Regarding Harbor Point TIFs for Exelon:
There is no doubt Jack Young will make these TIFs happen no matter what the citizens of Baltimore want. That is why he was elected President of the City Council.....his willingness to do whatever he is told to do by Baltimore Development/Johns Hopkins. The important thing to remember is that an ever larger group of citizens are turning out to protest and are seeing that this development isn't about what is good for the city but about enriching the rich. Whether it is Curren's voters outraged over the Royal Farms in their neighborhood....whether it is the stacked Baltimore City School Board filled with business people trying to take public education private....whether labor unions pressed to poverty wages and stolen pensions....or seniors having health care handed over to hedge funds and massive entitlement fraud used as reasons to cut benefits....EVERYONE IS GETTING ANGRY. Those 17,000 citizens in Baltimore's last election will grow to 600,000 to get rid of all these incumbent bent on pay to play and serving the rich. Make no mistake, regardless the vote on these TIFS, we will be going to court and demanding a Federal investigation for RACKETEERING.
What Jack Young and your neoliberal pol is telling you and me is that these corporations will have all of our tax revenue as profit while they 'donate' to private non-profits through Associated Grants (ABAG) and Maryland Non-profit to create public policy that sends that money right back to benefit their own investments all while writing that 'donation' off their taxes. They do not pay taxes....they move the taxes we pay into investments and services they own for their profit. Add to that widespread Visigoth raiding of government coffers through fraud and you have a third world economy that enriches and empowers the few. That is who Jack Young and all Baltimore City Council work. Harbor Point wants new parks around its office buildings? No problem.....we will give them hundreds of millions in tax breaks and then allow them to 'donate' to Parks and People to fund their parks for a tax write-off.
What is happening is not sustainable. These developers and pols know it. As I said before Governor O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly with Rawlings-Blake and City Hall are loading the state with municipal debt that we all know we cannot sustain especially given that the economy will crash next year. THIS IS NOT IF BUT WHEN! Greece and the southern European countries are in the crisis they are today because of this same practice. Wall Street and Germany's DeutscheBank deliberately loaded these southern nations with credit debt just as is being done now across America.....they did it with fraud in using financial instruments to hide debt so more and more could be taken. Credit Municipal bonds are being used to mortgage the future of public entitles just as credit debt is impoverishing citizens. Is it the people's fault for taking on this debt? NO, NO, NO ,NO ,NO! It is the fact that Visigoth's are stealing public wealth and being allowed to impoverish people with wage and benefit losses so as to force people into debt just to maintain a first world quality of life. Many are now living third world lives as children are forced to beg, steal, and prostitute themselves to survive in Baltimore. YOUR NEO-LIBERAL IS DOING THIS! From O'Malley to Rawlings-Blake, to Cardin, Sarbanes, and Cummings.....they had a super-majority of democrats in 2009 and could do nothing other than protect the wealth of those committing the crimes. We all know America would have been fine if these banks and global corporations took the losses they needed to take!
So, yet another hotel with the same restaurants and retail will be voted forward by these crooked pols at City Hall offering the city no value and giving incentive for all other businesses to threaten to leave if they are charged taxes. Taxpayers are paying millions of dollars each year to support a Hilton so that chain would not take losses for bad investments. Building a hotel as Wall Street traders called the economy 'A HOUSE OF CARDS'? is like building schools on credit bonds and financial instruments when Warren Buffet is telling everyone to stay away from an imploding bond market. IT IS MALFEASANCE THAT THESE POLS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NEED TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHEN RULE OF LAW IS REINSTATED!
Remember, when a government suspends Rule of Law it suspends Statutes of Limitation!
VOTE ALL NEO-LIBERALS OUT OF OFFICE AND RETAKE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BY RUNNING LABOR AND JUSTICE!
THE MARYLAND DEMOCRATIC RACES HAVE NO DEMOCRATS RUNNING AS OF YET....THEY ARE ALL NEO-LIBERALS. WHERE ARE YOUR LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES?
Just think what is happening in Baltimore regarding housing.For those middle-class who have for decades paid high property taxes to support O'Malley's downtown subsidy of developers we now see all kinds of taxes that have the miiddle/working class paying more for all infrastructure development as corporations and the rich are pocketing taxes as profit. IT IS NOT ONLY THE POOR AND WORKING CLASS IN BALTIMORE GETTING SOAKED.....IT IS THE MIDDLE-CLASS. Think about Manhattan and how the middle-class manage to live in that city. This is where these Hopkins developers are going with Bloomberg and Wall Street leading the way. If you do not have a voice now.....you will not be here a few decades from now!
