Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Politicians Smother Cities

  1. #1
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Buffalo, New York, United States
    Posts
    64,947

    Politicians Smother Cities

    Politicians Smother Cities

    I like my hometown, but I must admit that New York has problems: high taxes, noise, traffic. Forbes magazine just ranked my city the 16th most miserable in America. Ouch! Of course, that makes me wonder: What's America's most miserable city?


    Cleveland, says Forbes. People call it "the Mistake by the Lake. " Cleveland, once America's sixth-largest city, has been going downhill for decades.
    Why do some cities thrive while others decay? One reason is that some politicians smother their cities with the unintended consequences of their grand visions, while others have the good sense to limit government power.


    In a state that already taxes its citizens heavily, Cleveland's politicians drown businesses in taxes.
    One result: Since 2000, 50,000 people have left the city. Half of Cleveland's population has left since 1950.


    http://www.creators.com/opinion/john...er-cities.html


    The residents of Erie County can learn from this.

  2. #2
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Buffalo, New York, United States
    Posts
    64,947
    But the politicians haven't learned. They still think government is the key to revitalization. While Indianapolis privatized services, Cleveland prefers state capitalism. It owns and operates a big grocery store, the West Side Market. Typical of government, it's open only four days a week, and two of those days it closes at 4 p.m. The city doesn't maintain the market very well. Despite those cost savings, the city manages to lose money running the market. It also loses money running golf courses — $400,000 last year.
    Now what was Sam Hoyt just appointed to?

  3. #3
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Buffalo, New York, United States
    Posts
    64,947
    Another way that cities like Cleveland cause their own decline is through regulations that make building anything a long drawn-out affair. Cleveland has 22 different zoning designations and 673 pages of zoning guidelines.
    Does this seem to apply to Erie County?

  4. #4
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Buffalo, New York, United States
    Posts
    64,947
    Politicians' rules rarely change because the politicians don't have their own money on the line.
    I think this holds true for Buffalo

  5. #5
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Buffalo, New York, United States
    Posts
    64,947
    Cleveland's managers thought that funding gleaming new sports stadiums (which subsidize wealthy team owners) and other prestigious attractions like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would revitalize their city.

    Urban policy expert Joel Kotkin says, "This whole tendency to put what are scarce public funds into conventions centers and ... ephemeral projects is delusional."
    What does BRO think about items like convention centers etc...

  6. #6
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Buffalo, New York, United States
    Posts
    64,947
    Bbt!??!?!?!?

    stadiums are among the more foolish of politicians' boondoggles. There are only 81 home baseball games a year and 41 basketball games. How does that sustain a neighborhood economy?

  7. #7
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Buffalo, New York, United States
    Posts
    64,947
    Check some of these comments out...

    ohn,

    You are so on target. How politicians don't see these things is beyond comprehension. I think it's a combination of their election and re-election egos with a healthy dose of arrogance that leads them to these decisions.

    In my small city of 70,000, La Mirada, CA, we have a heavily subsidized community arts theater that has been losing up to a million dollars a year. They've managed to trim it down a bit to $500,000-700,000 but give me a break. To top it off our city decided to build a waterpark that cost millions. It's a nice waterpark for sure but it is subsidized to the tune of another $500,000 a year.

    Now the city is realizing a budget shortfall of 3 million and wants to make cuts. Do you think those cuts included the waterpark or theater? No way! To top it off, the city discovered it has about $70 to 100 million in infrastructure needs and never saved a penny for it. What's their cure....Raise taxes or impose "user utility fees" on all of our utilities.

    This all comes after the city put together a "Citizens Task Force on City Finances and Operations". The views of the task force were broad in many ways but when it was specific about things like the theater and waterpark they basically said those are off limits. I say, Gimme a Break.

  8. #8
    Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Posts
    1,409
    Quote Originally Posted by WNYresident View Post
    Politicians Smother Cities



    http://www.creators.com/opinion/john...er-cities.html


    The residents of Erie County can learn from this.
    there IS a method to that madness, and buffalo is creeping toward that end like a frog being bolied in water. by driving the businesses and residents away, the politicos have successfully driven out their opposition. the majority (key word: majority) of people remaining are either dependent on govt handouts, or are PROVIDING the govt handouts from manager level down to clerks, all for a nice govt paycheck and bennies, and securing the future of the govt $$ to the the politicos who will stay in power (ahem, control) forever as there is not enough pepole left now to vote against them. Its utopia for libtards: drive out he oppostiion by sucking the economy driy and rasing taxes and regulations sky high, then create a class of govt dependent residents, and a govt employee infrastrustructure that can never go bankrupt ever...because the state govt or fed govt will continue to direct $$ to them. Take a look around: this is the future for buffalo as well. and lenny and the rest wold just LOVE that" drive enough people away, so there's not enough people left to vote them out of office. What do the politics care of people leave ? the ones leaving are the voters they were never gonna win over, and while the voter pool becomes smaller, it increases the % of voters who are dependent on the incumbent party. Its a perfect storm even though it scorches the earth. Buffalo is headed that same way.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. A Tale of Two Cities
    By nogods in forum Morning Breakfast - Breaking News
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: January 28th, 2011, 11:51 PM
  2. America's Most Miserable Cities
    By cheekman in forum Morning Breakfast - Breaking News
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: February 12th, 2009, 02:41 PM
  3. Cities by population
    By WNYresident in forum Buffalo NY Politics
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: February 9th, 2009, 07:16 PM
  4. Buffalo vs other cities... LOL
    By Dr Funky in forum Morning Breakfast - Breaking News
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: August 23rd, 2007, 03:14 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •