In a column published on Monday, Aug. 12, (Michigan has civil rights. Texas has affordable housing. What if we had both?) Free Press contributing columnist Jeff Wattrick argued that Michigan should consider adopting Texas policies around affordable housing and transit. Michiganders and Texans had thoughts. We’d love to hear more: Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may run it online and in print.
Let’s build 10,000 new houses
I could not agree more with Free Press contributing columnist Jeff Wattrick. If Texas can lower the cost of housing by building more homes, Michigan should give give it a try, particularly near our alluring great rivers and lake areas.
Detroit could start by make housing the top priority for the Chrysler Freeway reconstruction, instead of building more lifeless pavement.
Give people the chance to live there again. Build affordable, attractive, efficient and smart eco friendly homes. You build these and people will come. That’s a good bet.
Homes for 10,000 people would be a great place to start.
Marilyn Prince
Stone Mountain, Georgia
‘I nearly spit out my coffee’ reading Wattrick’s column
I recently moved back to Michigan after 41 years in Texas, so when I read “Michigan should be more like Texas,” I nearly spit out my coffee.
The University of Michigan School of Engineering reports that the “Texas construction workforce where half of the workers an (estimated 400,000) are undocumented … Improper classification of employment limits connection to developers and general contractors while also reducing cost through avoidance of payroll and unemployment taxes. Subcontractors favor this practice to save money and produce more competitive bids, but the outcome relies on the economic exploitation of undocumented migrant workers.”
In short, they’re running the equivalent of sweatshops.
Does no one wonder why the two Bush presidents from Texas never made border control an issue? The fact is, the profitability of many industries relies on the undocumented, especially in Texas.
Sheila Sorvari
Royal Oak
‘I see more Michigan license plates in Texas than ever’
In Jeff Wattrick’s piece on Michigan and Texas, as he points out some of the obvious and debatable negatives of Texas, the progressive values that Michigan has adopted due to its democratic majority has forever changed the state where I lived 30 years ago.
Still the taxes are high, the weather is unpredictable, the roads are a mess and there is a weed shop on every corner, not to mention the high cost of living. It is a now a state of those that have and have not.
I see more Michigan license plates in Texas than ever and for good reason.
Bruce Peters
Tomball, Texas
‘Lake Huron shoreline is a poor example of where to build affordable housing’
While I agree with the sentiment of Jeff Wattrick, the Lake Huron shoreline is a poor example of where to build affordable housing. There are few opportunities for employment up here and no public transportation. The Thumb is cut off from I-75 and I-94 ends in Port Huron.
Sally Baker
Croswell
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Publish date : 2024-08-16 22:09:00
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