I went to the Harbor Point TIF finance committee meeting that had people like the ministers from churches in surrounding areas decrying the injustice of development. One minister said rightly 'Why should our taxes go to building places where we are not welcome'! She said none of these TIF required affordable housing because City Hall passed laws that voided the requirement for fair housing with these government gifts. Indeed Carl Stokes laughed at the suggestion of injustice with this law. INDEED, THESE LAWS ARE ILLEGAL. CITY HALL CANNOT PASS LAWS THAT ALLOW FEDERAL AND STATE MONEY BE GIVEN IN DISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING IN ENTERPRISE ZONES AND WITH CHARTER SCHOOLS.
GIVING VOUCHERS TO MOVE THE POOR AND WORKING CLASS OUT OF BLIGHTED NEIGHBORHOODS INTO MORE AFFLUENT ONES WHEN THE PLAN IS TO TURN THAT BLIGHTED NEIGHBORHOOD AFFLUENT IS NOT WHAT THIS LAW IS MEANT TO DO!!!
They cannot force the poor and working class out using the very money designed to keep and maintain underserved/working class communities. So, Carl may laugh but he may not be the last to laugh! Below we see the Housing Secretary HUD making a statement about just that. This is how you know Donovan is full of bull. As he states that money needs to flow to build poor city neighborhoods he is not shouting out about the failure of Eric Holder and Justice Department to enforce the laws Donovan is pretending to serve. HUD knows that all kinds of government funding is fueling development all across the country that is filled with discrimination and fraud so he would not call for more of it before securing government coffers from the VISIGOTHS.
DO YOU HEAR DONOVAN AND HUD SHOUTING LOUDLY THAT THERE IS SYSTEMIC FRAUD IN THE US HOUSING AGENCIES?
LUXURY development is not good for middle class either!!!
HUD's New 'Fair Housing' Rule Establishes Diversity Data for Every Neighborhood in U.S.
July 22, 2013 - 10:54 AM By Susan Jones
(CNSNews.com) - To ensure that "every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of," HUD has published a new fair-housing regulation intended to give people access to better neighborhoods than the ones they currently live in.
The goal is to help communities understand "fair housing barriers" and "establish clear goals" for "improving integrated living patterns and overcoming historic patterns of segregation."
“This proposed rule represents a 21st century approach to fair housing, a step forward to ensuring that every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of – where they have a fair shot at reaching their full potential in life,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
“For the first time ever," Donovan added, "HUD will provide data for every neighborhood in the country, detailing the access African American, Latino, Asian, and other communities have to local assets, including schools, jobs, transportation, and other important neighborhood resources that can play a role in helping people move into the middle class."
Social engineering
According to HUD, long-term solutions include "helping people gain access to different neighborhoods and channeling investments into under-served areas." The mapping tool may guide development and zoning decisions, for example.
In a July 16 speech to the NAACP, Donovan said the American Dream still isn't within equal reach of all communities. He lamented the lack of diversity in America's boardrooms, schools, and the nation's "strongest neighborhoods."
"We have got to shape a future where ladders of opportunity are available for all Americans," Donovan said. "For African Americans, this is critically important. Historically, for this community, the rungs on these ladders have been too far apart -– making it harder to reach the middle class."
Donovan said HUD's new neighborhood mapping tool, which uses Census data, will "expand access to high opportunity neighborhoods and draw attention to investment possibilities in under-served communities."
"Make no mistake, this is a big deal," Donovan said. "With the HUD budget alone, we are talking about billions of dollars. And as you know, decades ago, these funds were used to support discrimination. Now, they will be used to expand opportunity and bring communities closer to the American Dream."
Under the Fair Housing Act, HUD requires grantees, such as cities, that receive federal housing funds to "affirmatively further fair housing."
Under the proposed rule, the neighborhood data provided by HUD will be used to evaluate patterns of integration and segregation, racial and ethnic concentrations of poverty, and access to "valuable community assets." HUD wants to know if existing laws and policies -- such as zoning, financing, infrastructure planning and transportation -- create, perpetuate or alleviate segregation.
