Dear editor,

I would like to publicly thank Covington City Council members Smith and Dalton for voting against the City supporting low income housing in the Council’s May 5 meeting. Prior to the vote Smith reminded the Council that recently the City had paid for a study conducted by the Chamber of Commerce regarding attracting upscale restaurants and stores to our area. That study showed what many of us already knew that the restaurants and stores that many of us would like to see base their location decisions primarily on household income. Despite Smith and Daltons no votes the measure passed and the City of Covington will be supporting additional lower income housing by means of a loan to the Housing Authority. I have sold commercial property, I own commercial property and I’m trying to sell commercial property now. The professionals that scout out locations for the type of businesses people are asking for here do their homework. They look at crime, education level of the residents, and income of the residents; that’s what they do. I feel confident that Smith and Dalton realize how this works and what we have to be to attract what we want. As Smith said, there has to be a balance, and the fact that we do not have the restaurants and the stores people are asking for is evidence that we are out of balance. Hopefully Smith and Dalton can continue to work toward getting us where we need to be.

Respectfully,
Joe Mobley