by Julie Strauss Levin
We moms treasure suburban life. We dream of having a home where our children can ride their bikes and play safely with their friends. We save our money for that special home on that special street in that special neighborhood and that special school district to educate our children. We live in the suburbs because we know what’s best for our families. And dads do, too.
We had no idea that in 2015 the Obama-Biden Administration snuck in a federal rule cryptically titled Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) and that Obama/Biden had plans to change suburbia forever. That rule would have allowed the feds to pack the suburbs with high-density, low-income housing and dictate federal influence over suburbia. Thank goodness, President Trump slammed the door on this Obama/Biden federal power grab. As HUD Secretary Carson succinctly stated, AFFH was a “ruse for social engineering under the guise of desegregation — essentially turning HUD into a national zoning board.”
Biden loves AFFH. He says he’ll bring it back if he wins because he’s all for federal control over our suburbs. He’ll have the DC Swamp yank decision-making away from us. He wants to tamper with single family zoning. Stanley Kurtz, Ethics and Public Policy Center senior fellow, explained Biden’s AFFH rule: “It would allow bureaucrats in Washington, in [HUD], to control zoning laws, to control the placement of transportation and business districts, even to some degree the drawing of school districts — In other words, almost every important local governmental responsibility could, under AFFH, fall into the de facto control of the feds.”
But, our suburbs aren’t some “Not for Me but Okay for Thee” board game that Biden and his big government cronies get to play. We cannot allow Biden to outlaw single-family homes, build high density, low-income or other multi-family housing in our backyards, over-crowd our schools, and increase our tax base. Essentially it’s good-bye, Main Street, USA if Biden gets his way.
His way isn’t the American way. For those moms and dads who live in the suburbs now or have it on their bucket list, it’s our choice, and we want to keep it that way. American suburbs are proudly diverse without federal control because all Americans have dreams regardless of our color.
President Trump was right to strike AFFH. He understands how we treasure our suburbs, that the suburbs are our American Dream, and the federal government shouldn’t mess with the aspirations we have for our families.
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Julie Strauss Levin is a mom, wife and attorney who loves her country.
