I Voted Today

Here in the Town of Oyster Bay, New York, there was a special election today on a fight between two real-estate developers.

One of them (the high bidder) is apparently planning to build a shopping mall and let the peasantry into “our” community (or at least that's what the mall opponents appear to think will happen). Whenever I receive a property-tax bill (apparently set for the purpose of making the area unaffordable) I feel like I've been demoted to peasant, so I voted in favor of the representatives of my fellow peasants.

The other (the low bidder) is promising to build something more “socially useful” (specifics to be named later). This group already owns a couple of shopping malls nearby and apparently wants to stop competition. Are people still falling for the “socially useful” scam?

Addendum: I regret to say the stasists won.