The proposed rule explicitly incorporates fair-housing decision-making into existing planning processes and "other decision-making that influences how communities and regions grow and develop."
_______________________________________________
This is a good overview of what is happening in urban development and why it involves a complete takeover of all development from the people and to the rich.....neo-liberalism. These policies were advanced to Reagan but put into overdrive when Clinton took the protection of the people's party and handed it to corporate interests. Feudalism is what comes when this policy is allowed to play out!
BELIEVE ME MIDDLE-CLASS WHO THINK GETTING RID OF THE POOR AND WORKING CLASS IS GOOD.....IT WILL BE THE END OF THE MIDDLE CLASS AS WELL!!!
Introduction: Contradictions of Neoliberal Urban Planning Download Book (3,237 KB) Download Chapter (421 KB) Abstract Neoliberalisation manifests itself as a ‘prevailing pattern of market-oriented, market-disciplinary regulatory restructuring’ (Peck, Theodore, & Brenner, 2009, p. 51). The neoliberalisation of social, economic and political processes pervades urban development, planning and governance discourses and practices, and pushes them in a market-oriented direction; however the terms ‘neoliberalisation’ and ‘planning’ are seldom heard together in the same phrase. The concept of neoliberal planning may actually seem to be a contradiction in terms to some planners; while to others it may be a signal to ‘give up’. The neoliberal city actually exists, as does neoliberal urban planning; but as urban planning becomes increasingly neoliberal and entrepreneurial, serious contradictions arise in the governance of cities.
__________________________________________________
One would wonder why a city like Baltimore with the level of injustice in development and revenue distribution can get away with the failure to enforce law. Well, it starts with the Baltimore/Maryland HUD office who chooses to turn its head to injustice and who assigns these department heads?
The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO)
is an agency within the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHEO is responsible for administering and enforcing federal fair housing laws and establishing policies that make sure all Americans have equal access to the housing of their choice.
Fair Housing Hotline
One of the main functions of FHEO is to provide an administrative complaint process that is available free of charge to any person who believes they have faced housing discrimination because of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability to voice their concerns. FHEO conducts intake of all housing-related discrimination complaints and conducts investigation. Any person who thinks they have experienced housing discrimination is encouraged to call the toll free Housing Discrimination Hotline.
Work FHEO consists of one headquarters office in Department of Housing and Urban Development building in Washington, DC and has ten regional offices across the country. The regional offices enforce fair housing laws; conduct training, outreach, and compliance monitoring; and work with state and local agencies to administer fair housing programs.
The headquarters office is responsible for proposing fair housing legislation; working with other government agencies on fair housing issues; reviewing and making comments on proposed rules, handbooks, legislation, draft reports, and notices of funding availability from other departments within HUD; interpret policy, process complaints, perform compliance reviews, and offer technical assistance to local housing authorities and community development agencies regarding Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act on 1968; conduct oversight of the Government Sponsored Enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to ensure consistency with the Fair Housing Act and the fair housing provisions of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act; and work with private industry and community advocates on the promotion of voluntary fair housing compliance. In addition, FHEO manages the Fair Housing Assistance Program and the Fair Housing Initiatives Program.
For those who know Graziano, he is the face of Baltimore's unjust development controlled by Baltimore Development corporation. He has been in place throughout O'Malley and now Rawlings-Blake. Below we see the HUD offices are being moved to New York. It may help with local crime and corruption never before seen in modern history.....but we know New York is the home of Wall Street....no big win.
We would want a HUD office locally if we could elect politicians who were not criminal and corrupt!
It may be good to get HUD out of a very corrupt environment in Baltimore, but sending it to a Wall Street New York does not bode well either! We hear HUD Secretary Donovan calling for adherence to equal opportunity housing.....let's see him enforce these laws with the Federal grants being sent to cities across the nation for just that ......and these requirements just ignored!
City to lose federal housing workers
Move is part of HUD reorganization nationwideMay 15, 2013|By John Fritze, The Baltimore Sun
Nearly three dozen workers at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development office in Baltimore — roughly a third of the agency's workforce in Maryland — are being forced to transfer out of state or take a buyout.
The choice, which will affect 32 employees at the agency's South Howard Street field office, comes as part of a national reorganization aimed at saving about $45 million a year.
