lensovet wrote: ↑Thu May 05, 2022 8:19 pm
Indeed, and I'm not sure what's wrong with more housing? Would you prefer the California approach of not building anything and having housing prices skyrocket such that no one can afford to live there?
I mean, fair point, but there's good argument for going against some of the housing nonsense in NJ.
1. It eliminates a lot of open space/green area - NJ is notorious for pollution, making everything a housing development or shopping mall will not change that.
2. Less green space = less space for wildlife to go. Over the last few years in Central Monmouth County due to all the building, the number of car accidents involving deer and other wildlife is going through the roof. There's nowhere to go for them! It also doesn't help that NJ is making hunting more and more restricted, also due to all the building.
3. The infrastructure just can't handle it. If you live near Eastern Route 33, a good stretch of it is single laned, yet they continue to build many housing developments alongside. They never add in new traffic signals, nor proper turning lanes, and it just makes a mess of traffic.
4. Going off of 3, the public transit is poor. Central Jersey, like Monmouth and Ocean counties, used to have extensive railroad routes - that will never happen again, even if much of the ROW is preserved. The buses around here aren't much to brag about either, and there seems to be a stigma against them to many people - at least people are somewhat ok taking a train.
5. A more politically charged reason, when some family of yours tries to build a house in town, and the town board gives them a ton of sh*t when it comes to permits and whatnot, but that same town board gives big developers free reign to make more cookie-cutter houses, it shows that there is some shady sh*t going on.
Obviously there's a lot of housing demand and thankfully NJ is trying to meet it, unlike California, but they could certainly be doing a better job about it.