" In each case, states have given oversight of millions of dollars in public money to entities led at least in part by corporate leaders — while shielding some of their activities from public view." (Center for Public Integrity, link)
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/10/23/13576/state-pro-business-organizations-are-publicly-funded-privately-controlled
Property tax bills will soon go to homeowners and small landlords. These bills are skyrocketing in order to give millions of dollars to center city corporations as public schools continue to be destroyed! This is what Nutter meant by "revenue neutral" property taxes.
Please remember, the center city district spent several years advancing and marketing this corporate tax policy. Their ubiquitous propaganda insisted that because the working classes are stuck in their neighborhoods, they can be fleeced through property taxes to give money to corporations, which always threaten to leave if corporate welfare is not increased.
Let's now remember the deal the center city district got for the grounds around city hall, in light of the above investigation. CCD secretly got complete unaccountable control of Dilworth Plaza for 30 years, at the cost of $1. But why was the deed not transferred? Under this model of privatization of control and secrecy, taxpayers would be required to pay utility costs, etc. for all the corporate programming from which they will be excluded for the next 30 years. Sweet deal! (CCD also got some 50 million dollars of public money, that was to be allocated for public transit infrastructure, in order to build an ice rink for the 1%)
On this list we watched the Uof P privatize Clark Park and create the Clark Park Partnership. Very few people understand that all Philadelphia parks have also been privatized by our Parks department, and very few people understand that the new police permits( see police permit law in Egypt) have eliminated our first amendment rights to public parks. We are currently in "the normalization period" before the full brutal effect over our privatized parks is apparent to consumerist zombies.
Many people insisted on total surrender to these public private partnerships hoping that they would bring riches trickling down from corporate America. Now that the future has arrived, I hope people think about why secrecy and exclusion were so vital to our civic associations, as we privatized our rights to the most ruthless class of predators that ever prowled the earth.
Do people understand why the civic association leaders never gave an answer justifying the loss of transparency and exclusion of the public during the privatization process of the past decade? Do people see why they depended on personal attacks against anyone with the audacity to question the privatization central to the gentrification? Instead of riches trickling down, I'm sorry to inform people that we have a collapsing society and a police state. What happened to Clark park and Dilworth plaza has also happened across the planet.
Does anyone in this neighborhood understand the reality of public private partnerships? It's really not the same thing as an upscale latte
