HUD Grant - The Blame Game Has Started

[Youngstownshrimp]

This is what I love about blogs, a tool for transparency.  Too bad Jr. Novotney thinks this blog is in "poor taste."  He still hasn't called me up or answered my questions about deconstruction. 

Councilman, so D'Avignon(CDA) and MVOC goes to HUD and says, "Hey, give us millions and we will create this new county landbank and revive Youngstown."  But no one tells HUD or the Mayor that the City already has a landbank with cobwebs all over the deeds?

If the CDA went to HUD let's say and said we need the money to dig aquaculture ponds on the vacant lots created from demolition, or we need HUD money to dig shrimp ponds on Nevels Temple's 250 parcels, we may have been awarded the money just for creativity.

If I was HUD, I would have this answer today, " Youngstown, I gave you money last time and the time before, for demolition and you already have a landbank that you do nothing with?"

[john r. swierz]

  rr, I know nothing about this movement !

[john r. swierz]

    Naturally the city owns fire stations parks and other buildings. I questioned Bill D today about  city owned property in the land bank and he said it was about 500 parcels.

[Rick Rowlands]

Cafaro, Debartolo and Zoldan are major forces in the valley and employ many people.  Would you say that our valley would be better off if all three disappeared at midnight, and all their employees were unemployed tomorrow?

John, I hope you support the state sovereignty movement, which believes that unfunded mandates are unconstitutional and an assault on the rights of the individual states. 

[iwasthere]

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At the same time, be thankful for these businesses. They have done some enormous things for our area.

they are also known for their corrupt ways of ruining people's lives and businesses.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Good question, you can call the MVOC and ask them, or contact Phil Kidd who works for them, he is outspoken.  I know of others at MVOC, such as Ian Benniston, but he jumped over to this other entity called YNDC.  Funny how the national news explained that ACORN morphs into other entities.  I am not saying this of the MVOC, but rather just the similarities.

YNDC, is another new entity, that was to spearhead the urban development using the these HUD funds, I wonder what they will do now?  One of the projects that CDA and MVOC have been pushing is the creation of a county landbank.  Cleveland and Philly are in the middle of this right now, but I read that the verdict is still out on whether this is another sucking sound of tax funds vanishing.  The Youngstown landbank right now is the largest parcel holder in the City and most of their parcels have been sitting unproductively for decades.  What I read about the new landbank is all theory and looks good on paper.

[Penguins37]

I had heard that the grant app stated that the City would coordinate extensively with MVOC in the administration of the NSPII funds.  Does anyone know 1.) if that is true and 2.) is that common for municipalities to rely so heavily on an outside organization like MVOC for assistance?

I wonder if that may have played some role in HUD's reluctance to score the app well? 

Any thoughts?

[Youngstownshrimp]

Councilman, I understand. 

Today, we are in a new game and new Era, Asia has most of our money now, Germany exports four time as much as we do and yet we are huge.

BTW the Chamber is trying, but they also are old school and feed at the public trough, many businesses will not join them due to non-performance.  But again, it appears they are waking up.

[john r. swierz]

  Here's something that I forgot to mention. UNFUNDED MANDATES, These are things that come from various U.S. departments such as E.P.A., etc. They tell to do something and we have never budgeted for the Mandate , nor do they give us any funds.

[john r. swierz]

  I support the concept of bringing the business leaders together and  developing a plan , but isn't that the role of the Chamber?  Many years ago there  was and outcry by citizens and local governments that some of the monies that was sent to Washington rarely if ever got back to their regions. That's when some of the entitlement programs like  Urban Renewal grants and the like started

[Youngstownshrimp]

Councilman, exactly my point and thank you for being open.  Supplemental funding was always available when our large private sector was still robust in the country.  The problem is what DC is not really telling us , the government is broke, trillions in debt and no industry to payoff the debt.  Think of it this way, Youngstown can't function without the handout, where does DC gets its handout?  The buck stops somewhere.

What I am trying to do is get a jump on the economy and shift gears.  In my case , I shifted from land sales for development to agriculture because I see clearly that construction and development as we know it is dead in our country for probably ten years.  What I would like to see is the City leadership plotting a course by bringing in all the business leaders of the Valley and coming up with a thorough plan by qualified professionals.

[john r. swierz]

   Sorry for the typo, its"you need to spend money to make money"

[john r. swierz]

    Well I hate to inform you that entitlements and grants to cities have been around for over 50 years
    and if Y-town did not recieve them  we would be in a bigger hurt then we are .
    Government isn't easy to understand and even harder to operate when 85% of our budget is
    employee related. The above funding sources help us fill in the gaps.  When I was
    in business I used the axiom, "you need to speed money to make money"                           

[Youngstownshrimp]

No Councilman , if you read the Vindy blog, most of the local citizens are fed up with us always asking for grants, funding and loans.  What the people are trying to say is what Pres. Kennedy said long ago and is very true today, remember, "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country."

[john r. swierz]

      Here's food for thought! 12 years ago several council members really tried to get the setting mayor
      to hire a full time grant writer with support staff. Our thought was that even if we paid a high
      price, we would have a 10 fold benefit.  Maybe we would not have lost this grant if that had
      happened.