>>>>> "WM" == wizardmarks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
WM> Jeff Rosenberg wrote:
>> What I find most interesting about this, and what I'd like to
>> question, is the underlying assumption behind these
>> statements. Specifically, that Minneapolis has an obligation to
>> the poor and to create "affordable housing."
>>
[...snip...]
WM> However, it is greatly to the city's advantage to have a
WM> stable house with people who are not into causing mischief or
WM> committing crimes against either people or things, who will do
WM> a lot of the work a city needs doing--driving buses, being
WM> janitors, secretaries, nurses aides, factory workers. I bought
WM> an old house, built 1912, deserted by all and sundry, but one
WM> which could easily work well for another 75 years, making it
WM> affordable housing.
Granted, but what you don't address is the point that Jeff and I were
both trying to make: "why should Minneapolis pay all the cost to gain
these advantages, with no share being assessed to the people who buy
McMansions way out in the exurbs?" More to the point, how can
Minneapolis afford to pay all the social costs as the high end of its
tax base moves out to said McMansions?
One way, of course, is to spend money to try to lure people who would
pay lots of property taxes OUT of McMansions and into expensive city
properties. We've heard a lot of people slagging this on the list,
but it seems entirely reasonable. Without people who can afford to
pay high taxes, how can Minneapolis continue to provide services?
WM> When Lake St. is back together and operating well (this could
WM> take another 10 years or so), maybe it will be time to
WM> possibly knock down these 10 or so homes and build something
WM> else. (I wish them luck pulling this puppy down--it's built of
WM> concrete and the basement walls are 18" thick. If there is
WM> ever an earthquake of the magnitude of the 1806 San Francisco
WM> quake along this end of the New Madrid Fault Line, we are
WM> ready to withstand it!)
I don't mean to be a Party Pooper, but if you read the 1930s vintage
WPA guide to Minneapolis, the picture it paints of Lake Street isn't
all that different from the one you've painted in your emails.
WM> While I do not think the city owes it to me to build
WM> affordable housing, I do think they owe it to me to at least
WM> keep old housing affordable through the tax structure and
WM> assessment structure.
I agree! I don't want to see low income people booted out, I don't
want to see the elderly taxed out of their homes, etc.
Peter Vervang raises some similar issues:
PV> D. Some people may say that what goes around, comes around and
PV> that these suburbs are just getting theirs for what they
PV> did to us over the past 40-50 years. That isn't how it
PV> works, we are a regional economy and our quality of life is
PV> linked to each other, if they suffer, we suffer and vice a
PV> versa. This isn't to say that suburbs shouldn't have
PV> affordable housing, they should. But we shouldn't be
PV> forcing people to leave Minneapolis, we should be placing
PV> more value on our current residents. This should be a
PV> local, state and federal priority, to provide a decent
PV> housing structure for all people, and giving people a
PV> choice about how and where they want to live, whether that
PV> be a city, suburb or rural area. Right now there is only
PV> one real option for the working poor, they have to move to
PV> the suburbs, this limitis both employers and employees in
PV> their economic options, it limits our ability to make
PV> creative and vibrant communites of varied cultures. If we
PV> ignore the issue of poverty and development, and restrict
PV> their economic and lifestyle choices, we will pay for it in
PV> broken nieghborhoods and urban blight and the generic
PV> sameness of mini-storage and cheap strip malls. We are the
PV> richest nation on earth, we are in one of the richer cities
PV> in a richer state in the richest nation. Lack of resources
PV> is a poor excuse for this situation. I believe this is a
PV> problem because the poor, minorities and immigrants aren't
PV> a priority. Everyone is focused on tax base, and generic
PV> economic development and they don't think much about
PV> supporting our basic culture and our fundamental values
PV> with our tax dollars. I believe our culture and values are
PV> what make our tax base possible in the first place, it is
PV> what makes living in a city and our country worthwhile.
This is a great statement of the problem, but it doesn't provide any
steps towards a solution. I'd argue that your implicitly proposed
solution, which seems to be to have the city spend a ton of money
subsidizing housing, will simply concentrate poverty into the city,
drive up tax rates for people who aren't in subsidized housing,
causing them to flee to the suburbs, and making the city's tax base
completely crater. Then we really WILL have turned Minneapolis into
Detroit.
One suggestion, widely mocked in this list, is to try to lure high tax
paying people into the city.
Another, that we've heard plaintively raised (by people like me!), is
to try to secure some redistribution from the suburbs and exurbs
towards the cities. I think we all know just how likely THAT is right
now.
People who are indignant about city subsidies to high-end development
need to provide some alternative suggestion for how we're going to
maintain our tax base, even WITHOUT new affordable housing, never mind
with a major new building initiative. It's easy to demand more
affordable housing, but how do we pay for it?
--
Robert P. Goldman
ECCO
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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