Quote:
Originally Posted by City Wide
I don't see how having a complete and total separation based on income (I'm assuming that in the top floors they'll rent to anyone who can pay the price, including seniors) is anything except segregation. Even if the intent is to bunch the poorer seniors on a couple floors to better serve them, which in the real world is BS, the bottom line is that the two classes of people will be forced apart. Just think of the added construction costs, two lobbies, two elevators shafts, and so on. The owners have seemingly gone out of their way to create this division. They are building a form of a ghetto ------------and I think that trying to make something out of which class is slightly closer to the indoor parking (which will probably be rented out and will the 'poor' even be expected to own cars?) is a real stretch in trying to find a justification for this income based segregation.
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I said I'm HOPEFUL, but I understand how it looks and specifically mentioned the extremely poor optics. And the parking I was referring to was the surface parking in the center of the lot - pick-ups, drop-offs, safe and convenient access for service vehicles for those who have special needs, etc. Believe me, when I saw your post, I immediately thought "what the hell are they doing?" since I didn't notice the separate lobbies for the different areas upon initial perusal. I do, however, completely understand the benefit of separate elevators dedicated to those who may have more pressing emergency needs; as you mentioned, building a separate elevator component for only a portion of the floors adds to the overall cost of the project, which I doubt they'd do just to keep out "the poorer seniors".
Not having been to the community meetings or being part of the planning process, I have no specific insights, but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to the development groups that are spending tens of millions of dollars to better serve the communities that you are saying they are purposely segregating. Pennrose also has a history of developing mixed-income/affordable housing, so I am again going to hope that they have a better understanding of the needs and wants of the targeted community than I do. I totally understand and agree with the spirit of where you're coming from, I'm just a bit more optimistic as to the intentions of those making this design decision
