Causing Progress

While Congress is on recess, now is the time to attend a town meeting hosted by the member of the House of Representatives for your Congressional District.

This round of meetings may be more contentious than previous cycles due to the probable shift to a Democratic majority in the mid-term elections and war-related issues (in Iraq and Lebanon). Republicans seem to sense their weakness, so they are in attack mode. Expect very negative campaign barrages in the Fall.

The Congress members and their staff attempt to control the event, but, unlike the faux ‘town meetings’ produced for W and Dick, Congressional staffers can’t control who attends these events. The staff watches for banners and projectiles, however the peer pressure from other attendees restrains the behavior of the fringes (right, left, and off-the-wall).

Here are some tips for making your attendance at a public meeting hosted by your Congressional Representative effective and less stressful for everyone involved:

• Clearly print your specific question on the cards provided. Refer to the title of legislation, particularly if the Congress member co-sponsored it. Do some homework.

• Assume that the Congress member will not read aloud your rapier-like screed that starts “You $%*&#@ spineless coward…”

• If you absolutely must communicate your screed to the Congress member and the audience, then bring a stack of leaflets and hand them out to the incoming audience. Include contact information, in case someone agrees with you.

• Some people can’t resist loudly arguing, muttering insults, and shouting questions. The other attendees wrote down their questions and expect the Congress member to ignore the loudmouths and answer the next written question. Dissent means never having to say, “I’m an asshole, and so is everyone who agrees with me.”

• Listen to the questions other people are asking. You may have a few narrow issues that push your buttons, but try to understand the other issues that may concern large segments of your community. How are the issues related?

One axiom of Christian-Republican faith holds that government cannot deliver high-quality , low-cost services to a community. The faithful argue that only a for-profit business can ‘deliver the goods.’ So, it’s interesting to see what happens when a city turns over the task of maintaining public property to a business owned by a Christian-Republican, who is also a member of the city council.

City threatens to yank councilman’s contract reported JournalStar.com in Lincoln, NE.
Ken Svoboda’s business holds the contract to maintain the medians on the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska. Perhaps he believed his position on the city council would protect him from complaints from a dissatisfied customer. Maybe it did, for a while. When the Public Works Director threatened to terminate the contract, the councilman finally fulfilled his obligation. Of course, he blamed his failure on others; his employees (“When I’m not there, things don’t get finished.”) and the general public (“This is a casualty of public service.”).

So, does your city outsource the maintainance of public property? To elected officials?

When experts talk about the cost of rents or mortgages for low income individuals and families, the phrase “deeper affordability” comes up. The question; How do we make homes available to people with incomes lower and lower on the income scale (below the median income for an area)?

For most of us above the median income, the cost of our homes is relative based on the number of acres, bathrooms, detached buildings, and stainless steel applicances. For those well below the median, the cost of a home involves the more basic issues of safety, access to grocery stores, and the day-to-day security of having a place to call home.

During a recent discussion of financing “deeper affordability,” an expert mentioned Low Income Housing Tax Credits as a Federal housing program unlikely to be slashed by the Bushies. Would Bush cut a tax credit that primarily benefits insurance companies and pension funds? That the credit may help low income people have a stable home probably doesn’t factor into the equation when an insurance company ‘pencils out a deal.’ However, like the Earned Income tax credit, it may be necessary to structure a ‘tax credit’ rather than an ‘income subsidy.’

For information about Low Income Housing Tax Credits, check out Novogradac and Company LLC at http://www.novoco.com/resource.shtml Don’t be put off by the fact that this is a CPA firm. Click the Policy and Legislation tab.

What agencies (public and private) in your area provide local financing of low income homes? How are Community Development Block Grant funds allocated?

Santa Fe Planning Commission: Group booed after hearing delayed

This article and the comments on it from the Santa Fe New Mexican sound all too familiar to those of us engaged at the local level on issues related to the environment (particularly related to our pertroleum-dependent economy and communities) and economic or social diversity.

The American Dream of a detached house with a multi-car garage and surrrounded by heavily-watered lawns didn’t make much sense fifty years ago, and makes even less sense today with oil at $75 per barrel. But, those who still believe in preserving their slice of the Dream still fight for an unsustainable lifestyle. Although some may trivialize these folks as having a NIMBY or drawbridge mentality, we should look closely at their very fundamental conservative ideology and activism.

• A deep denial of the unsustainability of the suburban lifestyle and of the environmental damage it causes.
• A clear rejection of economic diversity within a city, even if only in the limited form of “affordable housing.”
• A dismissive Fox News or AM radio talk-show style of political dialogue.

Too often progressives appear to focus on international and national issues, forgetting the struggles on our blocks, in our neighborhoods, and in our ciities.

To learn more about land use issues and their impact on the environment, check out the Sierra Club’s Challenge to Sprawl Campaign. To get an integrated persepctive on inclusionary zoing from the perspective of both non-profit and for-profit home builders, you might be interested in On Common Ground-Joint Principles on Inclusionary Housing Policies.

…and then attend the next meeting of your local Planning Commission.