In Lexington, social justice reforms seem to fail those who need them most

Mizari Suarez’ recent article in the Our Voices edition highlights a problem that has frustrated many, but I’m not sure the cause has been addressed in these pages. Ms. Suarez lamented being “exhausted” by the Commission for Racial Justice’s report, and was disappointed the report included “no actionable steps and vague ideas for addressing our city’s housing issues.”

Those in power (as opposed to the victims) advocating for social justice are also simultaneously causing a number of those injustices to occur; I’ll highlight gentrification in particular. For example, the report recommends the same prescription for land use in Lexington that benefits horse farm owners, as espoused by horse farm lobbyists like the Fayette Alliance.

One example is preserving rural farmland. Why on earth would preserving rural farmland improve conditions for the urban poor? The report bizarrely recommends this, but notably doesn’t explain how this improves anyone’s living conditions. What preserving farmland does is decrease the available supply of land. Lower supply of land increases land prices. We also have growing demand in Lexington, which accelerates this price inflation, and increasing land values is a core cause of gentrification. One can argue the merits in general of preserving farmland for Lexington’s heritage, but there is no logical basis to support this policy as a net benefit to Lexington’s poor or disadvantaged.

What would solve problems is increasing land available to actual housing for the poor and for commercial development. As the Chamber of Commerce has argued, increasing land availability would also increase tax revenues and employment opportunities in the city, making Lexington a more affordable place to live for everyone, and slowing gentrification, an important criterion for improving lives of poor or disadvantaged Lexingtonians.

So how we manage our heritage and improve conditions of the poor takes a council unafraid of the horse farm lobby which is pushing this 20th-century agenda which dedicates $20 million in tax revenues to an unproductive bus scheme, when even San Francisco is moving toward ride-hailing (i.e. Uber/Lyft). Ride-hailing would be more cost-effective, safer, and more practical for Lexington’s poor, even if the city subsidized cell phones for app use for these individuals.

As Beth Musgrave reported, Lexington’s Division of Planning’s new initiative, supported by Fayette Alliance, is eliminating driving lanes on each side of Nicholasville Rd (soon to be all major arteries) in order to have dedicated bus lanes, intentionally snarling traffic in order to increase bus ridership. How is this related to social justice? The difficulty in navigating Lexington is going to reduce tourism, restaurants, and shopping, and decreasing available employment opportunities for those in the city. It could also increase rents near those locations as people seek to move closer to their most frequented locations. People who had previously located outside the county might move back in, decreasing housing supply further, which increases land values, intensifying gentrification.

If all these plans are ostensibly to promote “equity” for minorities, why do activists like Sarah Williams, in her article, have such a problem with it? Why does she believe gentrification is a “white elite power structure” aiming to destroy her sense of community? A better question is why do white, far-left elites think they know what’s best for the Black community? And why don’t they listen? The fact is, helping minorities was never their goal, and minorities are once again being used as pawns in a power struggle. Minorities, and everyone else should vote out anyone supporting the Comprehensive Plan. It is designed to disenfranchise everyone and fundamentally alter Lexington until we don’t recognize it anymore.

This paper would do well to report on the potential influence of political contributions from horse farm owners to council members. It would surprise people and help explain some of the council decisions that were firmly opposed by the district some of those council members purportedly represent.”

Barry Saturday has served the Lexington community as a social studies teacher, financial advisor, past HOA President, and 2018 candidate for city council.

This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 11:56 AM.