The department is consolidating workers in 50 offices nationwide who facilitate the construction and rehabilitation of multifamily housing into 10 offices, HUD spokesman Jerry Brown said Wednesday.
"It helps us with workload-balancing and to get a more efficient operation," Brown said.
The Baltimore office is among those losing workers; their function is to be performed from out of state.
Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said he understands the federal budget constraints, but expressed concerns about the impact the departures could have on the city.
He said the local field office was instrumental in dismantling blighted properties in Northwest Baltimore, for instance.
"This firsthand knowledge of community concerns will likely be difficult to replicate in a field office far removed from Baltimore City," Graziano said in a statement. "It is imperative that HUD work with us to address these concerns."
Agency officials have stressed that the reorganization is not related to the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, but rather long-standing budget issues. The Baltimore field office will remain open for other functions.
HUD has about 100 workers in Maryland, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
None of the employees affected by the reorganization will be laid off, officials said, but some might be offered buyouts, early retirement or transfers.
Union leaders said some employees are financially unable to move to New York, which they said is the most likely transfer point, and have raised concerns about the plan.
"There's a lot that we don't know," said Debra Walker of the American Federation of Government Employees. "Some of these employees cannot afford to live" in New York, she said.
"How are you going to manage Baltimore from New York?" she asked.
The other consolidated offices will be in Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Fort Worth, Texas. Satellite offices are planned for Boston, Denver, Detroit, Jacksonville and Kansas City.
The restructuring is scheduled to begin in the fall and is expected to take more than two years to complete, officials said. Parts of the plan must be negotiated with unions representing the employees.
It is unclear when employees in Baltimore would be affected.
HUD announced the reorganization in late April along with the closing of several field offices located in smaller cities, including Syracuse, N.Y., and Fresno, Calif.
We need to be clear.....these people do not have this wealth......since much of this wealth was stolen from government coffers it needs to come back to the people by simply reinstating Rule of Law and recovering tens of trillions in corporate fraud. If your pol or political action group is not shouting out to reverse this wealth inequity with Rule of Law, they are not working for you and me.
American Billionaires And Their Private Company Fortunes
Andrea Murphy, Forbes Staff
I write about America's largest private companies.
Follow (52) Lists | 3/12/2012 @ 2:07PM
There are 63 individuals with a combined net worth of on the world’s billionaires list with fortunes that come directly from businesses on our annual ranking of the largest private companies in the US. Taken as a group, these people have a net worth of $305.1 billion.
The two biggest private companies, Cargill (#1) and Koch Industries (#2), helped put nine people on the 2012 world’s billionaires list. Seven of them are heirs to Cargill, the agricultural giant. (My colleague Brian Solomon wrote an excellent breakdown the family and its wealth here.) The other two are Charles and David Koch, a pair who have received more attention lately for their politics than for their company.
10 images Photos: Biggest Billionaire Gainers The top 20 private companies produce a total of 23 billionaires, but you can find billionaires throughout the list of private companies. Last year, a total of 212 companies qualified for the list with revenues of $2 billion or more. John Catsimatidis’s Red Apple Group was ranked #98 last year. Conair, #209 on the 2011 list is the company behind billionaire Leandro Rizzuto.
There are some familiar names, but most private companies aren’t well-known. For every Mars or Hearst Corporation there is a Flex-N-Gate or Rich Products. This is largely because private companies don’t get the same coverage as their public counterparts. The list below is a good example of the familiar and the less well-known in terms of both private companies and their related billionaire.
