The St Louis Contrarian

Providing Independent and Intelligent Insight on St. Louis Public Policy Issues

Archive for the category “crime”

07 Feb 2019

Housing Idea 3-Don’t Romanticize the Poor

Poor people have very serious problems, that don’t need exaggeration. I have worked my whole professional life to address the problems of poverty. The progressive left is making a serious mistake by romanticizing the poor.

David Brooks has some excellent words on this subject. He states that conservative exaggerate by saying that all the problems of poverty are caused by the individuals and progressive make the same mistake by blaming all the problems on institutions. The reality is somewhere in the middle.

In managing affordable housing I have seen numerous instances where the low income individuals make poor decisions that are within their control that make their situations worse. These include abusive relationships, not putting emphasis on a good education, and engaging in drugs and crime. Poverty is not an excuse for this behavior. Let’s not romanticize things. Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in affordable housing, crime, education, poverty, Racism and tagged | Leave a comment
05 Feb 2019

Ideas About Housing -Too Much Democracy is Bad

Urban Planners talk about the need for community involvement in neighborhood development. That is good. Similarly, public housing residents need to have their ideas included in planning for the future of their developments. Yet, in St. Louis I sometimes think democracy has gone overboard. It seems that everyone no matter how wacky their idea has an equal say in the future of our communities. I certainly see that problem in the failure of the McKee effort to redevelop north St. Louis. People get worn out and nickel and dimed.

My first job with HUD was to insure and improve tenant participation in public housing. In all, participation tended to be low. Poor people participate less in public life less than wealthier people, that is partially why they are poor. More important, they simply lack the time for civic involvement.

A concrete example. The Darst-Webbe Hope VI redevelop[ment required tenant involvement. The remaining few tenants in the failed original project refused to be supportive of a complete demolition and redevelopment. Why? They were selling drugs and didn’t want that activity disrupted. It has always puzzled me why tenants of public housing appear to have more say in the running of their project than other properties. All political theorists have agreed that direct democracy is a poor form of government. They are right. Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in affordable housing, crime, demolition, hud, poverty, pruitt igoe, st. louis and tagged , , | Leave a comment
03 Feb 2019

More Rankings for St. Louis

There were two recent polls, one in which St. Louis was negatively mentioned, and another where St. Louis was ominously omitted. The first was a ranking by MoneyWise Magazine which ranked St. Louis as the worst place in the United States in which to retire. This ranking was largely based on crime. The second index ranked the 25 places in which young people are ready to move. St. Louis was not on the list(Kansas City was). These polls by themselves are not significant but fit an overall pattern outlining the negative aspects of St. Louis life. Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in crime, st louis county, st. louis and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
22 Jan 2019

This article talks around the vacancy issue

www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/st-louis-has-a-plan-for-vacancy/article_039ec2ca-751d-5451-b039-f6f60baa239d.html

what is a chief resiliency officer?

Posted in affordable housing, community building, crime, demolition, economic development, historic preservation, new housing, poverty, rental housing, Uncategorized and tagged | Leave a comment
20 Jan 2019

St. Louis should foreclose more quickly on vacant properties

www.stltoday.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-compassion-or-tough-love-vacancy-problem-means-making-tough/article_6e9ab332-20a2-5a44-9828-92951b03acb3.html

Posted in affordable housing, community building, crime, st. louis, Uncategorized and tagged | Leave a comment
09 Jan 2019

Vacancies in St. Louis

As you may know, there has been a collaborative formed to address the huge vacancy problem in St. Louis. Various task forces are meeting and I participate in two of them. Most of the people at the meetings appear to be community activists with a smattering of developers.

The discussions have generally been good but rather general in nature. We do not seem to want to address the key problems which I see as:

1. Outmoded methods of management and sales by LRA.

2. The higher cost of doing business in St. Louis.

3. Historical preservation

4. Crime

5. The overall oversupply of housing and undersupply of population in the region.

6. The unwillingness of the group to accept demolition.

Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in affordable housing, community building, crime, demolition, historic preservation, homelessness, homeownership, new housing, police, poverty, rental housing, st. louis and tagged , , | Leave a comment
14 Nov 2018

The Real Cause of Vacancies in St. Louis

At the suggestion of Todd Swanstrom, I read a book by his colleague titled Housing Dynamics in Northeast Ohio by Thomas E. Bier. The book written about the Cleveland area is also applicable to St. Louis and many other cities.

The argument in the book backed by data is that vacancies occur when there is an oversupply of housing in the region. This oversupply of housing occurs because developers are looking to profit by building more housing, and land is cheaper in the suburbs. The author points out that when there is an oversupply the oldest, most worn out housing loses all market desirability and becomes vacant. The problem is made worse because developers can more economically build in the suburbs and the infrastructure in the suburbs is stronger.

This plays out when we look at the north side of St. Louis. There will only be a turnaround if the city figures out how to streamline its development requirements, crime is controlled, and schools turn around. In addition a marketing campaign to young people around the company would help. We could offer free housing and lots of land. Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in affordable housing, community building, crime, economic development, homeownership, new housing, poverty, st. louis and tagged , | Leave a comment
11 Nov 2018

Housing in Ferguson

One of the issues surrounding the Michael Brown shooting and its’ aftermath were the poor conditions of affordable housing projects in Ferguson. In fact, the Ferguson Commission raised the issue.

Recently the owners of several of these housing developments and the St. Louis County Housing Authority have cracked down on bad tenants. Lo and behold the community is up in arms about people facing eviction. Once again no one wants to take responsibility for bad behavior. Bad tenants are bad tenants, period. Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in affordable housing, Commercial real estate, crime, Ferguson, low income housing tax credits, rental housing, section 8 housing and tagged , , | Leave a comment
26 Sep 2018

Decline in Support for Public Transit

Ridership on public transit declined about 3.2% nationally. In St. Louis, Metro ridership declined 32%. Crime has increased significantly. The powers that be want to increase metrolink. Why? The technology is obsolete and the demand is not there. Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in crime, metro, st louis county, st. louis and tagged , | Leave a comment
24 Sep 2018

Crime

Crime in St. Louis appears to be higher than ever. I hear about carjackings near Washington University. This could affect top students willingness to attend and remain at the university. No one in the city leadership seems to be focusing on this problem. Activist groups focus on problems of the police will ignoring poor behavior by some of our citizens. Written by Paul Dribin

Posted in crime, st. louis and tagged , | Leave a comment

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