Youngstown Fights Grant Refusal
25 January 2010
2 Comments
Youngstown residents have launched a campaign against the Department of Housing and Urban Development after losing out on grant money to help deal with the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis.
Local activists are circulating a petition protesting the region’s denial of the second round of Neighborhood Stabilization Funds–a program of the Stimulus Bill which provides funding for demolition, rehabilitation and landbanking efforts.
The denial came as a surprise after the Youngstown area was praised by the Brookings Institution for its application, which brought together city and suburban leaders.
-AS
I just don’t know the details of this but I do have one opinion.
People should research Public Choice Theory, which applies the concept of self interest to politicians and government officials.
Once you start to look at it this way, it becomes entirely logical why government’s almost always follow and reinforce old and often failed ideas and industries over new ones.
In this case, Youngstown lacks one major thing–political pull from a large enough base of potential voters. It’s a better political bet to spread the grants around to the places where larger number of people live– even if they don’t have good ideas or projects.
This is also likely why we continue to repair and build new roads and infrastructure in suburban areas that are so visibly unsustainable. It’s why Amtrak runs lines in all over the country in places that make little sense rather than reinforcing the high density ones that work. It’s why we have the government schemes like “cash for clunkers” to get already broke consumers to buy cars they can’t afford or don’t need at the same time the same government acts worried about global warming. It’s why we still can’t get rid of evil budget busting dogs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which subsidize sprawl housing.
I agree that this may be political. Youngstown has been passed over for some pretty serious federal dollars lately, if I’m not mistaken.
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