Across the U.S., Democrats are waging war to crush a lifestyle they abhor. Call it small-town America: single-family neighborhoods, quiet streets, town centers stamped with their own historic character, and almost no signs of the vagrancy and homeless encampments that plague cities.
Democrats want you to have none of this. If you’ve worked for years to save up for a home in one of these havens, forget about it.
The Democratic Party is using brute legal force to remake towns using a cookie-cutter formula that forces each to have the same proportion of houses and apartments, the same mix of low, middle, and upper-income residents, and the same reliance on public transit, all controlled by state politicians.
Any town that resists gets shamed as “segregated” – though this isn’t about race – and “snobby.”
On Saturday, the Connecticut legislature passed a bill, H.B. 5002, which should be called the Destroy Connecticut Towns Act. It’s headed to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk for a signature. The new law dictates how many low-income and moderate-income apartments each Connecticut town must provide, and mandates that towns also foot the bill for the schools, parks, public transportation, and other services low-income residents will need. Local taxes will soar.
The bill explicitly says its purpose is to ensure “economic diversity” in each town. This is about social engineering, not remedying housing shortages.
Democrat Bob Duff, the state senate majority leader, says, “It’s extremely important…that we don’t segregate people based on a ZIP code.” Everyone, regardless of income, should have the opportunity to choose to live in any town.
The bill mandates that the wealthiest towns, mostly in lower Fairfield County, provide most of the new housing, even though that raises the cost. Land costs less in other towns, and lower-income people, who this bill is supposed to serve, are more likely to find bus transportation and affordable stores in these other towns as well.
Connecticut lawmakers are nixing local rule. Ordinances that protect the appearance of a town have to be overruled. The bill states that multifamily buildings of up to 24 units will no longer have to provide off-street parking. Envision cars lining every residential street.
Towns will also be forced to welcome vagrants who want to sleep in parks and public lots. The bill outlaws “hostile architecture,” meaning park benches with armrests and divided seating, or stone walls with spikes on top that deter sleeping in the rough.
Instead, the bill launches a program of mobile showers and mobile laundry services on trucks to serve the homeless wherever they choose. Picture the mobile showers pulling up to Greenwich Common Park on the town’s main street, or Waveny Park in New Canaan.
How can kids walk around town with their pals if there are homeless encampments? Judge Glock, director of research at the Manhattan Institute think tank, points out that the homeless amount to 1% of the population in Los Angeles but commit 25% of the homicides. Inviting the homeless means inviting crime and drugs.
Californicating the small towns of Connecticut by encouraging public camping and vagrancy “is frightening,” says Glock.
New York Democrats are also taking aim at small-town living. A bill sponsored by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal would outlaw local towns from setting minimum lot sizes over one-eighth of an acre near the town center and a half-acre everywhere else. Postage stamp sizes.
Riverhead, New York, Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard is vowing to sue. “We’re trying to keep our community as rural as it can be…We don’t think the state should be zoning our town.”
Hoylman-Sigal chooses to live on the west side of Manhattan, but who is he to impose a population-dense lifestyle on small-town New Yorkers?
Similarly, in New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Tim Murphy is pushing lawmakers to override local ordinances and impose the same kinds of “reforms” as those in the Connecticut bill.
In all these states and across the country, small-town Americans need to fight back. There is no constitutional right to live in a wealthy town with single-family homes and leafy, quiet streets.
It’s something you earn.
Once you’ve purchased a home, you have the right to protect its value.
It’s time to put blue-state politicians on notice that their battle to destroy our suburbs and small towns will be resisted at the voting booth and in court.
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and founder of SaveOurCity at savenyc.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey.
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Democrats are without question, America’s ENEMIES WITHIN. They are elected to destroy America’s cities and small towns, and destroy American Traditions and Family Values. And tragically, they are masters at it. Blue States have all but been destroyed. They are overwhelmed with high crime, high taxes, drugs, extreme numbers of homeless, massive illegals causing chaos and additional crime waves. And the STUPID VOTERS KEEP THESE ELECTED LOSERS IN OFFICE.
ENJOY YOUR MISERY AS YOU WATCH YOUR STATE CRUMBLE.
This is what was done in Communist China most recently. Made farmers and all rural people move to population centers. It is about control. Next they will come after your cars and guns. Ultimately freedom.
