A better view for public housing

When 76-year-old Marion Howard looks out the window of her Bloomsbury Square apartment in Annapolis, she sees the side of a state garage and maintenance building, and a parking lot jammed with cars.

But soon, she'll have a new home with a much more scenic view - tree-lined College Creek, where kayaks stream past and crew teams practice - thanks to a highly unusual plan to relocate dozens of public housing residents to the city's prized waterfront.

I grew up in Sudbury Massachusetts, a lovely suburb outside of Boston, with particularly strong historical roots in the founding of our country, being one of the places that Paul Revere stopped to alarm the populace on the famed midnight ride. When my folks bought their little bungalow some 38 years ago, they paid $16K for it. Sudbury's school system had a fabulous reputation and the town quickly became a pricey exclusive place to live. By way of example, I tell you my folks sold their home this year for about $350K, and that is probably the cheapest house you can buy in that town!

After I left home in my 20's, one of the places I lived was the downtown neighborhoods in nearby Framingham, where I could afford a 4 room apartment for $300 (1978 timeframe). Downstairs from me resided an extremely slovenly, lazy woman funded by section 8 and welfare, who always had money for lottery tickets, and bus trips to gambling establishments. I spent almost as much as I saved on rent, to pay for having carpets cleaned and setting off flea bombs and getting the place sprayed for cockroaches.

Eventually I moved out and found slightly better digs, but not before I had the great frustration of seeing her pack her stuff up to move away to... you guessed it, a brand new public housing project in Sudbury!

"For decades, the state has tried to take over Bloomsbury Square, an anomaly among the grand institutional buildings of the government and St. John's College. In some places, the tiny yards of deteriorating rowhouses are just a few feet from the windows and walls of the Lowe House Office Building, where delegates meet in committee and have their offices."

Now these benevolent lawmakers can look out their windows and watch the drug deals, alcoholism, child neglect, hookers plying their trade, and lewd behavior going on in the soon-to-be deteriorating backyards a few feet from their meeting rooms. It will give them a good opportunity to get to know the constituents they love so well. How tragic that the welfare mentality is so richly rewarded.

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