Fairhaven Sells Out
During the town meeting, I sat helplessly as a consultant, literally called “Sussman,” gesture like a Disneyland animatronic and convince a crowd into voting against its own interest. With the 40R overlay approved, a few will get rich and most of us will get a headache. Affordable housing schemes, luxury apartments, and dinky boutique storefronts with high rents in a manufactured part of town, are not the answer. In an economy where housing is a financial product, more supply is just more supply at artificially-inflated rates blamed on artificial scarcity.
I grew up in Fairhaven during the ‘80s and ‘90s. The Irish and Portuguese sides of my family have lived and worked in town since the early 1900s. It was a great place to grow up. Local politics were quiet. The town was trusted to govern itself. In the ‘90s, the high school addition project and creation of the bike path sparked debate that now seems quaint.
I left town after high school. For twenty years, I lived and traveled throughout the continent. I soon discovered most towns in America were ugly and indistinguishable. It made me homesick. In California, I watched my artsy North Hollywood neighborhood become unlivable after developers exploited our “vibrant creative community.” Small theaters, hidden gem restaurants, dive bars, and unpretentious gyms disappeared. Mixed-use, multi-story hell boxes and a rotating roster of failing retail came in their place. The original denizens were replaced with blank-faced tech workers and unbridled homelessness.
I moved back to Fairhaven only to find suburban sprawl encroaching on what little natural open spaces we have left, ostensibly the product of a planning board stocked with real estate types. With that considered, mixed-use zoning makes sense. But not like this. After Sussman talked his way around every hard question, voters were pressured to just say yes to a deal nobody understands. These people are salesmen and not your friends. When the government, consulting groups, lawyers, and real estate developers work together on something—run from it.
Despite what the unsustainable constant-growth mindset types would have you believe, Fairhaven has remained stable for decades. They scare-mongered voters into believing Fairhaven would become a “town in decline” if their scheme did not go through. Ironically, that’s the only way you’ll ever see an affordable house again. Sustainability, preservation, conservation, and maintenance should be prioritized over constant growth. Budget cuts should be on the table, starting with the Town Administrator role. It’s undemocratic and expensive. We got along fine without one for a long time.
Now, we are set to become a cramped, expensive mess of traffic. They won’t stop with 40R. Woodland and open fields will disappear as cheap new builds crowd the landscape. Back roads will become more congested with every new subdivision. New taxes and fees will keep coming. Little people with a little power create big problems. I sure hope I’m wrong.
Ryan Fabian, Fairhaven
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