Pretzel hold: squeeze harder!
In wrestling apocrypha, a pretzel hold is one that is auto-masochistic: it inflicts pain upon the holder.
For the pretzel hold to work, it requires both a psychological and a temporal disconnect between the action and its pain — such as slow-moving affordable housing development and fairly complex market interdependency relationships. But the consequences, like the pain, are all too clear. With the
Bostonians celebrating housing unaffordability.
[That's not good. -- Ed. Oh, sorry,
“We’ll be most unaffordable next year.”
With home prices high, you’d think Bostonians would be rolling out the red carpet to bring in capable home builder developers.
You’d think wrong, as communities crying out for affordable housing adopt a variety of pretzel holds:
- Loading on taxes (hi there, Mr. Mayor!)
- Gratuitous developer-bashing.
- Linkage beyond that absorbable into land price.
- Imposing unfunded mandates (like environmental remediation): ”We hit almost every environmental issue you can imagine,” said Hall. ”I almost thought it was a project that couldn’t get off the ground.”
- Using Zeno’s Paradox never-ending approval processes and regulatory barriers.
- Rent control, especially in its nuttier forms.
- Expecting housing to cover non-housing costs (like urban infrastructure).
- Greenfield dedication.
Many of these, I hasten to add, can be defended in the abstract, in manageable epicurean amounts, or in specific cases. But if you combine them, you get developmental gridlock, especially since:
Affordable housing costs money
If you want market-quality housing affordable by below-market folks, government must fill the funding gap
With subsidy, soft debt, or soft equity
A Boston Globe article highlights one national developer’s challenges getting anything done in
The other challenge for LNR locally is Fan Pier on the South Boston Waterfront, which has defied any use except the parking of cars for the past quarter century. LNR bid last year on the 21 acres, fully permitted for about 3 million square feet of development, but tripped at the goal line.
Regarding Fan Pier, Hall said LNR would ”absolutely” deliver the promised community benefits, but added: ”It probably does not work without the city reducing some of that.
”We are looking at making a proposal” — another attempt to buy the property owned by the Pritzker family — with partner Leggat McCall Properties LLC, Hall said, but added: ”We may end up not making a proposal.”
The site we are describing, it should be noted, is prime real estate — on the waterfront, in a booming part of
A large $1.1 billion complex of office towers, residences, and a hotel was planned for Fan Pier, land adjacent to the restaurant that was owned by Mr. Athanas. However, in 1987 he canceled the deal for the property, and the developers sued. Faced with a legal judgment that could have cost him $150 million or more, Mr. Athanas reached a settlement in 1992 that left him with the Pier 4 parcel, but gave title to the rest of the land to the Pritzker family of
That deal foundered on intra-partner disputes, but thirteen years later, this prime land sits undeveloped. Why can’t a national-class developer build on a prime site that everybody wants to see built?
He said the major obstacles, especially with a price tag in the $125 million range, include the expensive foundations required right upfront and the lack of ”district improvement financing,” a new state device available to cities — if they choose — to give tax relief to developers.
Hall, playful and even provocative behind the lectern, at least for a developer, threw caution into the harbor when he was asked about his experiences in negotiating with host communities.
”Negotiating — I want to call it bribery,” he deadpanned. A ”host community agreement” is more or less an ”extortion agreement,” he said.
Why have smart growth when you can have dumb no-growth?
The Romney administration preaches smart growth — mixed uses, clustered with access to transportation — but Hall said that the rest of the country is way ahead. ”It’s everywhere,” he said. ”It’s the mainstream. Yet we don’t know anything about it in
What makes the development pretzel hold work is an uncoordinated and unconscious one-two punch between two groups who have nothing whatsoever in common beyond their opposition:
- Those who want no housing. Many communities would just as soon see no housing as any housing. (This BANANA-ism isn’t restricted just to housing; my old
- Those who want everything. If all you have is your voice, you tend to use it, and when housing projects are scarce, you tend to become progressively louder, adding more demands. Since you don’t have to pay for these, those who want everything seldom can appreciate when what they want is too much, those who want nothing can simply goad them into demanding ever more, confident that eventually the deal will break.
Man: Hello, I want to… Ooooh!
Spreaders: No, no, no. Hold your head like this, then go Waaah. Try it again.
Man: uuuwwhh!!
Spreaders: Better, better, but Waah, Waah! Put your hand there.
Man: No.
Spreaders: Now.
Man: Waaaaah!!!
Spreaders: Good, good! That’s it.
Man: Stop hitting me!
Spreaders: What?
Man: Stop hitting me!!
Spreaders: Stop hitting you?
Man: Yes!
Spreaders: Why did you come in here then?
Man: I wanted to complain.
Spreaders: Oh no, that’s next door. It’s being-hit-on-the-head lessons in here.
Man: What a stupid concept.
