I was taking out the trash this morning and thinking about Max Rameau’s public letter—condemning the idea of selling off excess condo units for “affordable” housing (read the entire letter in the post section of the post, below, "Opportunity for political change in US housing market crash")—and it suddenly occurred to me why county commissioner Joe A. Martinez is considering a run at Miami-Dade county mayor.
In The Miami Herald on Sunday, Martinez said that he might run if certain roadway and parks projects were completed. Well, he sure has his priorities for public consumption down, I thought to myself taking out the trash.
In fact, were Martinez to run—he would run as the candidate designated by the builders and developers to bail-out their industry in Miami-Dade—collapsing under the worst market conditions in Miami since binder boys flipped land titles on downtown street corners. That would have been, around 1911.
Isn’t it interesting how the free-market Cuban American elite from the building industry, who hate Castro, would now be for socializing the costs of the housing crash?
Here is how it works with South Florida builders and developers: you couldn't get a word in, edge-wise, about the terrible zoning decisions that have scarred the South Florida landscape in order to enrich builders and developers, but now that their businesses are losing hundreds of millions, they want a bail out.
Here is what I say: no bail outs. Period.
Martinez has been shopping around the idea, for a long time, that vacant condos and houses might be good purchases by a public entity in order to resolve the affordable housing crisis.
Many months ago when the Miami Dade House Agency imploded Eyeonmiami speculated that a federal takeover—under the supervision of former Latin Builder member and now Assistant Secretary of HUD, Orlando Cabrera—would take the form of rescuing the same builders and developers who pushed suburban sprawl into wetlands and continue to dominate city and county commissions.
I agree with Rameau, an African American civic activist who has distinguished himself by his independence from old line leadership in the African American community: the last thing in the world Miami should agree to, is bailing out the banks, the developers and builders who created the housing crisis in the first place.
Subsidized housing in the downtown corridor would be an unmitigated disaster. It is already a mish-mash of commercial retail and residential landscapes, built without reason or common sense.
Instead of fostering incremental change and slowly building downtown audiences for residential living, it did what any coke addict would do when confronted with the choice of just a single line or taking the whole baggie stuffed with white powder. That's the Miami way.
So now you have tens of thousands of residential units coming on line, with no tenants or owners other than the banks buying titles from busted sales at a furious clip, and the best idea is to bail-out the builders by piling thousands of “affordable” tenants there?
Rameau is right, again, when he suggests (I don’t think entirely seriously) that it would be better to just buy out people’s homes where they live now, and re-sell them to people at half price. What’s the difference? None, except that in Rameau’s hypothetical example—no bankers or builders benefit.
As a final comment (I won’t speculate on the rumor that Cabrera recently resigned from HUD and where he might pop up next, if that is the case) I want to point out that we are about to see, in downtown Miami, exactly how pitiful the argument is, that growth pays its own way.
All the costs for fire, police protection, waste and water infrastructure necessary to accommodate those tens of thousands of empty condo units are going to be paid for by existing taxpayers in the Roads, Shenandoah, Little Havana, Coconut Grove, Morningside—you name it. And how much more will those services cost, and who will pay, if suddenly those tens of thousands of condos become “affordable”?
I don’t know the answer to that question. But as to the question, whether Joe Martinez is a qualified candidate to be county mayor: are you kidding?
15 comments:
Joe Martinez as County Mayor. The fox guarding the chicken coop!
Little guy with a Napoleon complex. Nice. That is just who we need for mayor.
Read Max Rameau's comments. He advocates a bailout for poor people who bought homes that exceeded their incomes. In fact, he suggested taxpayers give those idiots a $100,000 bailout AND letting them stay in their overpriced homes. And what is the Section 8 program if not a bailout for people who should have stayed in school? And what about the "tax credit" programs to make taxpayers pay 75% of the costs for poor people to rent new apartments? At the same time providing massive fees to the Carlyles, Pinnacles and Gatehouse's of the world.
I agree: that idea makes as much sense as government funds for affordable housing needs being used to bail out condo flippers and developers who are big campaign contributors to political campaigns. But guess which one will be discussed by the political elite?
I WOULD love to see Martinez make a run for Mayor...he would have to resign his current seat, would get trounced in a Mayoral election, and then he would have to start payting for constructions services like the rest of us. Run, Joe, Run!!
Gimleteye,
Binder boys were more like 1923 rather than 1911.
Regarding the infrastucture costs of new downtown development, the new units are going to be taxed like every other unit in the City. Whether it is a unit owner or the bank, someone is going to be on the hook for the taxes for those, mostly non Homesteaded, units.
I wouldn't call the current situation a catastrophe. I think its absolutely great for the 90% of South Florida residents that didn't invest in speculative real estate. If you bought your house to live in it, then you're fine. These are the best times ever! Rents are falling! RE prices are falling! Young people can finally afford their own homes again!
No one is proposing legislation to bail-out any speculators. On the other hand taxpayers are constantly buying $250,000 apartments so poor people can live in them paying $450 per month rent. Who do you think pays the balance? Isn't that a bail-out? Been going on for years.
Where do I sign up?
[quote][b]taxpayers are constantly buying $250,000 apartments so poor people can live in them paying $450 per month rent[/b][/quote]
What is the name of the program?
I'd like a 3 bedroom.
Amazing but true. If you make $25,000 to $37,000 approx you can get a brand new 1 bedroom to 3 bedroom for $450 per month to $775 per month approx. From Pinnacle, Carlyle, Gatehouse et al. These are brand new units that cost the taxpayers $250,000 or more. Isn't that welfare? A bail-out for people making less than $40,000 per year? A hand-out? Taking money from the employed to give to the under-employed?
The fundamental societal question is do we collectively subsidize the wealthy, or do we subsidize the poor? It is a question each democratic capatalistic generation must answer. How we answer it, responds to Karl Marx's predictions about our way of life.
Those "wealthy"... just standing around waiting for a free meal and food stamps...mumbling about their subsidies... Such a drain on society.
Stop picking on the poor. There is so much fraud that is taking money from your pocket...festering fraud perpetrated by the greedy. Don't let them scapegoat the poor to take the focus off the real villains.
Just be happy you don't make $37,000 a year. Can't you cut people who ARE WORKING some slack....where is this bootstrap mentality coming from...oh that's right George W.
To Anonymous,
You should be directing your anger at the "poverty peddlers". You should be mad at the so-called developers who charge enormous fees and invest zero equity to build housing for the poor. (Or not build it as we saw with Miami-Dade Housing Agency) They are the ones driving BMW's and S600 Mercedes. And you should be livid at the Directors of the Community Based Organizations (CBO) who pay themselves $200,000 per year not including car allowances, free cell phones, travel expenses, very generous retirement plans... all to help "poor people". Sure. You should be mad at all the taxpayer money intended for poor people that gets stolen and disappeared.
Bailout?
Are you crazy?
Send'em to hell!
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