‘Eviction,” derived from the Latin word evictus means being subjugated or conquered by judicial means. It’s a harsh word. Eviction from a home is not a happy event. Eviction is no neutral institution, not a simple misunderstanding in a contract between two parties. Especially in poor neighborhoods, eviction is a process that often binds poor and rich people together in mutual dependence and struggle, writes sociologist and field anthropologist Matthew Desmond in his 2016 book Evicted.

Almost everybody, it seems, is, in principle, in favor of “fair share” housing, by which affordable housing choices for disadvantaged and poor people are geographically distributed. On practice,however, jurisdictions find no lack of justification for exclusionary policies.

In Ulster County, the top fifth of Ulster County filers had more income than the remaining four-fifths. Is that equitable? Like folks elsewhere, most residents would have a ready answer — probably based on their political beliefs.

What if you are uncomfortable with offering tax incentives to businesses to locate in your jurisdiction, worrying that the jobs you are competing for in exchange for those incentives might not be worth the losses in revenues to which you are agreeing? Worried about corporate welfare? What should we be doing differently to spur economic development? In Ulster County as elsewhere, the folks who give the tax breaks are pondering the answers to these questions.  

It’s ironic. Though discount carrier Norwegian Air is skating on perilously thin financial ice these days, its first full year of international service at Stewart Airport was not responsible for that red ink. On the contrary. Ending the year with a flourish, the airline’s year-end numbers signal an indisputable success at Stewart.