In this line of work I’ve heard just about everything from worries about exploding sinks to weepy testimonials about how some townhouses mean certain death. When people fear change they’ll come up with just about every excuse why the change is bad except for what they’re really worried about: it’s called a red herring, something that just simply isn’t credible as a reason to oppose change but has to be exhaustively debunked anyway. The red herring defense chews up time and energy while proponents of new kinds of development, for example, have to spend lots of resources showing why small units with one sink won’t result in an outbreak of the plague. But sometimes the angry neighbors skip right to the real reasons they’re angry:

This comment comes from Magnolia neighborhood where there is a proposal to build housing at Fort Lawton near Discovery Park. The angry neighbors want the old Fort Lawton site to simply go to seed:

We believe that the Army Reserve parcel in its entirety, should be incorporated into Discovery Park. To accomplish this, we urge that all man-made structures at the site be removed and the site be completely reforested with native trees and understory.

I’m not going to wade into any of the issues at Fort Lawton because there’s nothing to discuss. The neighbors should be ignored and lots and lots of housing should be built at Fort Lawton. As far as I’m concerned, they should be welcomed to the discussion if they want to help make that happen and shape it, but otherwise I’d suggest they’d work on their lawns.

What’s astonishing in the comment I point out, is the revelation of what so many entitled people in Seattle really think about density and housing that would accommodate renters, especially those with not a lot of money. I’m posting this because I’m always surprised by the shock supporters of more housing express when they see these things; I’m surprised by the surprise, not the neighbors. In private and in hushed tones, angry neighbors almost always have really bizarre foundations for the opposition to new housing. The real problem is City Councilmembers (the worst is Mike O’Brien) who want to spend time processing the red herring cover stories which are just a cover for classism and racism. There’s no room for red herrings or angry neighbors in our city.

What’s truly sad, is the person that wrote this comment probably has one of these signs in their giant and landscaped front yard. I don’t think hypocrisy has made it into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5) yet, but I suppose the next addition could add that as well as the disorder of listening to hypocrisy and putting it into our land use code. In that case the biggest concentration of people with mental disorders would be found in Magnolia and City Hall. They need help, “services” as Jenny Durkan often says. And no, everything won’t be “just fine” as long as we keep killing housing because entitled, incumbent neighbors get their way.