When we talk about growing economic inequality, or when we talk about America, which has long prided itself on being a country where people can climb the economic ladder and build better lives for themselves and their children, , it's actually harder to do that in the US right now than in many parts of Europe. We have become a country where the economy is stagnant and people's fates are largely determined by the faces of their parents. The root of these problems is a lack of housing.
Zoning for single-family homes evolved in the early 20th century, essentially as a system to prevent change, especially the movement of minorities into emerging suburban communities. You can't build apartments there. You cannot build a duplex there. Basically, anyone who could afford to buy a single-family home was welcome. In practice, what this meant was that these communities remained white and exclusive. And by the mid-20th century, much of America's urban peri-urban landscape was dedicated to single-family development.
What's so important about Palisades Park is that it's an example of a place that has enabled its own growth.
Appelbaum: One thing that strikes me is that when you visit many American towns, the shopping streets look dilapidated and empty. There are many vacant buildings and many old stores. And this is incredibly lively. All bays are full. The storefront is also new and shiny.
Pinto: There's more people living here as customers than there were in 1970, so it's very vibrant. And it makes a big difference.
Appelbaum: The average American suburban community has a lot of potential. The impact of building more homes is often much smaller than people expect or fear.
Appelbaum: We're walking past the Palisades Park School Board. One of the questions that arises when a town's population increases by her 7,000 people is how that will affect services. Are schools overcrowded? Do you want to put a strain on your sewer system?
Pinto: I have considered that. From a sewer perspective, most sewer systems were built with significant additional capacity. number one. Second, families are smaller. Third, energy efficiency has improved. Therefore, the amount of water and wastewater produced may not be significantly greater than before. In terms of schools, the number of children per household is decreasing, but the bottom line is that the tax base has increased significantly, and at the same time we have been able to reduce tax rates.
Appelbaum: We're now on the border between Palisades Park and the neighboring town of Leonia. And since Palisades Park is now a duplex community, and it's illegal to build duplexes in Leonia, there are very large single-family homes facing the duplexes across the street.
Appelbaum: Leonia's tax rate and Palisades Park's tax rate used to be essentially the same. But in recent decades, Palisades Park's tax rate has fallen to about half of Leonia's, which is a big change.
Pinto: Leonia likes Leonia's nostalgia and natural appearance. But she can't stay frozen in amber forever.
Appelbaum: Ed doesn't share the nostalgia for how things were back then that many people might feel, or the fear of change that is so common in these communities. My producer Gillian asked him about it.
Gillian Weinberger: Some people may have an emotional reaction to seeing their childhood home demolished and replaced. Did you have that feeling?
Pinto: No, I didn't think much of it at the time. I had a very happy childhood there, but progress is progress. And if someone decides you need to make way for progress, so be it. I really didn't have any attachments.
Appelbaum: In my experience, many residents of suburban communities are really afraid of change. They see it as simply a negative force. And in the United States, local communities are almost always able to make their own land use decisions, and these local politics are overwhelmingly anti-development oriented. These are homeowner associations that are primarily concerned with preserving their own way of life and have little interest in the question of where people live that could benefit the New York region as a whole. they don't care. It's not in their head.
Our politics seem misaligned with our goals as a society. We need to think about housing issues not in terms of what's best for the current residents of Palisades Park or Leonia, but in terms of what's best for the New York region and the United States. Palisades Park has no residents. Palisades Park is not the name of a municipality. It's a place where a certain number of Americans happen to live, and the conditions under which they can do that are subject to a broader political system, which is a system for acting in the broader interests of the American people. And so should future American citizens.
