Knee-jerk government in its finest hour: Brand-new government-paid slum turf

A photo report: slum turf rising from the weedy lots of East Newark

On August 24, 2006, I wrote at Newark Tea Party that when historians look back at the activities of the present Newark City government they are apt to name it the "Knee-Jerk Era." No activity (except perhaps the act of double charging Newark citizens for Emergency Squad services) more clearly illustrates Knee-Jerking than city government's approval of a Columbus developer using tax credits to build lousy houses on lousy lots in the lousy sections of town. This is brand new squalor, but hey, it's obviously profitable for someone. Bet on this: it isn't profitable for Newark's long haul, and it isn't now or in the future going to be profitable for taxpayers.

You don't build stuff like this - maybe the last sort of real estate investment anyone would consider - unless you're a developer in cahoots with deep-pocketed government bureaucrats.

I wrote here earlier that some or all of the houses will be on sub-standard lots with gravel driveways which have no walkways to the house, according to comments reported by Gannett. Thus will financially disabled families be able to afford to rent these houses for 15 years before buying them, likely using government subsidies for all or most of their expenses, including rent payments.

There has been no public discussion that I know of about who is going to manage this potential brand-new slum turf or to what standards that management will be held. There was no report, to my recollection, about whose idea this was, how it got as far as it did without public discussion, and exactly who are the local profiteers. Neither has there been any public dialog about how long the developer, The Woda Group, is going to be in business around here, or anywhere, and what's going to happen to these places if present developers abandon them after they're built.

In fact, there was no public discussion of any kind. It just went through government gatekeepers and developers and here it is.

Knee-jerk government in its finest hour.