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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI don't want a Hospice near my home it drives down property value
First, a few facts. Like every other community, rich and not, Belmont could use cash, so local officials came up with the seemingly bright idea of selling a town-owned 5.5-acre wooded parcel in the midst of upscale Belmont Hill.
Local officials received an inquiry this spring from Integra Medical Properties, a Georgia-based company interested in building a residential hospice facility on the town land adjacent to the country club and in the woods deep behind Tagg Romneys street. It was to be one-story, about 15,000 square feet, set far back from the neighborhood.
Belmont planners seized on it. The town needed the revenue, the site was well buffered, and residents, they thought, might appreciate the service.
Belmont Hill was also home to Mitt and Ann Romney, before they sold their tasteful colonial. Its currently the neighborhood of Tagg and Jennifer Romney, who built a 14-room, 8,000-square-foot house in 2007 that the town has assessed for $3.9 million.
At an August selectmens meeting, according to a video posted by the Belmont Citizen-Herald, Tagg Romney stood and told the board, I certainly would not have built my house if I thought there was a possibility of a hospice going there. The value of all our homes will decrease dramatically.
http://articles.boston.com/2012-09-05/metro/33580203_1_belmont-hill-ann-romney-hospice
Fresh_Start
(11,330 posts)I guess he learned his values at home....
gollygee
(22,336 posts)Does a heart good.
Stinky The Clown
(67,818 posts)Tigg is his father's - and maybe more his mother's - son.
What about brothers Togg, Bogg, Badda, and Bing?
enough
(13,262 posts)snip from the article>
Tagg speaks, the selectmen act. They pretty much killed the proposal on the spot, saying they would restrict bids to those who planned to build only houses on the property.
Which leads to the Irony part of our program. Maybe its vaguely understandable why neighbors wouldnt want a hospice in their community, even if, as Integra partner Tom Lewis Jr. said on the phone recently, There are no screaming sirens. People dont drive down the street and say, Im dying, let me pull in there.?
But there was another controversial proposal on Belmont Hill not all that long ago, and the Romneys played a far different role. When Mormon church leaders announced plans to build a 94,000-square-foot temple on Belmont Hill, residents packed hearings, swamped newspapers with letters, and filed court challenges. Mitt Romney spoke on behalf of the plan, then told the Globe at the time of the August 2000 opening, It feels great to have a temple closer to home.
So when it was a Mormon temple on Belmont Hill, one Romney backed the plan. When its a hospice on Belmont Hill, another Romney opposed it.
snip>
renate
(13,776 posts)I mean, that's not exactly a news flash. But damn.
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)That temple was all about Romney flexing his muscle.
The hospice will bring more traffic to their area and it will be OUTSIDERS who can't afford to live on Belmont Hill. That's what it's about.
Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)And do everything in my power to decrease their value.
cali
(114,904 posts)Zalatix
(8,994 posts)The problem is that the local police are usually paid off by the local Plutocrats and will harass the shit out of you for letting poor folks in the area. Zoning laws, both properly and improperly interpreted, are also a favorite weapon of the local power elite.
cali
(114,904 posts)used to keep out, for instance, big box stores in downtowns, you're right about their use by the rich to keep out low income housing.
malaise
(269,157 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)you can bet on that.
jp11
(2,104 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)A hospice isn't exactly a half-way house for drug addicts or paroled convicts.
ProfessorGAC
(65,168 posts)I'm trying to figure out how a hospice drives down property values. They are usually beautifully maintained, sedate and professionally managed places.
How would that drive down property values any more than a hospital or doctor office?
GAC
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)No values except for increasing their own family's wealth.
cali
(114,904 posts)MineralMan
(146,329 posts)to lower property values. However, if that is Tagg Romney's concern, I have another suggestion for the property:
Build a low-income apartment building there. There would be plenty of room for parking, and the pleasant surroundings would make it a nice place for low-income families to call home.
Bohunk68
(1,364 posts)I like your way of thinking, Mineral Man!!!
Mopar151
(9,997 posts)Belmont's "sister town", Belmont, NH, has a surplus of used house trailers and decrepit campers available, a couple hours north.