Make America Great Again
There must be a way to outlaw the party of slavery, segregation and hand-outs…
This is black integration of the 1960’s when blacks were moving into white neighborhoods. The whites fled to the suburbs. And the rich will flee their neighborhoods as well. You cannot legislate people’s behavior. The poor and middle class moving in with the millionaires is not solving the problem. Take a drive around town and see how the generations of today take care of their property. Weeds are growing knee hi, junk is everywhere. Which a decade or more ago were beautiful neighborhoods with manicured lawns and flowers everywhere. By ordering to put affordable housing in areas where most people couldn’t afford to live makes no sense. Nobody promises you any of that when you are born. When you worked hard and you became a millionaire and bought a home in a nice neighborhood it came through hard work. Not a gift from the govt. Noe you have to forego this all in the name of equity. You know what will happen. A country where the productivity craters and the few that still work hard are paying for those poor middle class that moved into the well to do neighborhoods and bring with it all the problems of crime and drug use and devaluation of the property. It’s the same as what they are doing in schools. The smart kids have to suffer because little Timmy who can’t read or do math has to have a passing grade. What does it matter if you are smarter. They are pulling the smart kids down because they don’t want smart people, they want dumb ones. They can be manipulated. Thinking people are a detriment to their power. That is why the dems still don’t understand why they lost. They thought they had the people brainwashed into non thinking zombies to blindly vote for Harris. They had been too long pulling the strings of the puppet president Biden. They forgot many people had seen their lies for what they were, lies. DEI in any form does not work. It’s just another word for communism.
Sounds similar to the crosstown busing BS that we fought in 1979-1980 in Austin, Texas. The NAACP felt a mix in ethnicity in all the schools was needed, even though the expense of busing students to the other end of the city was enormous. My Alma Mater saw its excellent academic numbers tank. Fast forward to today, and the libtards want diversity and inclusion in neighborhoods, regardless if an ILLEGAL ALIEN from a terrorist country could be your neighbor. How pathetic.
Democrat leaders finally recognizing they let in 10 million illegals and they can’t stay in hotels forever.
This and the 15-Minute Cities the Democrat-Socialists want so they can lock us down to control our movements.
The Democrats goal is to destroy the American family. They want everybody in apartments driving electric cars so they can tell exactly where they are and they can shut off and tell them when they can and cannot drive. They hate the American dream. Nobody should have it. Socialism doesn’t lift anybody up it brings everybody down to the same low level and that’s what they’re pushing. The Democrat party is the epitome of evil
Whoever is sitting there making these theories is not basing it on reality. I just got told recently that I am opinionated for expecting that my neighbors act like neighbors and even if we don’t know each other personally we all should want that our shared space ( the street we all live on) is kept free of vandalism, littering and criminal activity. I get yelled at for cleaning up the constant litter from those who drive by tossing it out their windows. Part of the problem is that the world we live in is emphasizing that home ownership is not the future and everyone should be mere renters because then they are not held responsible for the property and the surroundings. So what happens is that the properties will deteriorate, streets will not be safe, etc because nobody is going to care about it because those”government services “ are going to take care of the properties for them, because of the assumption that paying rent absolutes any responsibility for basic maintenance and the absentee owners only care about getting paid their rent and doing minimal if any maintenance upkeep. In other words, the goal of this thinking theory is make all areas slums instead of pushing to make all areas better living spaces regardless of what type of building..
Left attempt to make Country to become a third world !
This all started with that communist Obama…scum Democrats!
DIMMs are only interested in big city voters. If you look at the 2024 map by county, you will see that Trump won about 75% of the country. DIMMs carry large cities through crookery or vote-buying and that is the ONLY reason they keep the vote total close! We don’t need them shipping their voters out to the SANE areas!
Jews and Christians, arm yourselves against these American Democrat Party Communists
Tell them to pound salt, DO NOT COMPLY!
Ben doing so since day1 & those fires help the Land Grab
Maui HI fire
Paradise CA fire
LA Fires
The description in the article of what these “Democratic” (actually ultimately it’s all one side) lawmakers are planning is already in place in the downtown urban area of the city I live in, a type of test city and formerly First City of the US in many ways. This city, which was voted the quintessential American small town in the 50s, was utterly, systematically destroyed. Like a prototype, they are planning the same for all the stunning, unspeakably beautiful small, little towns across the US. I have a friend who is making a tour this summer and going to all 50 states. He is posting pics of all the small towns in Ohio, Indiana, Amish country, etc., that he is going to, on Facebook; you cannot believe your eyes at the wholesome, peaceful beauty that still exists there, you’d never know it by watching the media and the news.
