Sprawling Ideas

Letters to the Editor from the January 2007 Edition of Professional Builder

Staff
January 1, 2007
Professional Builder

Shame on them

I was looking for a product in some of my back issues of Professional Builder and stumbled across Scott Sedam's November 2005 "Sprawl or Nothing" column I missed the first time around.

Our little community, here in rural upstate New York, is engaged in the process of revising the town/village joint comprehensive land use/development plan.

I cannot express how timely and appropriate the theme of the column was. Are we striving to offset the narrow-mindedness and distorted self-constrained views of the town supervisor, who chairs this committee?

Thank you, Scott, for your wisdom, foresight and most importantly, unbiased and accurate reporting of the facts.

Bill McCombs, Churchville, NY

Great Sedam column in November 2006 "Mail Call." As a small subcontracting firm I couldn't agree more with his article on controlling costs. We run three gutter install crews and have been on the receiving end of way too many letters just like he described.

If the builders would only ask our opinions we could save them 10-15 percent on most jobs. We do work for about 85 different builders, and Scott nailed it down perfectly, including incompetent supervisors. I am also fortunate to work for some really great regional builders that really do try to work with subs; guess who gets the best crews, service, etc. Kudos on a really great article.

Mark Miller, Newcomerstown, Ohio

I finally made it to the October issue of Professional Builder in my reading stack and enjoyed Paul Deffenbaugh's Perspective editorial.

I agree with his ideology but believe his idealism is naive. Builders, like myself, will act in self-interest nearly all of the time even if we know it is not in the interest of the industry as a whole. This is simple human nature. Trying to get builders to individually act in the best interest of the building industry will be as successful as herding 1,000 cats across the great plains on a bicycle. It is rational to act irrationally when you know those around you are acting irrationally.

One of my favorite examples is how people act when the plane arrives at the gate and most people immediately stand up and crowd the aisle. This is completely irrational as most everyone knows that the entire plane will be emptied faster if each row is allowed to gather their items and exit prior to the next row even standing up. Everyone also knows that no one on the plane is going to do this, so, it is rational to get in the aisle as fast as you can and move as many rows ahead before the aisle clogs with other people acting in their self-interest.

I choose to sit in my seat and wait until the aisle is clear but I could have gotten off sooner.

Jonathan Williams, Colorado Springs, Colo.

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Letter to the Editor, Professional Builder, 2000 Clearwater Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60523, paul.deffenbaugh@reedbusiness.com