To preserve "Belmont Style", the correct ratios are: 5 house trailers, 17 dogs, 9 Chevy pickups (7 beyond repair), 2 Harleys, and 8 guys drinkin' beer and watchin' 1 guy work on the Harleys. Bill Romprey for President! on the T-shirts.....
(Yes, I know Bill, and he'd laugh his ass off if he ever read this!)
KarenS
(4,085 posts)subject low-income families to the likes Tagg Romney's kind. jeez.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,194 posts)with a generally better class of people. A win-win all around, I say.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,194 posts)People like the romneys avoid contact with "those" kind of people like the plague, and the development would be squashed before you could say "bought politician." Just bill it as a "Garden Apartment Community" or somesuch -- once it's built, charge whatever you want for rent, and let THAT be known far and wide.
That said, they probably already have ordinances against multi-family developments within ten miles of a romney. Gotta keep the riffraff out, don'tcha know.
Mopar151
(9,997 posts)Call it the "Center for Dignity" or "A Mission of Serenity". Done.
AzDar
(14,023 posts)This is just ugly.
bullwinkle428
(20,630 posts)4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)How would that affect real estate prices?
I'd love to have a neighbor who stays inside and doesn't have parties or anything like that.
Perhaps they're thinking half-way home.
Mopar151
(9,997 posts)Because they might let somebody poor in to spend their last days in dignity.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)this before.
bullwinkle428
(20,630 posts)Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Coming and going late at night, getting drunk and yelling, and revving their motorcycles.
I would have no problem living near a hospice.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,473 posts)property values? Most hospice homes around here are very clean, bright, and look like giant versions of the houses close by.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,836 posts)how would a hospice drive down property values? The one where my mother passed away was a lovely, smallish one-story building that was attractively landscaped and mostly surrounded by trees. It didn't look exactly like a house but it blended in with the nearby homes (it was in a residential area), and certainly wasn't an ugly, commercial-looking structure. There should be more of these because the wonderful people who staff them do "the Lord's work," so to speak, and for anyone to try to keep one out of their community because of some ridiculous idea that it would affect property values is stupid and mean. But I guess that's the Romneys for you.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Anubis weighed your heart against the feather of Ma'at. Ma'at, the goddess of justice
If your heart was heavier having a lot of evil and evil deeds than the feather then it was eaten by the demon Ammit, the Destroyer.
Take that Romney....
deutsey
(20,166 posts)Mitt believes he's going to be a God after he dies and will get to create his own planet to rule over.
So he'd probably say: "Take THAT, Anubis!"
jsr
(7,712 posts)In Mitt Romney's Neighborhood, A Mormon Temple Casts a Shadow
By Sridhar Pappu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2007
BELMONT, Mass. -- It is late in the afternoon, just hours after this town's most famous resident and current Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, delivered a speech in Texas to address questions about his Mormon faith. And for all the clamor surrounding him, here at the Boston Massachusetts Temple -- a controversial edifice that Romney helped build -- there is only silence.
In the foyer, men in white suits and women in floor-length white dresses greet those of the Mormon faith who have "temple recommend" cards allowing them entry to the rooms beyond. The immaculate space is devoid of decoration save for a portrait of Jesus tending a flock. Volunteers read Scripture to help pass the time. Could this be what it feels like to sit in the waiting room to heaven?
Even to an outsider, there is a serenity to the grounds. Built of marble imported from Italy, the temple sits on a hill high above this well-heeled suburb, surrounded by tall trees, an immaculate lawn and an even more immaculate parking lot. Though it isn't as luminous as its Washington counterpart, it's said that on clear days you can see the steeple, with its gold-leaf statue of the angel Moroni, five miles away in Harvard Square...
Despite its pristine appearance, though, this temple is the product of a messy civic battle that went all the way to the state's highest court...
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)would lower my property value.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)a group home for developmentally disabled persons. We the parents went to court and won. The tax rates did not change and it was a great success. IMO a hospice would be even quieter and less obvious. These Rromey's are very greedy.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)CreekDog
(46,192 posts)if you catch my drift.
Raine
(30,540 posts)money can't buy you class or dignity. I live on the edge of a 1% area (in the 99% area) and see these poseurs all the time. Always chiseling around, putting others down so they can gain a few pennies, they cut in front of "lessers" in line ... SICKENING because that's the only way they feel superior and important.