The Top 10 Private Company Billionaires
1. Charles Koch
Net Worth: $25 billion
Private Company: Koch Industries
1. David Koch
Net Worth: $25 billion
Private Company: Koch Industries
3. Michael Bloomberg
Net Worth: $22 billion
Private Company: Bloomberg LP
4. Forrest Mars Jr
Net Worth: $13.8 billion
Private Company: Mars
4. Jacqueline Mars
Net Worth: $13.8 billion
Private Company: Mars
4. John Mars
Net Worth: $13.8 billion
Private Company: Mars
7. Anne Cox Chambers
Net Worth: $12.5 billion
Private Company: Cox Enterprises
8. Jack Taylor & family
Net worth: $10.4 billion
Private Company: Enterprise Rent-A-Car
9. Abigail Johnson
Net worth: $10.3 billion
Private Company: Fidelity Investments
10. James Goodnight
Net worth: $7.3 billion
Private Company: SAS Institute
There is no doubt Jack Young will make these TIFs happen no matter what the citizens of Baltimore want. That is why he was elected President of the City Council.....his willingness to do whatever he is told to do by Baltimore Development/Johns Hopkins. The important thing to remember is that an ever larger group of citizens are turning out to protest and are seeing that this development isn't about what is good for the city but about enriching the rich. Whether it is Curren's voters outraged over the Royal Farms in their neighborhood....whether it is the stacked Baltimore City School Board filled with business people trying to take public education private....whether labor unions pressed to poverty wages and stolen pensions....or seniors having health care handed over to hedge funds and massive entitlement fraud used as reasons to cut benefits....EVERYONE IS GETTING ANGRY. Those 17,000 citizens in Baltimore's last election will grow to 600,000 to get rid of all these incumbent bent on pay to play and serving the rich. Make no mistake, regardless the vote on these TIFS, we will be going to court and demanding a Federal investigation for RACKETEERING.
What Jack Young and your neoliberal pol is telling you and me is that these corporations will have all of our tax revenue as profit while they 'donate' to private non-profits through Associated Grants (ABAG) and Maryland Non-profit to create public policy that sends that money right back to benefit their own investments all while writing that 'donation' off their taxes. They do not pay taxes....they move the taxes we pay into investments and services they own for their profit. Add to that widespread Visigoth raiding of government coffers through fraud and you have a third world economy that enriches and empowers the few. That is who Jack Young and all Baltimore City Council work. Harbor Point wants new parks around its office buildings? No problem.....we will give them hundreds of millions in tax breaks and then allow them to 'donate' to Parks and People to fund their parks for a tax write-off.
What is happening is not sustainable. These developers and pols know it. As I said before Governor O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly with Rawlings-Blake and City Hall are loading the state with municipal debt that we all know we cannot sustain especially given that the economy will crash next year. THIS IS NOT IF BUT WHEN! Greece and the southern European countries are in the crisis they are today because of this same practice. Wall Street and Germany's DeutscheBank deliberately loaded these southern nations with credit debt just as is being done now across America.....they did it with fraud in using financial instruments to hide debt so more and more could be taken. Credit Municipal bonds are being used to mortgage the future of public entitles just as credit debt is impoverishing citizens. Is it the people's fault for taking on this debt? NO, NO, NO ,NO ,NO! It is the fact that Visigoth's are stealing public wealth and being allowed to impoverish people with wage and benefit losses so as to force people into debt just to maintain a first world quality of life. Many are now living third world lives as children are forced to beg, steal, and prostitute themselves to survive in Baltimore. YOUR NEO-LIBERAL IS DOING THIS! From O'Malley to Rawlings-Blake, to Cardin, Sarbanes, and Cummings.....they had a super-majority of democrats in 2009 and could do nothing other than protect the wealth of those committing the crimes. We all know America would have been fine if these banks and global corporations took the losses they needed to take!
So, yet another hotel with the same restaurants and retail will be voted forward by these crooked pols at City Hall offering the city no value and giving incentive for all other businesses to threaten to leave if they are charged taxes. Taxpayers are paying millions of dollars each year to support a Hilton so that chain would not take losses for bad investments. Building a hotel as Wall Street traders called the economy 'A HOUSE OF CARDS'? is like building schools on credit bonds and financial instruments when Warren Buffet is telling everyone to stay away from an imploding bond market. IT IS MALFEASANCE THAT THESE POLS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS NEED TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHEN RULE OF LAW IS REINSTATED!
Remember, when a government suspends Rule of Law it suspends Statutes of Limitation!
VOTE ALL NEO-LIBERALS OUT OF OFFICE AND RETAKE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BY RUNNING LABOR AND JUSTICE!
THE MARYLAND DEMOCRATIC RACES HAVE NO DEMOCRATS RUNNING AS OF YET....THEY ARE ALL NEO-LIBERALS. WHERE ARE YOUR LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES?
Just think what is happening in Baltimore regarding housing.For those middle-class who have for decades paid high property taxes to support O'Malley's downtown subsidy of developers we now see all kinds of taxes that have the miiddle/working class paying more for all infrastructure development as corporations and the rich are pocketing taxes as profit. IT IS NOT ONLY THE POOR AND WORKING CLASS IN BALTIMORE GETTING SOAKED.....IT IS THE MIDDLE-CLASS. Think about Manhattan and how the middle-class manage to live in that city. This is where these Hopkins developers are going with Bloomberg and Wall Street leading the way. If you do not have a voice now.....you will not be here a few decades from now!
