I suppose you’ve heard that old phrase: “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
Well, I don’t think the person who coined that saying was talking about neighborhood real estate development.
Can there be anything more controversial than new commercial development? A new bingo parlor or drugstore, for example?
Of course, a neighbor’s bold use of purple anchoring his home’s exterior color scheme probably will raise a few hairs on our necks, too. Particularly if the colorful new neighbor or the brand new bingo parlor is within eyesight of our front door.
No matter which side of the fence you straddle, these are the issues that make neighborhood development such an interesting, endlessly evolving issue.
Try as we might, there is no way everyone will agree on anything. Ever.
That’s why our cover story by Matt Weitz this month is particularly interesting: We’re writing about issues everyone loves to talk about but no one can adequately address.
For example, rising home values are great if you already own a home; unless, of course, your current home isn’t large enough and the larger ones you want aren’t affordable anymore.
And while higher and higher home values tend to keep the “riff-raff” out, they also tend to bounce out a few of the characters who make a neighborhood colorful and interesting and livable, perhaps bringing us closer and closer to the Monopoly-board suburbs.
I think you’ll find that in the case of neighborhood development, what’s good for the goose might serve only to raise the gander’s dander.
The Value Card is here
Several months ago, I wrote about the Advocate Value Card we’ve been developing.
Well, it’s right here at the center of this month’s issue.
Flip to those pages, and you’ll find everything you need to start saving money or earning great perks at more than 50 neighborhood businesses and service providers.
Please take the time to bend and peel the card from our pages, and place it in your car or your wallet or on the refrigerator where it will be handy. And start looking for window-signs, cash-register decals and table-tents indicating which neighborhood businesses are participating in this program.
Since this is a yearlong (and, we hope, annual) program, we’re not through adding new businesses to our growing list.
In addition to patronizing the participating businesses, here’s how you can help us make the Value Card a success: Mail, fax or email us the name, address and telephone number of a business you’d like to see participating in the Value Card program, and we’ll mail you an Advocate T-shirt or cap (your choice) if the business agrees to become a Value Card participant. And we’ll also enter you in a year-end drawing for a $250 U.S. Savings Bond.
As one of my old high school friends used to say: You can’t beat that with a stick.
