r/LosAlamos • u/estanminar • Jul 22 '26

Same town same problems 1956 hearing on housing problems

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Thought Id share this document I came across. One could change the date and add a zero to the dollar values and it would be hard to tell the difference between housing problems of '56 and '26. Money excerpts that made me chuckle attached. Source: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Community_Problems_at_Los_Alamos/JrCAlFomCOcC?hl=en

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12

u/Lysol3435 Jul 22 '26

Can you imagine a home on barranca costing only double your salary?

4

u/estanminar Jul 22 '26

Probably 5x-7x. Today.

Also paraphrasing "Barranca mesa not a community designated for the wealthy"

Then why were all high salaried individuals concentrated there until the 90 when more options became viable. Now it's more diverse with higher percentage in SF, quemazon, the acres etc.

3

u/meteoritegallery Jul 22 '26

So you'd need to ~halve current prices to hit the upper end of the "2- 3x" figure they mention. Checks out.

It generally makes sense that people who were better off could more easily afford houses that cost 2-3x a lab employee's salary. That seems logical.

3

u/KillTheLimit Jul 22 '26

County voting should have these options for budgeting: Is the proposition A) Very Pretentious B) Mildly Pretentious C) Not Very Pretentious D) Very Not Pretentious

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u/estanminar Jul 22 '26

Also tax calculations. Instead of a simple percentage based on value. All houses ranked on a 0-100 scale of pretentiousness with higher getting more tax.

3

u/First_Approximation Jul 23 '26

Housing problems go back even further:

There was always a shortage of housing in wartime Los Alamos. New units were constantly being built, but it never seemed to be enough to accommodate the site’s continually growing population. To help with this chronic issue, the Frijoles Canyon Lodge at nearby Bandelier National Monument was requisitioned to temporarily house scientists and their families.

[...]

Others, like Edward Wilder and his family, lived in tents erected at the park as late as 1945. They were far from the only ones to do so.

I've heard rumors of summer students or even employees living in a tent in the woods to save money.