They are planning the destruction of all that is good, true, beautiful, wholesome, normal and peaceful. As I spend more and more time here and marvel at the beauty, I am always praying for its preservation for the fear was exactly what was written above and what they are trying to enact.
Democrats are waging war on everything that makes sense. They are supercilious and awful!
If you elect a Democrat and allow said Democrat to touch ANYTHING, rest assured that thing will be destroyed. The 150+year legacy of the Democrat Party continues.
Who said death to AMERICA,the communists said it,the demon rats are doing doing it.That is exactly why”we the people”elected President Trump
Connecticut is a prime example of a Karl Marx inspired state. It has become unbearable with its high taxes, arrogant politicians, along with a high crime rate, and its pogroms to control how people live. Joe Stalin would be proud of the jackals in the Democrat party and their toadies, of the Republican Party. Many of us are stuck in this paradise of fools and cannot leave. This is no different from a state run by Joseph Stalin, who wanted to control everything with his satanic mind. George Orwell warned about this in his book 1984.
The Democrats are the party that is a direct threat to Our Republic. They are the ones destroying this country. It’s unfortunate that so many people cannot see this or won’t see it till it’s too late
Does this just scream communism?
The illegals have more rights than the citizens.
This is happening in Tn as well……
For years, the dems have been trying to control small town zoning from DC. According to them, this is to “Diversify” the populations. Which, if you read between the lines, it simply means building public housing throughout the suburbs and distributing the poor out into the suburbs. Because, why should people who can actually support themselves get to enjoy nice small towns. Under the rules of “Equity”, the poor should also be afforded that same lifestyle at no cost to them.
It sounds like the dems finally found a place stupid enough to allow them to get their foot in the door. Today its Connecticut. Next year it’s nation wide. Just wait!
Again, elections have consequences and obviously, this is what the voters in these states, Connecticut, New York and other blue states, want. They (citizens who vote democrat) should not complain. You voted for it, now deal with it. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if some of these liberal nut job politicians have families with gang bangers move in next to them, and homeless encampments parked outside their homes.
When will the government stop legislating everything!?
China or N Korea, everyone living and working together happily for the greater good.
Governor Lamont, CT, still pushing Equity. He should be recalled
The LEFT must have a death grip in those states for those bills to get so far.
The democrats have played the hand of funding every ne’er do well for the last 30 plus years. Additionally, they have spent trillions of dollars that they refused to collect from tax payers at all levels, local, state, and federal. The result has been that many cities, counties, and states are strapped for cash for a lot of necessities, let alone the continued expansion of their pay anyone with their hands out, money to get them close to working lower middle income individuals and families. They have now built a complete cardboard box where one spark will burn down the entire structure of the welfare state remaining, and potentially, if not probably destroying both the entire economy of their towns, counties, states, and most certainly the federal governments. Now that they lost the 2024 election at the national level, the democrats are screaming financial mis-management in cities, states, and the federal government where republicans replaced them. Not one democrat have I heard admit that the state of the deadly financial condition at each government level was (and in many cases still are) due to their 3 or more decades of willful deficit spending which they decry as a problem caused by new republicans who have just taken over various levels of governments in various states–and of course the nation. Yet, what do the now minority democratic parties at various governmental levels set as their fiscal policy goals? Spend more money and bring in more tax revenue. But their stated beneficiaries continue to be those who are unwilling to work and/or learn a skill to become usefully employed. And the democrats continue to state that the wealthy in this country should pay higher taxes. Yet, they have not significantly raised the taxes on the wealthy in this country during these last 30 plus years. And the reason for this is simple. If they declare that taxes be raised significantly for the middle-class and rich people, they will be voted out of office–if for no other reason than they will lose financial support to run for office. But, of course the other reason is that they will lose votes because taking money out of anyone’s pockets significantly displeases the people whose taxes are increased. So, since the days of President Lyndon Johnson, who significantly raised welfare payments on existing programs and introduced two new major welfare programs called Medicare and Medicaid