The United States has been at war for more than six years, residential construction is mired in a punishing recession, health care and immigration reform remain contentious issues with direct effects on builders, and an established scientific consensus puts the responsibility for climate change right in our laps. “On Your Mind” does not usually stray into politics, but in this presidential campaign season the subject may be impossible to avoid. And because the issues on the table touch them both professionally and personally, custom builders appear to feel the same way. So we took the plunge. But rather than ask whom builders plan to vote for, we asked what qualities they seek in our next president and what they hope he or she will accomplish. Their answers do not constitute anything approaching a valid sample of opinion in the industry, but they share a tone of seriousness that sounds very familiar these days.
Stephen Hann once described himself as a loyal Bush man, but the Houston custom builder is now watching both Democrats and Republicans to determine who will best address his primary concern: the environment. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised that climate and ecology are a big part of the discussion,” says Hann, who has placed sustainability high on his agenda as a builder, too. “We qualify as a green builder,” he says, noting that while that designation has cachet in today’s market, his primary motivation in going green is environmental responsibility. “As a parent, I have a vested interest,” says Hann, who is working with a non-partisan group that plans to advertise during the election campaign “to make this an issue, to get a real effort to fix it.” In our next president, Hann says, we will need “good, strong, consistent leadership that could unify us.” In the current political atmosphere, that’s a tall order. But Hann thinks confronting climate change could be the challenge that—like JFK’s commitment to send a man to the moon—unites the country in a common purpose. “And it’s starting to get legs.”
“The three issues that jump out at me,” says Milwaukee architect and custom builder/remodeler Alan Freysinger, “are the environment, health care, and [electing] a world leader, someone that the world respects.” Freysinger sees no contradiction between conservatism and environmentalism—“Let’s be conservative about the environment,” he says, “use it conservatively instead of using it whenever and wherever we like”—and expresses frustration with building industry trade organizations that oppose environmental regulation. Builders, he says, should draw a lesson from the American car industry, which spends millions lobbying against the regulation of emissions and fuel economy while steadily losing market share to foreign competitors that focus on meeting those regulations with a better product. Rather than resist environmental protection, he says, “Let’s embrace it and work with it. In the short term, it’s going to affect business, but we’re looking for the long-term benefits.” On his second point, Freysinger says, “As a business, the health care issue is just strangling us.” Like other small-business owners, Freysinger has frequently switched insurance carriers in response to rising premiums. “That’s the game we play every year,” he says. “It’s hard emotionally on our employees,” he says, and exasperating to manage. “The system has become incredibly more complicated.” Addressing the issue from the White House will take guts, he says. “Health care is so phenomenally complicated. It’s scary for the politicians.” Freysinger knows that reforming health care, like addressing climate change, will require asking the American people to accept some sacrifices. He is looking for a candidate willing to say, “In the short term, we’re going to have to buck up here.”
Minneapolis custom builder Nick Smaby says he is ready to sacrifice some business in order to preserve the environment, and he would like to see some leadership on the issue from the top. “The concepts of green building and sustainability are really important to me,” says Smaby, “and will only become increasingly important. A year ago or two years ago I sort of laughed about green building. We joked about eating the paint. I’m not laughing that much any more.” Increasing energy costs and the sobering implications of climate change have focused the attention of the entire industry. “Our clients are becoming more knowledgeable, interested, passionate about these subjects,” Smaby says. “That’s compelled us to educate ourselves to stay ahead of them. The old way of doing things worked in its day, but these are different times. As a businessperson, there is a conflict between making money and adapting to the new world, and it’s easier to stick to the status quo and do the things you know how to do rather than risk doing something new.” For Smaby the choice is clear: “When there’s a conflict between making money, or making the most money, and doing what’s right, we’re definitely for doing what’s right for the environment.” That will influence his choice among the presidential candidates. “I’m realizing how serious the issues are, and from a leader I would expect some understanding and commitment to addressing those issues.” Wayne Foley puts immigration reform at the top of his agenda. The Northern Virginia custom builder acknowledges the importance of immigrant workers to the industry, “But they’re coming in so fast, and they’re not assimilating, and I believe that is largely due to their illegal status.” Foley knows from experience that workers won’t register for an English class if they are hiding from the INS. He would like to see a system whereby immigrants enter the country legally and have the opportunity to become citizens, “just the way my grandparents did.” But first, he believes, “We’ve got to have a leader who’s going to stop this influx of illegals. If you’ve got somebody breaking into your house, the first thing you do is lock the door. You lock the door, and you stop the influx, and you deal with the problem at hand. You get them legalized.” Foley favors building the 700-mile Mexican-border fence that Congress approved in 2006. “It would take about three days of what we’re spending in Iraq,” he says. “Let’s get on with it.”
Foley describes himself as “a conservative Republican, a little bit to the right of Attila the Hun.” But he is unhappy enough with the current state of affairs in the country that he would consider crossing party lines for the first time in his life. “We need to get out of Iraq; we need to control runaway immigration; and in the wealthiest country in history, everyone deserves access to a health program,” he says. “If there was a Democrat who would take the bull by the horns and address those three issues, I’d vote for him.” Foley does not hold out much hope of that happening, but his point is well taken. And we believe he articulates the feelings of many custom builders when he says, “We need politicians who are going to address the major issues and to hell with the [political] consequences.”
