The new symbol of racism today
P-D:
Brick homes could feel federal lawsuit’s effect
A federal judge in Texas is expected to rule by year’s end on a little known civil rights case challenging brick housing mandates that could have local and national implications.
The National Association of Home Builders, the NAACP and the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin have sued Kyle, Texas, an Austin suburb, over a municipal brick ordinance that they say prices minorities out of the single-family housing market. Similar ordinances requiring new home construction to have certain percentages of brick or stone masonry facades are on the books in Columbia, Ill., and Ellisville.
Seems to me there are plenty of brick houses in St. Louis City owned by blacks.
What is going on here is that the construction lobbies don’t like the ordinance, so they bought the NAACP in and are using the “disparate impact” argument as a bromide.
If the Federal courts rule for them, then the 1980s black boy band New Edition, which was also known as “The Bricks,” will have to remove that and call their former selves “The Vinyl Sidings.”
Also, maybe the Federal courts will put the town of Hyannisport, Massachusetts under a consent decree, finding that their high housing and real estate prices discriminate against minorities.
