Here Come The Americans!

July 21, 2008
Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC

Here come the Americans…
I believe in the spirit of this country and have read so much about all the sub-prime mess…looking for the rays of hope. What I seek is the pathways that led us here and then the ideas and the pathways, even though we may have to blaze them, out and to better ideas of what we can and might do.Applause to Neal Peirce of the Washington Post Writers Group for his ideas.
I am selecting his very good ideas for path out of and not the path into this mess.
He first calls for Assistance for low-income renters through the national affordable housing trust fund… and then the restoration of HUD.
He writes: With a will, we could have top-notch leadership and a rejuvenated agency staff focused on a full spectrum of housing for all Americans. Though maybe with a caveat-to rename HUD the Department of Housing and Metropolitan Development. Why? To think more expansively, to make connections. No Other developed country lacks a national policy on cities, recognizing the vital importance of urban regions. We need such a policy-and department.He continues: Build in anti-sprawl incentives. Incentives for coordinated development could be built not just into housing but also highway or transit bills, requiring our nationwide set of metropolitan planning organizations to take on land use, working with city and suburban governments to limit wasteful outward sprawl of regions.But a HUD focused especially on cities and housing could be a special steward of the new relationships, providing incentives for core cities and suburbs which increasingly need housing supports, to work together.Plus a new HUD could watch to see that housing has meaningful income mixes and that it works hand-in-glove with transportation-making sure, for example, that when federal housing dollars are used, there will be upgraded zoning around highway interchanges or transit stops, providing higher density, more energy efficient and socially inclusive housing together with job-providing commercial development. That way, isolated housing projects for the poor and federally financed roads to developers Greenfield projects would be history.We could do all these exciting things. But first, we’ll have to make some smart choices-candidates with vision, and some tough political hides-in the November elections.
We have problems. We have solutions. Here come the Americans!

Lynnsy Logue The Real Estate Lady and Condo CanDo in Charlotte, NC