13 Comments - Cincinnatus - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 10:18 am: RE: Unemployment Claims For those of you that watch such things, and to put the 465k new claims into perspective, when new claims are around 350k, the number of new jobs just cancels out the number of new claims. Until the new claims dip below 350k, the economy is shedding jobs. - wordslinger - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 10:23 am: That Texas trucker has an enemy somewhere along his route. Troopers with drug-sniffing dogs just don’t stop random trucks and miraculously find $3.5 million in pot. - cassandra - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 10:32 am: You do have to wonder, when you hear about government entitities like Madison County paying many millions to build new or newly rehabbed pubic housing projects if this is the best use of taxpayer money. If Madison County is like most areas of Illinois post housing bubble has much vacant private housing which is falling apart, in foreclosure, awaiting a short sale, and so forth. When there is so much private housing available to be renovated and made available to those supposedly in need of housing support, why are taxpayers being ask to fund reconstruction of public housing. Somebody must be benefiting, not necessarily the taxpayer. Politicians and developer friends maybe? Also, I thought we had learned from the Chicago example that concentrating a lot of low-income folks in one small geographic area doesn’t work very well and, in many if not most cases, inhibits those residents’ movement into the middle class. - Cincinnatus - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 10:51 am: cassandra, I think you are on to something (not that the pinheads in government would listen, but that was Cassandra’s legend, right). There are a number of things about your proposal that are good: Properties are cheap Removing properties stabilizes housing prices Unoccupied properties can blight a neighborhood If tenants had a rent/option to buy deal, people would build equity for the future Your comments on high-density housing are spot-on. Have we forgotten Cabrini-Green already? - Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:11 am: First of all, comparing public housing in Madison County to Chicago is an apples to oranges comparison. While I do agree that public housing projects have their share of problems, down in this neck of Illinois it’s no Cabrini-Green. Second, I get sick and tired of the snarky comments of people like Cassandra towards the poor “who supposedly” need housing support. They don’t “supposedly” need it - they need it. In some cases it isn’t people who are being inhibited from moving into the middle class, it’s people who have been steadily declining and have reached the poorer class. I know - my grandmother is one of them. You have a house one day and as you get older you move and eventually end up in a subsidized apartment as any savings you may have accumulated is drained slowly but surely. Finally, I can’t stand the cynicism of people anymore. Of course the reason for the construction must be that somebody is on the take. Did you read the story? Did you notice that the project includes private investment? These housing projects are needed b/c it is just not a reality that you move all of these individuals to single-family housing. - dupage dan - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:19 am: Despite well known data to the contrary, Madison Cty moves forward with outmoded, bankrupt idea of concentrated public housing? In East St Louis? Can’t we cut that part of the state off and let if float down the Mississippi? - Linus - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:43 am: If Bill Black won’t run for Danville mayor, could he at least consider joining the four-dozen candidates for mayor of Chicago ? That’s an alternate universe in which I would love to live. For at least a day or two. - Cincinnatus - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:43 am: Demoralized, You most certainly must be. I do not see much snark in cassandra’s comments. But your comments point out why government is ever increasing in size, costs and burdens which results in huge deficits for ALL the people in Illinois to deal with. Every program (not just public housing) has its proponents. Every program has beneficiaries. Every program has an anecdotal story like your grandmother’s. EVERY. SINGLE. PROGRAM. This will sound harsh and cruel, but the government cannot be responsible for EVERYTHING bad in this world. There ain’t enough money in the galaxy to ease the pains of every individual. Given this fact, some must feel pain. The deal Quinn just made with the state worker union just robbed the state of the ability to bring their pay into line with decreasing state revenue? One could argue that this deal stole money from the more needy. My point is, government is not an answer, it is sometimes a problem that can only be overcome by individuals, families and friends taking care of one another. Don’t accuse cassandra of snark when (s)he is trying to think out of the box to help those people more unfortunate than (her)himself. - GetOverIt - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:59 am: @Cincinnatus While I agree with your overall assertion that Government is not always the answer, neither is the private sector, i.e. individuals, corporations, etc. There must be a safety net, without which a mass of our citizenry will be on the street, or your front lawn. - Cincinnatus - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 12:08 pm: GetOverIt, Yup. Agreed. BUT the explosion in the amount of things government is trying to do dilutes the ability of government to provide a true safety net. It seems the argument from out elected officials, and their special interest supporters, is the EVERYTHING is a vital function of government. - cassandra - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 12:14 pm: I didn’t say that affordable housing is not needed although I do think it is fair for taxpayers who must compete for housing in the private market and who also pay the bills of government to ask how government officials at every level define eligibility for free or very low cost public housing. What I said, I’ll say again. Go for a drive anywhere but the country’s most affluent communities. Both rural and urban America are awash in foreclosed homes, abandoned homes, homes awaiting a short sale (forever), all of which need an infusion of cash in order to be habitable again. Illinois is no exception nor, I suspect, is Madison County in particular. To build new public housing in this environment is a poor use of scarce resources. Especially since we taxpayers will also have to pay for the demoliton of these derelict homes and we’ll have to make up for the loss of revenues caused by blight in the neighborhoods that surround them. - late to the party - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 12:24 pm: Cinci and cassandra - You have a point that maybe we we should put people who need housing assistance into foreclosed homes. But who is going to pay for that? Also, do you think the neighbors are going to want subsidized housing next door? - Ivory-billed Woodpecker - Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 1:38 pm: Cassandra, I think I may agree with you. I also wonder why more of the construction bubble surplus housing stock cannot be recycled into public or subsidized housing. Although I keep hearing that the banks et al. have paid back their TARP money — most successful program in history, yada yada — the Fed still owns or is backstopping truckloads of those mortgage backed bonds, isn’t it? One way or another, government (we) wound up paying the bill big for all those unsellable structures. Failure to put empty houses to good use adds to my sensation of having been royally rolled in the great bailout. I presume some government housing agencies have considered avenues for putting vacant foreclosed properties to public purpose. And as LTTP commented, I presume those agencies encounter people of means who bristle at poor people being subsidized to move in next door. I presume. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.