Congressional Democrats possess a 39 seat majority within the Home, and polls suggest they ought to be really worried. But the top lawmaker in charge of defending Democratic seats says the surveys are all wrong.
“Reports of the Home Democrats’ demise are greatly exaggerated,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-Md) said at a Washington press conference Friday. “It all depends on turnout projections, and I believe they have been miscalculating Democratic turnout.”
For most of the year, slightly much more voters have preferred a Republican for Congress than a Democrat, according to a Gallup generic poll released earlier this month.
But this year, independents are expected to be the decisive voting block, and Gallup has consistently shown they have a strong double digit preference for GOP candidates over Democrats.
The Democratic National Committee and its House and Senate subcommittees have been girding for tough midterms all year. Democrats have raised and spent more than Republicans, and have pre-committed resources and ground troops to defend their 54 most vulnerable seats. With primaries winding down, Democrats are now ramping up their attacks about the GOP as too extreme, based on its new crop of Tea Party-backed candidates.
“The Republican candidates emerging from primaries across the country are on the far correct from the spectrum, in many instances being driven by the Tea Party movement,” says Van Hollen. “In numerous instances, being the nominee of the Tea Party movement. And they are not a good fit for our moderate, centrist districts.”
Amplifying that charge in a coordinated launch, the DNC posted a web video spotlighting some better-known Tea Party candidates and their positions. It ends with US Senate candidate Joe Miller of Alaska saying, “We’ve got to transition out of the social security arrangement, and go into much more of a privatization. That’s not that radical of an idea.” A derisive warning then flashes onto the screen: “The Republican Tea Party 2010. Imagine, these people could represent YOU.”
On the Republican side, the RNC has established 306 offices nationwide, and has made a record-breaking seven million person-to-person phone calls to identify GOP households.
With the final sprint looming, independent groups are beginning to ante up about the right, as well. American Crossroads, one of five particular independent groups created by GOP big-shots Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, and Norm Coleman, is starting a ten million dollar GOTV program in eight key states with tight Senate races: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Washington. Six of those hold vulnerable Democratic seats, and New Hampshire and Florida are up for grabs with incumbent Republicans retiring.
Source: Fox News - Politics Blog
After quarreling with state officials for years over the require to provide affordable real estate, Fairfax leaders have unveiled a plan that would set aside space for seniors, low-income workers and the homeless.
But town officials say they do not care regardless of whether the state - which rejected Fairfax’s previous real estate proposal in 2006 - accepts this one.
“I think we’ve put together a plan that meets the state’s real estate goals in a way that fits into our community very beautifully,” mentioned Mayor Lew Tremaine, who serves on Fairfax’s affordable housing committee. “The fact that we’re not doing it in (the state’s) prescribed way might be a problem for them. But we’re going to create affordable real estate our way. We do not need to have the state’s blessing on how we do it.”
Rather than designating areas of town for high-density inexpensive real estate, the housing proposal Fairfax leaders described at a public forum Thursday depends on a few little developments, the legalization of 2nd “in-law” units and a zoning alter that allows construction of second-story apartments above downtown retailers.
The plan’s biggest change would transform the 12-acre “highway commercial zone” along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to a brand new “central commercial” zone, in which property owners would not be required to seek a unique use permit in order to develop a second-story apartment.
“This would be returning to the historic roots from the town, in terms of conventional neighborhood design and transit-oriented development,” said Fairfax Planning Director Jim Moore. “About 42 parcels and 12 acres is going to be rezoned away from an auto-centric plan back to human scale.”
Other changes would allow the construction of 40 units of senior housing at the Lutheran Church’s property at 2525 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., and also the building of 20 units of workforce real estate for low- to middle-income workers at 2170 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., website from the former Mandarin Garden restaurant.
“We’re trying to meet our local needs, which we see as affordable housing for seniors and workforce real estate,” said Town Manager Michael Rock. “Those are the things we see as really lacking in this community.”