in the mid 1960s, democrats, especially for Congress have stayed in their Congressional seats for most of the last 9 decades by raising welfare payments to people who should be working, and keeping taxes insufficient to pay for the welfare payments. Thus, we have had annual federal budget deficits for all but 12 years during those 90 or so years. From 1936 through 1943, the highest federal income tax rate for individuals (or families), ranged from 79% to 88%. From 1944 through 1963, the highest federal income tax rate was from 94% to 91%. From 1965 through 1981, the highest federal income tax varied from 70% to 77%. From 1987 through 2024, the highest income tax rate on individuals (families) has varied from 28% to 39.6%. During the last 5 months, the democrats in the Congress have pounded the republicans for significantly lowering the cost of the Federal Government while the republicans have been unwilling to increase taxes–which is what the democrats want the republicans to do. Why won’t the democrats propose a solid new income tax rate schedule with higher taxes on at least the Americans making say $400,00 a year to a rate of 50%. The reason is simple, it is a sure way to become unemployed as a Federal Congress member at their next election time frame. Yet, the democrats are also banging hard on the republicans for cutting federal expenditures. EVERYTHING the democrats across the country cry foul in terms of budget cuts at any government level is based more on staying in office. I am totally convinced that the democrats do not care about the Federal Government’s current or future debt levels. Todays Congressional democrats just want to stay in office for as long as possible until the Federal Government becomes both nationally and internationally bankrupt. You won’t see any of them seeking office at that point, because fixing the problem won’t make them any friends–no matter the party membership.
Dah Comrades! We only seek to destroy your Capitalist ways and show you how good life can be under Communism! Everyone will have the choices to buy the two items on the grocery shelves, and you can greet all you neighbors as you wait for the daily truck bringing you bread for your table.
Democrats are WAR oriented people.
Democrats = Reverse Midas Touch (or financial disaster)
DEMO RATS Fools
You won’t see this in Martha’s Vineyard.
Thank you for writing this! We talked about this when you came to speak at my group in NH. Currently NH is trying to pass bills to eradicate SF zoning and override local control. cnht.org and bedfordresidents.com are fighting it and we have a petition to the governor who thinks she is solving the fake ‘housing crisis’. The sad thing is, it’s our REPUBLICANS that are doing this in New Hampshire!
Thank you Susan Mccaughy
For the last 20+ years, I have been trying to make people understand a simple FACT: The Democrat Party, never any friend to this nation or its citizens, over the last half century has morphed into The New Communist Party of the USA. As such, they share the same goal as all Communists have had since Communism emerged as a political movement: the destruction of the United States, the downfall of Western Civilization, and to replace all that, the creation of a worldwide Leftist totalitarian dictatorship. And for those who haven’t yet taken notice, they are winning.
They’re doing this in San Juan County, UT. But in the rural/farming/cattle areas. They are trying to place HOA type regulations on people who live so far out and threaten them with huge fines for non-compliance.
Look what BlackRock, IE Haven Park, has done to manufactured home parks accross the country. take a look at that and see whats coming.
Dems must have a mental issue, why would anyone want to destroy America
Damn the dems and the left for their continuing assault on America!I’m 74 years old and I don’t need this—-!
I live in a rural farming town in northeast CT. The progressive Democrat idiots in Hartford don’t care about the small towns. They only care about power and “equity”. I was born and raised in CT but am seriously considering moving to a free state. The Constitution State is now the Communist State.
True DAT!
Here in So California,it’s called densification.Massive building of condos and apartments on every piece of bare land.Leads to traffic jams everywhere,more accidents,more crime,more frustration,lower housing prices eventually,more graffiti,etc.
When you vote for radical Democrats, you get what you vote for. Change your voting habits and you’ll find a different set of values.
It’s ironic how one party does their best to destroy this country and the other party wants to make America great again. I wonder how they get any votes. Are people that naive or has the propagandas news media been that successful in brainwashing these people.
Democrats don’t respect the hard working people who chose to live in quiet neighborhoods, which they have worked hard for to attain. They want homeless people in the neighborhood to lower the value of the properties and also make it unsafe for their children to play outside. Anythi8ng to buy votes, corrupt Democrats will do, so treasonous and disgusting.
Massachusetts is trying to do the same thing to any town that has rail service, or is next to a town that has it.