November 30, 2008

Jahn Comment

Gabe the dirty little secret is that Main South re development is more to benefit Clark than anyone else...and Clark even has a so called "government relations" person who I believe even serves on the school committee. One of his persons jobs is to make sure that main South is re-built to Clarks liking. Main Souths make over is primarily all about Clark and secondarily about the neighborhood & the city. Clark is supposed to "share" their new Main South facilities with the city at large, but I'll believe that when I see it.

Clark is supposedly a "partner " of sorts in re-making Main South....the only problem is the remake of Main South has been done for the most part with our tax dollars from Washington and to a lesser extent dollars from Beacon Hill and city hall.The problem now is that this remake of Main South has spawned all these non profit CDC builders whose only objective is the continued building their own fiefdoms of low income housing. We have:

  • Main South CDC
  • Matthew 25
  • Worc Common Ground
  • Worc Community Housing
  • S Worc Neighborhood Center
  • Others?

We have even had outside consultants tell us that we need to curtail/reduce the production of low income housing by non profit builders.....again another recommendation to the council that falls on deaf ears.All these non profits are raising funding from our tax dollars to inundate the MS area with densely built, intensive land use low income housing. This is not a sustainable business model as the city grows and moves forward.

We have 35% more low income housing now than is mandated by state law, meanwhile our suburban neighbors are raking in the businesses & middle class people who are fleeing the city b/c of the negative effects of too much low income housing. FWIW, low income people have little or no discretionary, disposable income. For the millionth time, all this low income housing all pours students into the school system at $11,900 per head.I could go on & on...........

people are probably getting sick & tired of my redundancy & repetitiveness.......the bailouts of the future are going to be urban municipalities who have been overly burdened with low income people.......which burden the municipalities have brought on themselves. Main South is going to be nothing more than an accumulation of small Great Brook Valleys in future years and the titans of the CDC's will have long since left the area.

6 comments:

Gabe said...

Hey Jahn, don't feel redundant. Among my peers over at Worcesterite.com I was also accused of being redundant recently. If someone punches themself in the face daily is it redundant to suggest to them that they don't daily? I think that is all any of us who keep saying the same thing over and over about the city are saying. Stop punching yourself in the face!

Keep on ranting about the low income housing.

Funny I posted a link over there to Bill's series on low income housing and it only got the most miniscule of conversation going. Younger crowd over there mostly late 20's to mid 30's but quite a few home owners. None of them seems to be going on within the urban core with all this low income housing or much of anything else going

Gabe said...

...on in the urban core.

Paulie's Point of View said...

it is funny that you mention this youngah crowd Gabe...I was chatting with some folks the other day about how I had been noticing youngah gals-20-30 in my hood lately walking and running about..all types that look like they have it going on..not the usual Pajama clad mama's who just never seem to wanna pull themselves out of the hole no mattah how much assistance they get...

Anonymous said...

Gabe, that's probably the norm for people in their 20's & 30's....i.e. similar to many of us in a younger day.....they dont care about low income housing proliferation, politics and the like. They're too busy getting their lives underway with careers, settling, down, etc. I cant blame them, esp. when many will opt leave the city, given how things are unfolding for Worc's future demographics.

Paulie, next time these gals jog by your estate and after you have calmed down [g]...why not offer them free tix (they're free anyway) to next Sept's Paulie Paloooza?

Paulie's Point of View said...

may start running with em' Senor Jahn..been running twice a week for two months now..lost about 4 stone..soon hope to push up to 3-4 times a week...still hoverin above 250lbs. tho...may scare em' or else they will want me around em' for protection..

the hope is the city will grow regardless of the city council..market forces generally can beat poor leadership...it really is going to depend on how attractive the city is to folks:accessibility, safety, housing costs, jobs...

You gotta give it up to Mick O'Brien and Charlie Monahgan on the PILOT deal...

Paulie's Point of View said...

as for the 2009 Paulie's NOLA Blues & Jazz Festival..hoped to get on this after my Somerville Jingle Bell Run on 12/14/08 in Somerville...gonna be Paulie's, Wild Will's & Harry's NOLA Blues & Jazz Festival in 2009..

Still on my current Irish kick right now...economy in a free for all over here right now..Dublin still hopin' but all the talk is about the economy..not a thing about Mumbai, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Geo. W, Barry Obama or Britney Spears...in the end it's "all about the economy, stupid"..and by the rhetoric coming from our City Council except for Rick Rushton..they just do not git it???