The Metz (Schneiders site redevelopment)

[Rainrider22]

OK, but I don’t think that has anything to do with heritage preservation.

Heritage preservation does sometimes mean preserving inaccessibility of some buildings, but it in no way preserves racist or otherwise problematic zoning: there is nothing wrong with the buildings that makes them unusable by black people, for example, even if the zoning regime under which they were built was explicitly racist (and just to be clear, I know very little of the history of zoning and even less of the history of zoning specifically in this city so I haven’t a clue what influence racism might have had on our zoning).

I guess I’m saying I think you’re raising two separate issues, both of which are reasonable topics for discussion, but it’s probably best to keep them separate as they both may be contentious and combining them together isn’t going to improve the situation.

I think it is a valid point that, today, lack of affordable housing affects some groups more than others (with the majority group being the least affected), whether or not this is the *intent*, it is still worth keeping in mind.

Hard to say whether advocating for zoning which makes housing unaffordable is racist is another question, it is absolutely classist which is bad enough on it's own.

I am not a developer, however, if I was,  I am sure I would want to maximize my profits.  It is easy to advocate for social justice when you dont have any skin in the game...   That being said, yes there should be some social conscience in mind when developing properties however, the reality is this... likely many people wont invest in properties that are adding low income assets.  We dont have to look any further than this site to acknowledge it.  How many times have people that our pro Waterloo wanted to distance themselves from Kitchener because there is a sense of "we are better than them"   I am not saying i have the answers, I have been following this site for a long time, and I have seen the bias... I am not judging,  just pointing out the realities..

A good discussion non the less though...