Letter to the Editor: Moratorium on new housing

Dear Editor:

Motorists in Downey are slowly realizing that traffic flow is becoming increasingly paralyzed on major arteries during key periods of the day. 

Frustrated drivers are more frequently taking alternate routes on formerly less traveled side streets. Those side streets, many with cracked tar surfaces that remind one of the driving stone cobbled streets of old Europe, are acquiring potholes faster than repair crews can patch them.
There is an often-unwritten rule of planning commissions and city councils that cities should not encourage housing explosions that outstrip that city’s infrastructure.

Clearly Downey officials are on a mission to approve condo construction popping up all over the city like morning mushrooms. In addition, tacky mini-mansions are repeatedly replacing single family dwellings. Making more housing available might be laudable if this area actually had a housing shortage. The reality is that many multi-family groups chose to move to Downey because of the school system and/or pseudo-prestige that the city has historically demonstrated.

From the city’s perspective, a larger population density translates to a greater need for commercial services that enrich the city’s coffers. Do we really need more fast food outlets with concomitant obesity and health issues?

I think that a housing construction moratorium is in order to allow the city sufficient time to reevaluate its commitment to a realistic approach to a viable infrastructure.

R. Davis
Downey