Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: strategies to rein in escalating purchase prices

[Paul Harrington (pharrington]

Sharon, 
You could have shared the exact same story and not mentioned the ethnic origin 
of the contractor but you did and I believe that is what sparked the response.
Your follow up comment is not much better. 


I think we all agree that hiring experience is often better value than hiring 
the lowest cost contractor. 

Paul 


> On May 28, 2021, at 11:07 AM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> What I intended is to warn people about knee-jerk reactions that appear to be 
> socially conscious and anti-racist but in fact are ill-advised and 
> self-destructive. If a plumbing “company” never existed before public funds 
> were made available in some form to hire it, the proposition is suspect. 
> Clearly I said never existed before:
> 
>> The problem was that they were brand new and didn’t exist before the 
>> legislation existed. The result was a lot of work that had to be redone, 
>> some not discovered until years later.
> 
> It takes a long time for a company of people to learn to work together well 
> even if they are skilled. New companies have to be evaluated more closely 
> than companies that have built a reputation.
> 
> To build a $7.5 million cohousing complex, you don’t use inexperienced 
> workers unless they are apprentices to experienced workers and work only 
> under their supervision.
> 
> Being anti-racist doesn’t mean "hire people to do jobs they aren’t qualified 
> to do just because they are black or brown” or let people win bids aimed at 
> minorities who are purporting to be from a minority group when they aren’t. 
> That will surely backfire and give competent minority-owned companies a bad 
> reputation.
> 
> Sharon
> 
>> On May 28, 2021, at 1:52 PM, Hafidha Sofia <hafidhaao [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Sharon, I don’t know what you intended, but your post 
>> -discourages people from utilizing minority owned contractor companies
>> -perpetuates the idea that their work is of inferior quality
>> -peddles the story that affirmative action policies reward un-deserving 
>> minorities 
>> 
>> Again, I don’t know what you intended but these are all very racist things. 
>> I am on this list to learn and be informed but reading your post this 
>> morning felt like a real slap in the face. I hope you can refrain from 
>> giving racist advice on this list. 
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> Hafidha
>> 
>> Songaia Cohousing
>> Washington State, USA
>> 
>>> On May 28, 2021, at 8:43 AM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
>>> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On May 27, 2021, at 8:57 AM, Olaf Kula <kulaolaf1957 [at] gmail.com> 
>>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> The
>>>> other is whether there are grants, lending concessions, or tax incentives,
>>>> to offset the higher building costs.
>>> 
>>> Careful of tax incentives. Our developer had tax incentives for using 
>>> minority companies as subcontractors. The problem was that they were brand 
>>> new and didn’t exist before the legislation existed. The result was a lot 
>>> of work that had to be redone, some not discovered until years later.
>>> 
>>> A flooring company said a few years ago that the bid winner for doing 
>>> floors for Air Force 1 was a company led by a native Alaskan. No one in the 
>>> flooring business had ever heard of such a company or person.
>>> 
>>> Sharon
>>> ——— 
>>> Sharon Villines, Editor & Publisher
>>> Affordable Housing means 30% of household income
>>> Cohousing means self-developed, self-governed, self-managed
>>> http://affordablecohousing.com
>>> 
>>> To subscribe to the discussion list send a blank message to:
>>> affordablecohousing+subscribe [at] groups.io
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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> 
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> 

Paul Harrington
509.714.6301
pharrington [at] southhenry.com