The Green Movement Dislikes Middle Income People in Santa Barbara

The L.A. Times reports on the move to eliminate the middle class from Santa Barbara:

In the face of strong demand and a limited supply, the median price of a single-family home shot up 35% in the last year alone, from $960,000 in December 2004 to $1.3 million at the end of 2005, according to the California Assn. of Realtors. It has since fallen slightly.

With prices so high, said Watkins, director of the economic forecast project at UC Santa Barbara, "everybody who has a home has a financial incentive to oppose growth here."

Meanwhile, 30% of south coast workers — many shut out of the local housing market — buy homes elsewhere and commute long distances. They drive an average of 49 miles one way from northern Santa Barbara County and an average of 41 from Ventura County, according to the Coastal Housing Partnership, an employer-backed group.

You'll want to read this one just to find out how many big employers are leaving the area because of housing restrictions.Certain areas of California don't want a middle class.So they will not have one.See what happens when markets aren't allowed to work.The Green movement really is a rather elitist movement that hates ordinary people.Blue America values.