The Editor's Back Fence

The tech support department points out that the best sentence in the excellent op-ed on the COB's deal with UCB is the last one in the last footnote. In case you missed it:

"There is ample evidence that much recent construction as well as the movement to abolish single family zoning (R-1 zoning) in Berkeley are driven primarily by the demand for short term student housing, rather than by any real desire to provide affordable housing to families wanting to live here over the long term."

Well, yes. And not only that, what still hasn't been adequately reported on is that it's not just in Berkeley, it's all over the country, but especially in college town. On the front page of today's New York Times there's a story about Charlottesville, home of the University of VIrginia, that could be about Berkeley. I've heard simllar tales about Bloomington (Indiana U.), Gainesville (U.of Florida) and several others. What's being built in most of these towns is indeed not affordable housing for families, but luxury dorms for well-off students who spurn the old three-in-a-room proletarian dwellings with cafeterias and shared baths which their predecessors tolerated.