Those two projects would furnish at least 60 of the 108 housing units the town is needed to offer by the Association of Bay Area Governments. Fairfax officials hope to generate another 27 by striking a provision that requires the owners of second units - guest cottages or “in-law” apartments - to provide sprinkler systems for fire suppression. The move would legalize existing 2nd units.
The plan also allows the establishment of emergency homeless shelters within the new “central commercial” zone, and alters the zoning of School Street Plaza to encourage the creation of a new school. Although Ross Valley District officials passed on the idea of locating a new elementary school on School Street this summer, Fairfax leaders want to leave the possibility open for future plans.
“There appears to be strong support for re-creating the historic Central College at that website - or perhaps a private school,” Moore mentioned.
The Fairfax Town Council will consider the town’s real estate proposal Wednesday as part of a review of the town’s common plan. Ought to the council approve the proposal, a “super committee” that includes members from the council, the Planning Commission, the general plan advisory committee and the open space committee would then evaluate the overall strategy, a procedure that could take a minimum of a year.
By next fall, Moore believes, Fairfax could be on track to approve the very first complete general strategy within the town’s history.
Source: Contra Costa Times
A shortage of real estate for low- to moderate-income residents existed prior to Hurricane Katrina and will continue to challenge the Coast, but the hurricane resulted in innovative applications and collaborations that ought to assist in the future, housing advocates say.
“I think there’s been a sea change in attitudes,” said Gerald Blessey, housing-recovery director for the Mississippi Development Authority, which administers federal Community Development Block Grant money for Katrina housing applications. “Realistically, to have a healthy economy, your work force has to have inexpensive real estate.”
Under one post-Katrina housing plan, The Renaissance Corp. was formed to partner with companies, offering house buyers down-payment support and low-interest loans. The program involved private banks, government funding and nonprofit counseling. Local governments such as the Gulfport implemented similar programs.
Blessey, a Biloxi native and former mayor, said the Coast had an affordable-housing issue prior to Hurricane Katrina and continues to struggle with the issue. He mentioned 3,500 to 4,000 Katrina survivors still have unmet housing needs.
Blessey mentioned data about the remaining cases is being gathered and analyzed to develop plans for addressing the needs.
“I believe if we keep our hands on the wheel, all the remaining Katrina housing issues will be resolved prior to the sixth anniversary,” he said.
The Mississippi Center for Justice, which has advocated housing solutions for low- to moderate-income residents, believes the state ought to spend much more of its remaining federal Katrina funding to meet the needs. MCJ concludes in a report released for the five-year Katrina anniversary: “Right now, well over 5,000 Mississippi households lack permanent affordable housing, because of unjust decisions by Mississippi policy makers, irrational interpretation of federal audit, elevation and environmental rules, and discriminatory zoning decisions by local governments.”
From 2006 to 2008, a federal report found, Mississippi reduced federal Katrina spending on direct housing requirements from 63 to 52 percent of money received. Throughout that same time Louisiana increased federal Katrina money for real estate, from 77 to 86 percent.
In Mississippi, CDBG money has helped rebuild public-housing units, provided rental support and been awarded for developments that provide work-force housing. Also, 28,000 homeowners received about $2 billion in direct support to repair damaged properties or relocate.
Source: Sun Herald News
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans five many years ago, more than 5,000 families lived in the city’s community housing advancements. Now, only a third of them are back again in public real estate. Numerous have found homes elsewhere.
Some former residents think the storm gave the city an excuse to get rid of some of its poorest citizens. Housing officials say, about the contrary, it was a chance to enhance their lives.
Nearly a year after the storm, then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced that the government would demolish flood-damaged public real estate projects and replace them with new, mixed-income developments. He said it would bring a “renaissance” to city neighborhoods.
Many who evacuated from community real estate fought those plans. They argued that developments slated for demolition could be repaired. But, eventually, the government won.
‘I Don’t Like My Lifestyle’
Today, Bobbie Jennings, 64, is among the first few dozen families to move back again into one of the new advancements. It is called Harmony Oaks and is on the site from the previous C.J. Peete real estate project, where Jennings lived for more than 30 many years before the storm.
