Help! My neighbor wants a nicer house!
When people aren't busy trying to ape the wealthy, they are trying to control them. At least that's one way of looking at the controversy surrounding "McMansions" and teardowns.

I've lived in all sorts of neighborhoods: acre-plus sites in rural areas with dirt roads, apartments in neighborhoods on the edge of crime-ridden areas (or not), and older but tidy blue-collar neighborhoods.

My favorite neighborhood, however, was on the edge of a wealthy suburb in a major metropolitan area. The house was taken up in large measure by modest 2 or 3-bedroom single-story houses from the late 1950s. A short distance away--perhaps half a mile away--were even older, more stately buildings, some from the turn of the century. A half-mile away from them were genuine mansions fetching $1.3 million or more.

In my time in that neighborhood, busybodies in the suburb kept themselves occupied by tut-tutting the growth of the teardown phenomenon. Homeowners (either the current occupants, or more likely, new buyers) would tear down a building that was 50 years older, or older. In its place would go a multi-story building, often with brick, that would take up an even larger amount of the lot, and offer more bedrooms, more bathrooms, and in general, more space.

I didn't always care for the design of the newly established buildings. But then again, I figured that it wasn't my problem. If nothing else, I ought to have been happy, for two reasons: the value of my land (I had a cheap house, but expensive land) went up, and the supersized valuation of the new dwelling meant that someone else was going to take on an ever-larger share of the local tax burden.

But of course some people are not satisfied to leave well-enough alone, or should I say the well-being of others, alone. Wherever this phenomenon is taking place, you find worried neighbors, study commissions, calls for respecting "neighborhood character," and the like.

People are getting wealthy, and improving their surroundings. This ... is ... a ... problem.

Or so you think if you listen to any number of "activists" and "concerned citizens."

Well, the hand-wringing--call it the fretting over wealth--has infected Minneapolis. Given the "social solidarity" (read: we love taxes, the higher the better) of Minnesota, I shouldn't be surprised.

The Southwest Journal, a weekly newspaper in the city, recently ran a front-page article titled "Southwest Super-Sized."

Among the alleged troubles brought by the new dwellings: they can be much larger than nearby houses; they "don't blend in with the character of neighboring properties," and (horror of horrors to some urbanites), "the new properties would fit better in the suburbs."

You know, those soulless hells of anomie and bowling alone.

The Fulton Neighborhood Association, for one, is asking that the city "adopt zoning codes to make newly constructed homes and remodeled homes, more closely match the surrounding properties, in style, in the amount of lot consumed by the home and in height."

And I thought that the problem with suburbs was their rampant conformity. It turns out that some folks want to impose conformity on city neighborhoods as well. (I should point out here that I do find many suburban neighborhoods, especially ones less than, say, 20 years old, hopelessly dull from an aesthetic standpoint.)

The Journal points out that the latest trend in Minneapolis teardowns is the demolition of "alley houses," which are "small, quickly built homes originally intended to be temporary."

John Finlayson, president of the neighborhood association, said that "It's an issue of how do you balance private property rights against the historic character of the neighborhood?"

That doesn't sound like much of an issue to me. People have rights. "Historic character" does not.

If you’re neighbor is spewing toxic fluids on your lawn, you should be concerned. If he’s replacing a structure that no longer fits the needs and wants of today’s Americans with something that has a more luxurious look and feel?

There are much graver problems to think about. (permalink)