refundable fees imposed until the tenant applies for housing. 

Fines on tenants, which are not disclosed or directly included in the leases in some multi-family complexes, that make tenants abide by rules and regulations made by the management, which they can freely alter.

Renting by the bedroom, but requiring each tenant to guarantee full rent for an entire four-bedroom apartment, even though the tenant may not have any prior relationship with other tenants.

Tenants not being properly or effectively advised of the chance for a property to flood, or of the landlord’s refusal to take responsibility for flood damages until after the loss.

Landlords regularly deducting amounts from security deposits that represent charges for normal wear and tear.

Landlords using leases that are so complex people untrained in the law can’t decipher the many predatory and one-sided provisions.

New pushes like the Watauga Housing Trust provide some of the first local initiatives for affordability. Still, a housing trust model is but one piece of a much larger puzzle. Inclusionary zoning is a prospect for the Town, though the lack of clear mechanisms to hold developers legally accountable poses a problem, further worsened when you realize most inclusionary zoning programs only force affordability for a limited number of years. 

The heart of our housing issue is simple — rampant greed in an economic system that encourages it — and since housing activists are working in that framework, we’re already playing against a stacked deck.

Ultimately, we keep trying, and in Watauga that’s thanks to a robust community of passionate activists, but as we watch nearly every other city in North Carolina deal with housing issues, one must wonder if it’s time to hold state legislators accountable.

Dalton George is a member of the Boone Town Council.

Movement Grows in Boone Against Predatory Apartment Rental Practices

An AppState student named Dalton George took his concerns about "predatory" apartment rental application fees in Boone to the Town Council member Sam Furgiuele. George had compiled a list of seven grievances against high-volume rental companies which he thought were targeting college-age renters. His list of seven complaints eventually found their way into a resolution which Furgiuele presented for action to the Boone Town Council on April 21st. It passed unanimously. The resolution presented seven grievances:

WHEREAS, the Boone Town Council has been advised of a number of practices that it believes are predatory or unfair, but for which it lacks apparent authority to regulate, including but not limited to the following:

That landlords are charging as much as $800 per apartment in non- refundable fees, purportedly to pursue credit checks on prospective tenants and their parents, but may not actually be paying such high amounts for credit checks or in some cases checking credit with these funds at all;

That certain landlords do not publish or disclose either their actual rental charges and/or the additional application, credit check and other non- refundable fees they impose until the tenant is in the process of applying for housing, neither advising the tenant in advance of such fees so that fair comparison shopping can take place, nor allowing the tenant a way to determine if the amounts quoted are customary for the landlord or unique with respect to that particular applicant, thus leaving open questions regarding possible discrimination against potential tenants to whom the landlord might not wish to lease;

That it has become a practice in some multi-family complexes to impose a series of fines on tenants which are not disclosed or directly included in the leases, but at most incorporated by reference, the lease providing that the tenant agrees to abide by “rules and regulations promulgated by the management” which themselves are freely altered and impose exorbitant fines for such things as placing a pumpkin outside the tenant’s door at Halloween;

That some landlords have made it a practice to rent by the bedroom, but require each tenant to guarantee full payment of the monthly rent for an entire four-bedroom apartment, even though the tenant may not have any prior relationship or knowledge about the other tenants, also requiring the tenant’s parents to not only guarantee the individual tenant’s share of the full apartment rent, but also the other tenants’ shares;

That there are many multi-family housing complexes in Boone which have been built in flood zones and which have been subject to devastating flooding in which the personal possessions of tenants have been destroyed, but the tenants were not properly or effectively advised of the propensity for the property to flood, nor of the landlord’s refusal to take responsibility for damages caused to the tenant’s property by flooding until after the loss;

That some landlords are regularly deducting amounts from security deposits that represent charges for normal wear and tear; and

That many landlords are using leases which are so complex that no person untrained in the law is capable of deciphering their many predatory and one-sided provisions....

The resolution requests that Attorney General Josh Stein "investigate and take action to stop unfair and deceptive rental housing practices in the Town of Boone" and further appeals to Rep. Ray Russell and state Senator Deanna Ballard to "initiate amendments to the North Carolina Residential Rental Agreements Act and the North Carolina Tenant Security Deposit Act to prohibit or establish appropriate parameters and prohibitions addressing the aforesaid practices." Because there is no home rule in North Carolina, the Town Council can't take its own action to regulate unfair practices. It'll take action in Raleigh to fix the problems (and until we have another election, how likely is that?).

The passing of this resolution sparked a concurring outcry among Boone's college-age renters (and others), particularly after The Appalachian reported the news (see the comments) and most especially on the Appalachian State Classifieds Facebook page, which is one of the more active local forums. The abuse of young renters in Boone appears widespread if not entirely universal.