Barbara J. Bethel, Minot
I fully agree with you in Sunday's Minot Daily News. Ward County was correct in approving the construction of new housing, for staff at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch.
Now the City of Minot has got to get its collective "butts out of their seats" and do the same with the proposed housing development on Fourth Avenue Northwest and approve that.
This "not in my backyard" attitude has stopped or cut back on a lot of very worthy housing projects in Minot. We are in a crunch here for affordable housing and it is not just the greedy landlords that are causing it. It is exasperated by people who block these projects. In some case just because they don't want "those kind of people" living in their neighborhood.
These "kind of people" are your school teachers, policemen, nurses, military and other hard working people that don't make mega-bucks, and I am not talking about the oil company workers. I mean people that built $100,000 homes before the boom or flood.
What make them feel so superior that they can deny affordable housing to others?
Many times the reason given for objecting to new housing projects is, it will cause an large increase in traffic on their streets. Well, I do not remember anyone living in the lower number streets off Fourth Avenue ever objecting when all the houses were being built up the hill off Fourth Avenue in 20th plus blocks! Ask anyone who tries to get onto Fourth Avenue between Bel Air and Broadway morning or afternoon what that has done to our traffic flow.
All these things are called progress and I am sorry to tell you Minot is progressing fast. We are joining a new century so pull up your big-person pants and get over it, and don't complain about the progress in your neighborhood.