I went to the Harbor Point TIF finance committee meeting that had people like the ministers from churches in surrounding areas decrying the injustice of development. One minister said rightly 'Why should our taxes go to building places where we are not welcome'! She said none of these TIF required affordable housing because City Hall passed laws that voided the requirement for fair housing with these government gifts. Indeed Carl Stokes laughed at the suggestion of injustice with this law. INDEED, THESE LAWS ARE ILLEGAL. CITY HALL CANNOT PASS LAWS THAT ALLOW FEDERAL AND STATE MONEY BE GIVEN IN DISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING IN ENTERPRISE ZONES AND WITH CHARTER SCHOOLS.
GIVING VOUCHERS TO MOVE THE POOR AND WORKING CLASS OUT OF BLIGHTED NEIGHBORHOODS INTO MORE AFFLUENT ONES WHEN THE PLAN IS TO TURN THAT BLIGHTED NEIGHBORHOOD AFFLUENT IS NOT WHAT THIS LAW IS MEANT TO DO!!!
They cannot force the poor and working class out using the very money designed to keep and maintain underserved/working class communities. So, Carl may laugh but he may not be the last to laugh! Below we see the Housing Secretary HUD making a statement about just that. This is how you know Donovan is full of bull. As he states that money needs to flow to build poor city neighborhoods he is not shouting out about the failure of Eric Holder and Justice Department to enforce the laws Donovan is pretending to serve. HUD knows that all kinds of government funding is fueling development all across the country that is filled with discrimination and fraud so he would not call for more of it before securing government coffers from the VISIGOTHS.
DO YOU HEAR DONOVAN AND HUD SHOUTING LOUDLY THAT THERE IS SYSTEMIC FRAUD IN THE US HOUSING AGENCIES?
LUXURY development is not good for middle class either!!!
HUD's New 'Fair Housing' Rule Establishes Diversity Data for Every Neighborhood in U.S.
July 22, 2013 - 10:54 AM By Susan Jones
(CNSNews.com) - To ensure that "every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of," HUD has published a new fair-housing regulation intended to give people access to better neighborhoods than the ones they currently live in.
The goal is to help communities understand "fair housing barriers" and "establish clear goals" for "improving integrated living patterns and overcoming historic patterns of segregation."
“This proposed rule represents a 21st century approach to fair housing, a step forward to ensuring that every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of – where they have a fair shot at reaching their full potential in life,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
“For the first time ever," Donovan added, "HUD will provide data for every neighborhood in the country, detailing the access African American, Latino, Asian, and other communities have to local assets, including schools, jobs, transportation, and other important neighborhood resources that can play a role in helping people move into the middle class."
Social engineering
According to HUD, long-term solutions include "helping people gain access to different neighborhoods and channeling investments into under-served areas." The mapping tool may guide development and zoning decisions, for example.
In a July 16 speech to the NAACP, Donovan said the American Dream still isn't within equal reach of all communities. He lamented the lack of diversity in America's boardrooms, schools, and the nation's "strongest neighborhoods."
"We have got to shape a future where ladders of opportunity are available for all Americans," Donovan said. "For African Americans, this is critically important. Historically, for this community, the rungs on these ladders have been too far apart -– making it harder to reach the middle class."
Donovan said HUD's new neighborhood mapping tool, which uses Census data, will "expand access to high opportunity neighborhoods and draw attention to investment possibilities in under-served communities."
"Make no mistake, this is a big deal," Donovan said. "With the HUD budget alone, we are talking about billions of dollars. And as you know, decades ago, these funds were used to support discrimination. Now, they will be used to expand opportunity and bring communities closer to the American Dream."
Under the Fair Housing Act, HUD requires grantees, such as cities, that receive federal housing funds to "affirmatively further fair housing."
Under the proposed rule, the neighborhood data provided by HUD will be used to evaluate patterns of integration and segregation, racial and ethnic concentrations of poverty, and access to "valuable community assets." HUD wants to know if existing laws and policies -- such as zoning, financing, infrastructure planning and transportation -- create, perpetuate or alleviate segregation.