But she’s not happy.
“In their eyesight it may be better, but in my eyesight it is not,” says Jennings, a retired nursing assistant. Don’t get her wrong, she states, the new units are lovely. Jennings has a two-story townhouse, with 2 1/2 baths and a modern kitchen, which she shares with her daughter and two grandchildren. But Jennings says she’s just not comfortable living there.
“People close to here do not know me. They don’t know my grandchildren,” Jennings says. “I really seldom sit outside. [There] is nobody to talk to now.”
Many of her former neighbors haven’t returned, and they couldn’t even if they wanted to. Only one-third of the units in the new complex are devoted to public housing. The rest will go to residents with greater incomes. The government’s plan would be to prevent the old days of warehousing the poor.
Jennings says she also has to spend greater rent — and utilities, which she never had to pay before. And her twin sister, Gloria Williams, now lives around the corner on another street. She utilized to reside right next door.
“It’s harder for me,” Jennings states. “I love the unit, but I don’t like my lifestyle.”
Mixed-Income Development
But not every previous C.J. Peete resident feels the exact same. Jocquelyn Marshall grew up here and says there’s no question Harmony Oaks is a vast improvement over the aging, crime-ridden development she fled five many years ago.
Marshall now has a three-bedroom brick home with peach shutters that she shares with her son. Everything is clean and new. There’s even a large outdoor pool and exercise room nearby for her to use.
“I love my house,” she states. “I adore the landscaping, how it goes up a little on a hill.”
Marshall, who’s president of the Harmony Oaks Neighborhood Association, knows that the journey right here has left lots of ill feelings and mistrust, that housing officials promised more than they could deliver, and citizens had been sometimes lied to and left within the dark. But she states, at some point, previous residents had to choose whether to keep fighting the planned demolition or assist to shape what was to be constructed instead.
“Many people, when they were relocated off the website and given vouchers to live in other cities, they started living in better conditions. They didn’t wish to arrive back again to poor plumbing. They didn’t want to come back to the crime,” she states.
David Gilmore, who runs the Real estate Authority of New Orleans, states Hurricane Katrina only hastened what was bound to happen sooner or later to the city’s aging public housing stock. And he thinks it’s for the very best.
“Nobody in his correct mind would ever develop a C.J. Peete again, or any of these developments again, within the same manner in which they were constructed the very first time,” he states. “So what’s the option? The choice is then to go figure out what makes much more sense.” And that, he says, is the mixed-income communities now being built, with less stigma for the poor and more opportunities for residents, like job training and counseling.
Gilmore says he understands that individuals are frustrated. Redevelopment takes a long time, and it could be a number of more many years prior to the projects are complete. The city’s real estate authority has also been hampered by mismanagement and corruption. Gilmore was brought in earlier this year by HUD to turn things close to.
“I think folks need to be told the straight scoop correct from the outset,” he says. “Yes, we’re going to do this. And no, we’re not going to do this. We just can’t get it done.”
And that includes telling public housing residents that not each and every one of them will get to return, that some instead will get vouchers to find other housing in New Orleans and elsewhere. In fact, that’s what many previous public housing residents have already done. Gilmore states that no one who qualifies for aid will be abandoned.
Sky-High Rents
Real estate advocates say they’re hopeful he’ll be good to his word. But they’re worried about a shortage of inexpensive units in a city exactly where rents have gone sky high.
Laura Tuggle with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services says there is been a lot of real estate assist from the federal federal government since Katrina.
“But the demand is so huge that in case you had been to re-open the public real estate waiting list these days, I am particular that you would get thousands and thousands of more applications,” she states.
For now, Bobbie Jennings says she’s going to try to stick it out at Harmony Oaks.
“I’m gonna battle until all the fight is gone out of me. But whenever you can’t fight no more, you can’t battle no more. You have to give up,” she states.
This month, she took a hit when her daughter got a work and her rent went up $160 a month. To assist spend for it, Jennings returned the sofa set she was trying to purchase on layaway for her new post-Katrina home.
Source: NPR News
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