From the Editor
Endangered species
A greatly needed, if long overdue, discussion regarding the future of workforce housing in York took place at the selectmen's meeting Monday night. By all appearances this was the start of serious work, and we are hopeful that something may actually result from it, eventually. The questions asked were proper and expected, and the presentations from the York Housing Authority were credible and helpful. Most helpful, we think, is the concise statement by YHA spokesman Jim Gambrill, who correctly noted that this "is a test of the will of the people of York" to see if they honestly want to provide moderate income housing for our workforce.A test it most certainly is, and our success or failure will have a long-term impact likely to be far greater than the tax and land usage issues on which the discussion Monday night was primarily focused.
We have written before that a community is not simply pretty buildings, postcard scenery and fiscal stability. It is also, in fact primarily, the people who live and work there. Here in York there is a rapidly growing disconnect on this front. On the one hand we have a well situated, financially well-off group, most with money made elsewhere, many in the midst of a retired or semi-retired stage of life. They live here, and volunteer here, but increasingly few of them work here. On the other hand, we have a large workforce, less well-off, mostly middle class, that commutes here from someplace else. They earn their money here, but they don't spend it here and their deepest community roots are elsewhere.
Sandwiched in the middle is that most endangered of species, the stubborn people who not only live here, but make their living here as well. If there is a backbone of communities, York included, this is where it is found. And every day that passes where the majority of people who work here cannot afford to live here weakens the backbone of this small town, as it does any other.
