What is the deal with all of this negativity towards developers?
It seems to be fair game in this political season to attack the opponent as being in the developers pocket as if this was akin to dancing with devil himself. Developers (and they come in all shapes and sizes) seem to have become the root of all that is wrong in the county.
I guess they are an easy mark. They are a small constituency, they tear up the land, and they give money to politicians. Bad boys all around.
Yet consider this...Jim Rouse was first and foremost a developer. True he had many altruistic leanings but he understood that you needed to make a profit.
And this...developers not only contribute to political campaigns (and since when did that become a bad thing...didn't Tip O'Neil say that money was the mothers milk of politics?) they also give generously to community causes. In fact I would wager that, as a group, developers support more community events than our local technology companies do.
And what do they get in return?
Villification.
The development business is a risky proposition. Developers place bets on where the economy will be two years from now. That is the average time it takes from conceiving a project to generating revenue from it. During that time they spend a great deal of money in legal fees, architectural fees, engineering fees, construction loans, permit fees and so on. In the end, if the economy goes sour, they run the risk of losing everything while they try to salvage their investment.
They also subject themselves to more input from the general public than any other private business.
What do you imagine a community would look like without developers?
Those are the comments I would be interested in hearing.
Happy Snapper Mating
7 hours ago