The proposed rule explicitly incorporates fair-housing decision-making into existing planning processes and "other decision-making that influences how communities and regions grow and develop."
_______________________________________________
This is a good overview of what is happening in urban development and why it involves a complete takeover of all development from the people and to the rich.....neo-liberalism. These policies were advanced to Reagan but put into overdrive when Clinton took the protection of the people's party and handed it to corporate interests. Feudalism is what comes when this policy is allowed to play out!
BELIEVE ME MIDDLE-CLASS WHO THINK GETTING RID OF THE POOR AND WORKING CLASS IS GOOD.....IT WILL BE THE END OF THE MIDDLE CLASS AS WELL!!!
Introduction: Contradictions of Neoliberal Urban Planning Download Book (3,237 KB) Download Chapter (421 KB) Abstract Neoliberalisation manifests itself as a ‘prevailing pattern of market-oriented, market-disciplinary regulatory restructuring’ (Peck, Theodore, & Brenner, 2009, p. 51). The neoliberalisation of social, economic and political processes pervades urban development, planning and governance discourses and practices, and pushes them in a market-oriented direction; however the terms ‘neoliberalisation’ and ‘planning’ are seldom heard together in the same phrase. The concept of neoliberal planning may actually seem to be a contradiction in terms to some planners; while to others it may be a signal to ‘give up’. The neoliberal city actually exists, as does neoliberal urban planning; but as urban planning becomes increasingly neoliberal and entrepreneurial, serious contradictions arise in the governance of cities.
__________________________________________________
One would wonder why a city like Baltimore with the level of injustice in development and revenue distribution can get away with the failure to enforce law. Well, it starts with the Baltimore/Maryland HUD office who chooses to turn its head to injustice and who assigns these department heads?
The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO)
is an agency within the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHEO is responsible for administering and enforcing federal fair housing laws and establishing policies that make sure all Americans have equal access to the housing of their choice.
Fair Housing Hotline
One of the main functions of FHEO is to provide an administrative complaint process that is available free of charge to any person who believes they have faced housing discrimination because of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability to voice their concerns. FHEO conducts intake of all housing-related discrimination complaints and conducts investigation. Any person who thinks they have experienced housing discrimination is encouraged to call the toll free Housing Discrimination Hotline.
Work FHEO consists of one headquarters office in Department of Housing and Urban Development building in Washington, DC and has ten regional offices across the country. The regional offices enforce fair housing laws; conduct training, outreach, and compliance monitoring; and work with state and local agencies to administer fair housing programs.
The headquarters office is responsible for proposing fair housing legislation; working with other government agencies on fair housing issues; reviewing and making comments on proposed rules, handbooks, legislation, draft reports, and notices of funding availability from other departments within HUD; interpret policy, process complaints, perform compliance reviews, and offer technical assistance to local housing authorities and community development agencies regarding Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act on 1968; conduct oversight of the Government Sponsored Enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to ensure consistency with the Fair Housing Act and the fair housing provisions of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act; and work with private industry and community advocates on the promotion of voluntary fair housing compliance. In addition, FHEO manages the Fair Housing Assistance Program and the Fair Housing Initiatives Program.
For those who know Graziano, he is the face of Baltimore's unjust development controlled by Baltimore Development corporation. He has been in place throughout O'Malley and now Rawlings-Blake. Below we see the HUD offices are being moved to New York. It may help with local crime and corruption never before seen in modern history.....but we know New York is the home of Wall Street....no big win.
We would want a HUD office locally if we could elect politicians who were not criminal and corrupt!
It may be good to get HUD out of a very corrupt environment in Baltimore, but sending it to a Wall Street New York does not bode well either! We hear HUD Secretary Donovan calling for adherence to equal opportunity housing.....let's see him enforce these laws with the Federal grants being sent to cities across the nation for just that ......and these requirements just ignored!
City to lose federal housing workers
Move is part of HUD reorganization nationwideMay 15, 2013|By John Fritze, The Baltimore Sun
Nearly three dozen workers at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development office in Baltimore — roughly a third of the agency's workforce in Maryland — are being forced to transfer out of state or take a buyout.
The choice, which will affect 32 employees at the agency's South Howard Street field office, comes as part of a national reorganization aimed at saving about $45 million a year.
The department is consolidating workers in 50 offices nationwide who facilitate the construction and rehabilitation of multifamily housing into 10 offices, HUD spokesman Jerry Brown said Wednesday.
