The St Louis Contrarian
Providing Independent and Intelligent Insight on St. Louis Public Policy Issues
Archive for the month “June, 2018”
Olive U City Development
www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2018/06/28/commentary-taxpayer-largesse-unnecessary-wasteful.html
A good editorial that appeared in the St. Louis Business Journal opposing a TIF for this project. Show Me Institute was author of article.
Airport Hijinks
Former Mayor Slay has been hired by one of the bidders interested in receiving the contract if Lambert Airport is privatized. That appears of course to be a payoff in addition to Jeff Rainford, the Mayor’s former aide who was previously hired as a consultant to the project. I still don’t understand with all the problems the city has the privatization effort appears to be such a high priority. Written by Paul Dribin
Homeless Services in St. Louis
The ongoing provision of homeless services in St. Louis is very much up in the air. The story is rather complicated and has been partially described in these pages before.
New Life Evangelical Church led by Reverend Larry Rice had provided overnight homeless services to just about anyone who wanted it. He was always in trouble with the city for good reason; he housed far too many people in his facility, didn’t agree to any reporting, etc. Add to this criticism from newly arrived Yuppies who lived downtown and he was shut down.
To make up for the New Life Demise, the city bought Biddle House on the near north side and hired St Patrick’s Center and St. Peter’s and Paul to operate it. I have frequently volunteered there and consider the facility to be well run. The problem is that both agencies who operate it lost huge amounts of money and cannot sustain the operation. Neither organization nor anyone else has responded to a RFP for continuing the services. Of course where this leave homeless people is very much up in the air. Written by Paul Dribin
A New Structure for Housing Finance
An editorial from the Washington Post. It is interesting that responsibility for affordable housing will be placed in a revamped FHA.
Rules for Better Housing Policy
www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/05/02/nine-rules-for-better-housing-policy/
Brookings offers some good common sense rules for housing policy. One I like is to not favor homeownership over rental. Of course the biggest issue is there is no policy.
Housing Loss?
www.brookings.edu/research/unpacking-the-housing-shortage-puzzle/
The article attempts to answer if there is housing loss. Most new housing is being created in suburbs, but rate of creation has slowed. The authors recommend major changes in land use policy. Written by Paul Dribin
Housing Affordability
This article sees the problem as largely regional, on the coasts. I tend to agree. The National Low Income Housing Coalition uses the housing you can afford on the minimum wage. That is unrealistic. The minimum wage was not intended to be a living wage, people can double up, there are usually two income earners in a household, and most people who start out on minimum wage do not stay on it for long. Written by Paul Dribin
North side St.Louis Blight
An article from Post about terrible pile of debris left from site preparation work. It shows that once again people in central city are not taken seriously
Ferguson
This article discussed the lack of improvement in the part of Ferguson where Michael Brown was killed.
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