Mayor White's 2005 State Of The City Address

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Please read the Mayor's state of the City Address and tell me what you think about his comments. . .after all. . .it is your city. . .and you should want to know what your mayor's future plans are for Houston.

Here's the link: http://www.ci.houston.tx.us/citygovt/mayor...teofthecity.htm

[pineda]

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(From Mayor Bill White's speech:)

The second major initiative to improve our quality of life we call Project Houston Hope.

We will begin with six of our most blighted neighborhoods. These neighborhoods, and many of the heroic residents who stuck with them in years of decline, have seen many of their young families move out. In the neighborhoods we start with, half or more of the homes have been abandoned. Weeds grow taller than people. Abandoned properties serve as a magnet for crime and that begins the downward spiral.

We will enlist community organizations and the private sector to build affordable housing where crack houses now stand. We begin this effort next month by foreclosing on 1,500 properties where taxes have not been paid for an average of 19 years! We need partners to help us bring water and sewer services, road, drainage, and schools up to standard, and to repair occupied houses to allow the residents to live in the dignity befitting a great City.

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(From www.lonestartimes.com:)

Bill White wants to steal your house

Mayor White wants to build more public housing with your tax dollars, both to make housing more affordable and stave off gentrification.

Personally, I never really understood the problem with gentrification (gentrification, for those who don't know, involves the process by which a poor neighborhood becomes wealthier via an influx of wealthier residents). Sure, poorer residents are compelled to move because of rising property taxes, but their property values skyrocket concurrently. As such, they make out like bandits. Oftentimes they move into better homes as a result. Everybody wins.

But the typical liberal line is that poor minorities are 'displaced' by gentrification, and so a bloated municipal government, already strapped for funds, must proceed to spend gobs of money on public housing projects to prevent neighborhoods from turning wealthy. What a country!

Still, that part of Mayor White's plan is stupid, but not quite scary. What's scary is that White is toying with the idea of using eminent domain to actually take properties:

White said the city will work closely with non-profit groups and developers to build the affordable housing. He said the city is seeking the Texas Legislature's help by seeking the right to match top bids on foreclosed properties, something Dallas is able to do.

He said the city may also explore using its eminent domain powers to acquire some properties.

"I'm personally going to spend more time than anything else this year on this issue," White said in the press conference.

Hold onto your homes, gentlemen -- Mayor White is contemplating the merits of stealing your house and building cheap housing for poor people in its place. That's really compassionate, unless you're the homeowner. And here I was thinking that we had a right to property in this country. I suppose that doesn't matter a great deal to the tyrannical whim of Mayor White.

Let's just hope that your home isn't in the way of White's grand vision of social progress.

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^ Did you have a comment?

[Guest danax]

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(From Mayor Bill White's speech:)

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(From www.lonestartimes.com:)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow. I was beginning to think that I was the only one that saw this in that light.

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^ I think the City/Mayor is doing the right thing by foreclosing on these abandoned, delapidated properties for failure to pay years and years of property taxes.

[Astro]

Hold onto your homes, gentlemen -- Mayor White is contemplating the merits of stealing your house and building cheap housing for poor people in its place. That's really compassionate, unless you're the homeowner. And here I was thinking that we had a right to property in this country. I suppose that doesn't matter a great deal to the tyrannical whim of Mayor White.

Uh, sure we have a right to own property, but we don't have a right to skip on paying our property taxes and to disappear for 20 years while the tax bill rises higher than the property's value and the weeds grow 10 feet tall. I pay my tax bill every year so Mayor White won't be "stealing" my house...

[Lowbrow]

Maybe property taxes should come monthly rather than yearly. Many people just dont seem to be able to budget well for these things. I would escrow mine but something needs to be done. I mean I'd hate to lose the opportunity to invest my money for the year, capitolize off it and pay my taxes at the end of the year but I hate thinking some 60 year old is losing their house because they could budget properly too.

[713 To 214]

^The city doesn't have an interest in foreclosing on homes that people actually live in. The City is better off working with those people to arrange a payment plan for any delinquent taxes that may be owed. And, there is a lengthy process that the city has to implement before they can "take" someone's home.

What the Mayor is trying to do is foreclose on those properties that people have abandoned - which is evidenced by years and years of delinquent property taxes. These vacant properties DO invite crime (i.e. drug dealers dealing or drug addicts using in abandoned house). Additionally, they can be potential fire hazards to the rest of the community if a homeless person or drug addict starts a fire that gets out of control and spreads. The city should foreclose on these properties, and any property owner that does not want to his or her property "taken" then they will be given an opportunity to pay the delinquent amount before the City proceeds further.

[The Great Hizzy!]

I don't read into Mayor White's speech that he has a sneaky agenda to take over the homes of people who pay their property taxes (through eminent domain) and have a presence in the neighborhood. This is more an effort to address the issues that typically accompany property owners who abandon their properties (and their property tax paying responsibilities), leaving behind properties that are unkempt, dangerous, blighted and a potential haven for all types of less than ideal activities.

I don't think it necessarily stops gentrification but it at least gives the area an opportunity to experience some kind of positive renewal, which is probably better than the continued path of decay.

[Lowbrow]

^The city doesn't have an interest in foreclosing on homes that people actually live in.  The City is better off working with those people to arrange a payment plan for any delinquent taxes that may be owed.  And, there is a lengthy process that the city has to implement before they can "take" someone's home.

What the Mayor is trying to do is foreclose on those properties that people have abandoned - which is evidenced by years and years of delinquent property taxes.  These vacant properties DO invite crime (i.e. drug dealers dealing or drug addicts using in abandoned house).  Additionally, they can be potential fire hazards to the rest of the community if a homeless person or drug addict starts a fire that gets out of control and spreads.  The city should foreclose on these properties, and any property owner that does not want to his or her property "taken" then they will be given an opportunity to pay the delinquent amount before the City proceeds further.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah I guess my thought process just went in another direction. Because I do know alot of these people that are just scared witless by their taxes. Seems a steep learning curve. Anyway, back to your previous discussion....

[Guest danax]

I completely agree with the city trying to expedite the changing of hands of these delinquent properties, although the mention of using eminent domain and a land bank to have first shot at these properties puts a picture in my mind of a king sitting on his throne licking his chops. I just don't like the idea of bulldozing them and then trying to shoe-horn low income people into them in order to keep property values down (stem gentrification). A simple plan to get on with the business of dealing with tax deliquencies has mutated into social engineering.

I say sell at market to the highest bidder.

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The mayor did talk about other things too in his address. Anyone care to comment on ather parts of his speech?

[tw2ntyse7en]

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^ Yeah, our 1st responders AND teachers should be paid more.

[tw2ntyse7en]

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