Westchester Ousts County Executive
Voters in Westchester County, New York, kicked Democrat Andy Spano out of the county executive’s office and replaced him with Republican Rob Astorino. Before the November election, Spano pushed through a so-called desegregation agreement his constituents didn’t want, because he said delaying the order would make his county “a symbol of racism.”
You may recall that Westchester County is under order to create low-income housing in majority white communities and actively seek out minorities to move into the housing. Writing in the City Journal, Walter Olson notes that the government coercion “cuts deeply into the county’s tradition of suburban home rule on development issues,” and comments on HUD deputy secretary Ron Sims’s radial vision of racial Utopia. Like other social engineering types, Sims implies that one’s preference to live in an affluent, low-crime area — and complaints about being forced to subsidize housing for people who can’t afford to live in the area — are wrong.
Olson cites Howard Husock’s article, which we also cited in a September post. Husock made the case that if blacks who could afford to live in wealthier areas of Westchester County are intentionally kept out, the settlement would make sense. But that’s not what’s happening. Blacks are “only slightly underrepresented” even in “super-wealthy” areas of the county.
To satisfy an arbitrary diversity goal, taxpayers in Westchester County are forced to subsidize lifestyle upgrades. To what end? Husock said moving low-income children to “better” neighborhoods doesn’t close the academic achievement gap, improve health, or any other magical thing, and the better policy is using tax money to upgrade areas in which the poor already live.
Westchester County voters spoke at the polls. Sixty-three percent chose Barack Obama to serve as president, but 58 percent selected a Republican to serve their county. It’s not about racism; it’s about electing someone who’ll push for local taxpayers rights over “diversity” goals and playing the race card.