"It helps us with workload-balancing and to get a more efficient operation," Brown said.
The Baltimore office is among those losing workers; their function is to be performed from out of state.
Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said he understands the federal budget constraints, but expressed concerns about the impact the departures could have on the city.
He said the local field office was instrumental in dismantling blighted properties in Northwest Baltimore, for instance.
"This firsthand knowledge of community concerns will likely be difficult to replicate in a field office far removed from Baltimore City," Graziano said in a statement. "It is imperative that HUD work with us to address these concerns."
Agency officials have stressed that the reorganization is not related to the $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, but rather long-standing budget issues. The Baltimore field office will remain open for other functions.
HUD has about 100 workers in Maryland, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
None of the employees affected by the reorganization will be laid off, officials said, but some might be offered buyouts, early retirement or transfers.
Union leaders said some employees are financially unable to move to New York, which they said is the most likely transfer point, and have raised concerns about the plan.
"There's a lot that we don't know," said Debra Walker of the American Federation of Government Employees. "Some of these employees cannot afford to live" in New York, she said.
"How are you going to manage Baltimore from New York?" she asked.
The other consolidated offices will be in Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Fort Worth, Texas. Satellite offices are planned for Boston, Denver, Detroit, Jacksonville and Kansas City.
The restructuring is scheduled to begin in the fall and is expected to take more than two years to complete, officials said. Parts of the plan must be negotiated with unions representing the employees.
It is unclear when employees in Baltimore would be affected.
HUD announced the reorganization in late April along with the closing of several field offices located in smaller cities, including Syracuse, N.Y., and Fresno, Calif.
We need to be clear.....these people do not have this wealth......since much of this wealth was stolen from government coffers it needs to come back to the people by simply reinstating Rule of Law and recovering tens of trillions in corporate fraud. If your pol or political action group is not shouting out to reverse this wealth inequity with Rule of Law, they are not working for you and me.
American Billionaires And Their Private Company Fortunes
Andrea Murphy, Forbes Staff
I write about America's largest private companies.
Follow (52) Lists | 3/12/2012 @ 2:07PM
There are 63 individuals with a combined net worth of on the world’s billionaires list with fortunes that come directly from businesses on our annual ranking of the largest private companies in the US. Taken as a group, these people have a net worth of $305.1 billion.
The two biggest private companies, Cargill (#1) and Koch Industries (#2), helped put nine people on the 2012 world’s billionaires list. Seven of them are heirs to Cargill, the agricultural giant. (My colleague Brian Solomon wrote an excellent breakdown the family and its wealth here.) The other two are Charles and David Koch, a pair who have received more attention lately for their politics than for their company.
10 images Photos: Biggest Billionaire Gainers The top 20 private companies produce a total of 23 billionaires, but you can find billionaires throughout the list of private companies. Last year, a total of 212 companies qualified for the list with revenues of $2 billion or more. John Catsimatidis’s Red Apple Group was ranked #98 last year. Conair, #209 on the 2011 list is the company behind billionaire Leandro Rizzuto.
There are some familiar names, but most private companies aren’t well-known. For every Mars or Hearst Corporation there is a Flex-N-Gate or Rich Products. This is largely because private companies don’t get the same coverage as their public counterparts. The list below is a good example of the familiar and the less well-known in terms of both private companies and their related billionaire.
The Top 10 Private Company Billionaires
1. Charles Koch
Net Worth: $25 billion
Private Company: Koch Industries
1. David Koch
Net Worth: $25 billion
Private Company: Koch Industries
3. Michael Bloomberg
Net Worth: $22 billion
Private Company: Bloomberg LP
4. Forrest Mars Jr
Net Worth: $13.8 billion
Private Company: Mars
4. Jacqueline Mars
Net Worth: $13.8 billion
Private Company: Mars
4. John Mars
Net Worth: $13.8 billion
Private Company: Mars
7. Anne Cox Chambers
Net Worth: $12.5 billion
Private Company: Cox Enterprises
8. Jack Taylor & family
Net worth: $10.4 billion
Private Company: Enterprise Rent-A-Car
9. Abigail Johnson
Net worth: $10.3 billion
Private Company: Fidelity Investments
10. James Goodnight
Net worth: $7.3 billion
Private Company: SAS Institute
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