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Being a senior citizen means being amused when young punks in parliament think issues are new. Well, new to them, maybe. I see where both the UK and the US heads of state, Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden, have angrily exposed “shrinkflation,” while across the land politicians speak of the twin perils of “the housing crises” and “the homeless.”
I well remember when “the homeless” hit North America like a snow dump off a pine tree: Whomp! Hollywood noticed. Around 1980 I saw a movie where someone, I think it was Cher, asks a homeless lady for information and the crafty lady has a price for her information:“Can I have your shoes?”
What I didn’t realize back then was “the homeless” would continue, even into the 21st century. From my boyhood I remember that only hobos and vagrants were homeless. I left my parent’s house back when an idealistic journalist, Mary Tyler Moore, was covering more important things, unaware of the coming homeless tide. I discovered that “cheaper rent” meant students and extended immigrant families sharing houses. Other folks chose to live alone in Single Room Occupancy hotels, with month to month rent. I myself enjoyed staying in SROs when I was traveling to other cities—good times! No hordes of homeless. And no talk of “affordable housing.”
I was surprised to have my memory of the “snow dump” confirmed by an article in the Atlantic in February. Not this February, last year’s edition. Turns out that various ongoing citizen demands for zoning and red tape and housing restrictions and ballot propositions had all added up… with the chickens coming home to roost around 1980. Naming the year of the “whomp!” gave the article instant credibility with me. The homeless have not melted away.
It was only a decade ago, well after I paid off my mortgage, that my city, (having razed our SRO hotels for the Olympics) grudgingly, against opposition, after first making basement suite owners plead their cases individually and publicly at City Hall, finally smelled the coffee and legalized basement suites. One can imagine homeowners in lawn chairs saying, “Crises? What crises?” Maybe Statistics Canada could not anticipate the coming crises—or maybe we could not listen.
Imagine my amusement this year when some folks in Calgary wanted solutions, while others wanted the same old problems, and argued for the same old homeowner opposition from my boyhood. In my city, according to my Member of Parliament—to whom I brought the Atlantic article—last year we built fewer homes than in 1972. He told me the problem is North America wide. If Calgary wants to do any better than all those other cities as glamorous as ours, as functional as ours, then we will have to try harder and smarter. Set the example. At least this year, acknowledging the “crises,” the city government has stood firm: No delays for a referendum.
City Hall has been talking about trying for “density” for decades, but urban sprawl was the default: Density just hasn’t worked out, anymore than swift, easy, modular, prefabricated homebuilding has ever worked out. Maybe by the time we colonize Mars…
“No delays.” Sounds like common sense has come to city hall at last, although Mary Tyler Moore has long passed away. Some are even daring to hope to return to the days of a functioning market, when “supply met demand,” meaning: The capitalist market would keep rents low, with no need for government “affordable housing.” The homeless could be housed at last.
… … As for this “new” shrinkflation” that President Biden keeps explaining: It’s when the box stays the same size, the price stays the same, while the amount inside is decreased: Less bang for your buck.
I reply, “Sorry Joe, it might be news to you, but Mad Magazine got there first, back during the days of Mary Tyler Moore. In the 1970’s. The graphic pages (from memory) show a stout capitalist leading idealistic Mary as she carries her microphone. Mary is amazed as he shows her boxes with less inside. She is shocked, but he is pleased. He shows her bags with less inside and she’s shocked again. He laughs it off. He shows her toilet paper being wrapped loosely on the roll to have less paper for the same price. Now Mary is especially shocked, saying that’s not fair!
He replies, “How old are you?” Adding loudly, “If they don’t like it, they know what they can do about it!” Then reflecting quietly, “Come to think of it, that’s what they do with it whether they like it or not.”
I remain amused.
… …
… …
Sean Crawford
In my favourite North American city,
April
2024
Footnote on Crazy:
To ask whether citizens across North America could possibly be dysfunctional enough to cause an eventual housing crises—it sounds so crazy when you phrase it like that—it helps to ask whether their cities, over time, could be equally dysfunctional. A widespread belief in market interference sounds less crazy after you analyze one city trying for a decade to repave a two-mile street where the potholes were bad enough to close off entire lanes. The issue wasn’t funding. For more, here is a feature by another Sean, Sean Blanda.
