Letter to the Editor: Resident Says Friends of Flagstaff’s Future Are Not Friends of Flagstaff | Letters

I was dismayed to hear Michele James, executive director of the nonprofit Friends of Flagstaff’s Future, convene the April 27th city council working session to support a proposed downsizing of Flagstaff’s urban core.

Downzoning would be terrible on several fronts. First, it would preventively block badly needed housing and ensure housing costs continue to rise and crowd out middle-class and low-income residents. Second, blocking apartments in the urban core would prevent more residents from living near the amenities and civic space of the inner city. Third, blocking housing in the urban core of Flagstaff would push development to the periphery of Flagstaff and require the destruction of large areas of forest.

And the families in these developments would be heavily dependent on cars because of their distance from the urban core, worsening traffic congestion and increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Friends of Flagstaff’s future are clearly not friends of Flagstaff.