CURA's housing forum is topical - e.g., attention will be focused on adaptive re-use at this month's meeting on May 14 - but it should be said that Professor Goetz draws in major talent for these discussions and from this I infer that professional willingness would be there for the kind of blue-ribbon effort that David Wilson and Bill Cullen have been bandying about.
The Affordable Housing Task Force that was largely driven by community activism has made a mark or two - actual construction, ongoing trust funds, bipartisan political commitments, increased awareness of the regional and statewide implications. Progress, not perfection. But now we have the threatened HUD cutbacks re housing vouchers and MPHA doesn't have the deep capital reserve pockets that the Bush Administration is suggesting be used to pick up the slack in program costs. There is also substantial future need looming in the approaching demographic bulge of retiring baby boomers. It would be nice to get ahead of this before existing arrangements jeopardized by federal budget pressures meet that future demand curve. This goes way beyond the capacities of stand-alone community activism or free-market economics - a worthy task for government writ large. Fred Markus, West Phillips REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
