Alicia’s POV: Why is “affordable” such a scary word?

When I learned that a Dollar Tree would be opening in the North Whisman area, I was pretty happy about it.  For years, one of the hot button issues in Mountain View has been the lack of retail (grocery stores, etc) in this area…and others.  It’s even been a topic in General Plan discussions and city council candidate forums.  Huzzah for movement towards making this happen.

So I suppose I shouldn’t be incredibly surprised when doubts and hesitation was voiced about Dollar Tree opening up.  Such a retail store is regarded by some as “cheap” or “not a good fit” for our community. Why does a place that offers inexpensive items be judged as undesirable?  Thankfully, some of the naysayers and skeptics have since visited the store and have changed their tune. Affordable isn’t bad.

Where the biggest misconception about affordability occurs is in the area of housing.  When the City decided to have an affordable housing complex built downtown, I was frankly disturbed by some to the reactions from those living in the area.  Affordable housing, some said, would bring undesirable people, gang bangers, would turn downtown into “the hood”.  Really?!

Well, there are already several affordable housing complexes in Mountain View, including San Antonio Place Apartments located next to the Community School for Music and Arts and Shorebreeze Apartments at the corner of Shoreline Blvd and Montecito. I would say the average Mountain View resident doesn’t even know this, just by looking at them.  So why is there still such a stigma?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, affordable is defined as being within the financial means of most people.  Isn’t that a good thing?