Denver Direct: The Naysayer of the Month by Phil Goodstein – September, 2013
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
The Naysayer of the Month by Phil Goodstein – September, 2013
The Bill Clinton presidency endeavored to apply the principles of Milton Friedman to a ravaging capitalism. Besides openly encouraging mass Wall Street speculation and the transformation of schools into entrepreneurial enterprises, Clinton and associates sought to destroy traditional governmental efforts to provide low-income housing. No longer did it mean clean, safe rental units. Rather, housing projects became veritable condo complexes where the government encouraged aspiring members of the middle class to pour all their assets into home ownership. In the process, the administration, through its Hope VI program, avidly worked to reduce the number of public housing units available to those who could not afford to buy. Those renting in the housing projects, in turn, were expected to emulate the values of yuppie America.
Denver embraced the effort. A key achievement of the Welling-ton Webb administration was to oversee soaring rental rates. The mayor topped this off in 2002 when he signed the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. Instead of controlling rents and checking on out-of-scale development, it simply mandated that developers had to add a few “affordable” units to mega-projects, condos which were actually quite high in price compared to the median cost of residences. Those not wishing to participate could easily opt out of the program by paying minimal additional fees. In contrast, developers who included such “affordable” units received special breaks and even cash compensation. The measure did nothing to assure that real affordable rental housing existed. On the contrary, since its passage, homelessness has been an ever more endemic part of the city.
Recently, Mayor Michael Hancock observed that a grand total of 15 “affordable” units have been added to the city’s housing stock over the past four years despite a new building frenzy. Seeing this, he conceded that the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance has been a failure. Rather, however, than probing its thoroughly rotten core, he and members of city council have simply vowed to tinker with the scheme. For so showing their inability to see anything more than the most insignificant of minutia, Hancock and his fellow reformers are the Naysayer of the Month.
at 4:36 PM
Post Comments (Atom)
Editor's note.
BLOG ARCHIVE
-
▼
2013 (346)-
▼
September (30)- Hentzell Natural Area - Trappers 0, prairie dogs 1...
- THC WEEKLY NEWS by Jessica LeRoux - September 30, ...
- Councilman Albus Brooks is where?
- Open Letter to Mayor Hancock re: Elyria, National ...
- Amal Kassir on Syria
- Clean Water - Hazardous Waste Sites
- DPS COMES TO KILL PRAIRIE DOGS
- THC WEEKLY NEWS by Jessica LeRoux - September 23, ...
- Denver School Board Candidate Forums
- Follow up on 22nd and Marion proposed zoning chang...
- THC WEEKLY NEWS by Jessica LeRoux - September 16, ...
- DENVER FLOOD SAFETY TIPS
- Best coverage of Colorado front range flooding (8:...
- Mother Nature comes to our aid at Hentzell Park
- Bagging Ecological Concern by Phil Goodstein - Sep...
- The Naysayer of the Month by Phil Goodstein - Sept...
- Fountain Miasma by Phil Goodstein - September, 201...
- The fight for our own bank continues
- THC Weekly News by Jessica LeRoux - September 10, ...
- Free marijuana makes debut at Civic Center Park
- THIS IS NOT ‘BLIGHT’—THIS IS NATURE
- Friends of Denver Parks Make a Big Impression at t...
- MAYOR MICHAEL B. HANCOCK IS COMING TO YOUR NEIGHB...
- Boasberg’s Policies: Inequity and Mediocrity (DPS...
- Tune in at 6:00 pm today. (Public Banking)
- Stop TPP
- THE DENVER HISTORY INDEX by Phil Goodstein
- THC WEEKLY NEWS - with Jessica LeRoux - September ...
- Proposed 5-story apartment building at 22nd and Ma...
- Re-branding of Colorado
-
CONTACT US
CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE
All of the work on this site, including the original YouTube videos by www.DenverDirect.tv, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Click on the symbol above for explanation.
0 comments:
Post a Comment