Synopses & Reviews
An exploration of the corrosive effects of overpriced housing, exclusionary zoning, and the flight of the younger population in the NortheastWinner of the 2014 Bruss Silver Award and First-Time Author Award from the National Association of Real Estate Editors
Towns with strict zoning are the best towns, aren't they? They're all about preserving local "character," protecting the natural environment, an dmaintaining attractive neighborhoods. Right?
In this bold challenge to conventional wisdom, Lisa Prevost strips away the quaint façades of these desirable towns to reveal the uglier impulses behind their proud allegiance to local control. These eye-opening stories illustrate the outrageous lengths to which town leaders and affluent residents will go to prohibit housing that might attract the “wrong” sort of people. Prevost takes readers to a rural second-home community that is so restrictive that its celebrity residents may soon outnumber its children, to a struggling fishing village as it rises up against farmworker housing open to Latino immigrants, and to a northern lake community that brazenly deems itself out of bounds to apartment dwellers. From the blueberry barrens of Down East to the Gold Coast of Connecticut, these stories show how communities have seemingly cast aside the all-American credo of “opportunity for all” in favor of “I was here first.”
Prevost links this “every town for itself” mentality to a host of regional afflictions, including a shrinking population of young adults, ugly sprawl, unbearable highway congestion, and widening disparities in income and educational achievement. Snob Zones warns that this pattern of exclusion is unsustainable and raises thought-provoking questions about what it means to be a community in post-recession America.
Synopsis
An exploration of the corrosive effects of overpriced housing, exclusionary zoning, and the flight of the younger population in the Northeast
As anyone of moderate income who has wanted to buy a house or condo in the Northeast knows, young couples and families are increasingly being priced out of the market. And the housing crisis only drove up rents. As a result, young people are leaving the region entirely: six northeastern states now rank among the top ten nationally in age of their residents. In Snob Zones, Lisa Prevost argues that rising housing costs and a huge increase in restrictive zoning laws are undermining the very notion of community. Prevost illustrates this issue with eye-opening stories that illustrate the outrageous lengths to which towns will go to exclude the less affluent. She takes readers from notoriously upper-crust Darien, Connecticut, to a rural second-home town that is so restrictive its celebrity residents may soon outnumber its children and a northern lake community that brazenly deems itself out of bounds for apartment dwellers. This “every town for itself” mentality is threatening the social health and economic vitality of the region, argues Prevost in this thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be a community in post-recession America.
About the Author
Lisa Prevost is an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe Magazine, More, Ladies’ Home Journal, and other publications. A native New Englander, she has lived and worked as a reporter in four of the six New England states. She lives in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: ConnecticutRural Character for the Rich: Roxbury, Connecticut
Chapter 2: Dread of Density: Easton, Massachusetts
Chapter 3: Pride and Prejudice: Milbridge, Maine
Chapter 4: Rhode IslandShifting Lines in the Sand: Watch Hill, Rhode Island
Chapter 5: Priority Population: Darien, Connecticut
Chapter 6: HampshireNo Town Is an Island: Ossipee, New Hampshire
Conclusion
Acknowldegements
Notes
Index