In Investors reap windfall from affordability Ana Menenez asks and answers:
"Does affordable housing have a future in Miami? Not so long as politicians blindly throw money at a system that gleefully embraces greed and fantasy."
I wrote about this subject May 4th, but here is a reporter with real credentials writing about it: Masterful! My favorite part was when Ana Menendez commented on the City of Miami and Miami Dade County giving $1,000,000 each to Jorge Perez’s Related Group:
“So the City of Miami donated one million hard-earned tax dollars toward construction of The Loft Condominiums on Northeast Third Street. The county handed over another $1 million to The Related Group, the developer, which was really generous considering The Related Group's 2005 revenues were $3.25 billion.
"It makes as much sense as me donating half my paycheck to Warren Buffett.”
And she is right about that! Pulling quotes out of a really good column isn’t fair but look at this one:
“Or maybe city leaders were itching for a supporting role in the great affordable housing scandal.”
This column is an example of why you should get the Anemic Miami Herald. It is the brilliance we get once in awhile. Read her column!
I have to do one last quote, because Herald columns will be gone in a week and I want you to have this information:
''The intention was for workforce housing -- you know, people who are teachers, firefighters,'' County Commission Chairman Bruno Barreiro told the Herald.
"Teachers, firefighters and politically connected working class folk like lobbyist Al Lorenzo, who ran Mayor Manny Diaz's campaign. Lorenzo bought, flipped and made a cool $92,100 profit on his affordable housing investment, according to a city report."
4 comments:
I agree - great albeit sad column. This city is so @#!X. I've been here 15 years and it is the same ol same ol. It has been market forces that have brought about change, primarily with more affluent folks moving into the inner core and demanding better services and improvements. Money talks. But I digress..
Yet the voters keep voting for the same commissioners over and over again. At the very least they should have term limits so we can get rid of them after awhile. And then they wonder why HUD wants to take Housing over (not that I think it will be any better).
there is a PAC working on term limits. It is called 8 is Enough...
Related is the same developer who paid millions to get neighborhood groups not to oppose their overly massive project on the Grove waterfront. You get the votes you pay for...
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