[lbo-talk] Winter solstice wishes

Chuck Grimes cagrimes42 at gmail.com
Thu Dec 19 10:26:30 PST 2013


Simple. All the machinery exists in the sense of bureaucratic systems, oversight, reporting, accountability for a vast increase in federally funded housing subsidies and development. All that is needed is money. So re-start that system to provide subsidy for low income housing of existing units and increase development of new buildings of modest scale within the neighborhood areas near already existing and down and out shopping areas. A lot of multistoried but relatively modest buildings were either renovated or built around Berkeley and Oakland to provide housing which was totally inadequate to the need, but they did start on this in the 1990s. These immediately filled up with seniors.

But really what was needed was more of the same and added mixed population of families with a spread of middle to low incomes built near shopping and transportation. These kinds of projects need the other side of the equation which is jobs. The reconstruction of local physical infrastructure is crying need. It was started in the late 80-90s with the ports but never carried through to rail and trucking, which forms a kind of bottleneck to move frieght out of the port and into the western states. The current practice is to hire companies low bid and who are typically located outside the bay area. Revert to local companies so that the jobs are local and heavily unionized to begin with.

So solstice fairy put on your red arm band and get out your clipboard.

CG



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