Issue #74, March/April 1994

Letters to the Editor

Back to Table of Contents

In March of 1993, things were looking bad for Burlington, Vermont's Progressive Coalition. Progressive mayor, Peter Clavelle, was defeated in his bid for reelection to a third term by Republican Peter Brownell. Brownell, running on a simplistic "no tax increase – downsize city government" platform, had succeeded in toppling Progressives from Burlington's mayoral office. Progressives had held the mayor's seat since the election of Bernie Sanders in 1981, and had chalked up innumerable accomplishments in the area of affordable housing and tenants rights. Progressives, and allied independents, held onto all their city council seats in that race, but political pundits were talking of the imminent demise of the Progressive Coalition.

Tables turned again this year. Mayor Brownell, now in the hot seat, was asking voters to approve a property tax increase. At the same time, citizens were becoming  increasingly fed up with the reduced basic city services that had been approved by Democratic and Republican councilors but opposed by Progressives. Working within this context, Progressives scored major victories in city council races by mounting a well-organized electoral effort. "Progressives Storm Back" read the headline in the Burlington Free Press on March 2nd.

Progressive Coalition councilors and independent allies now control a majority of votes on the council for the first time. The future is now looking much brighter for continuing a progressive housing policy in Burlington.

– Ted Wimpey, Director, Vermont Tenants, Inc., Burlington, VT.

Limited Equity Co-ops

Contrary to the impression left by Mr. Dennis Keating's review of two books relating to "social housing" and "limited equity cooperative housing" that states that "limited equity cooperative housing exists in a small number of cities in the United States (e.g. Boston, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC), there are tens of thousands of units of cooperative housing existing for twenty or more years in the form of limited equity cooperative created with HUD insured mortgages under the Section 221(d)(3) BMIR and 236 of the National Housing Act, as well as a much more limited number of later created Section 8 cooperatives.

In the effort to find models and ways of creating more affordable housing cooperatives, we cannot afford to overlook the success of these older, limited equity cooperatives.

– Herbert H. Fisher, Chicago, IL

Back to March/April 1994 index.