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San Francisco |
Today on NPR there was a feature story regarding eviction of San Francisco residents,
some of whom have been at the same location for more than twenty-seven years, in
order to increase tax revenues and to upscale the demographics of the
residents.
My single sister moved in her early career as an architect
to North Beach in San Francisco. She
gave up her car and mid-western life style for the opportunity of life in a
legendary urban city. I visited her
several times over the years and her joy was almost palpable. Eventually she moved across the Golden Gate
to the first and last home she would own.
As I listened to the commentator describe the forced exodus
that would bring an end to rent-controlled living, I felt the description of “losing
the artists and Bohemians who have described the city” was not far off the
mark.
Last week I chatted up a Puerto Rican lawyer, while attending
the Greater New York Dental Meeting. He
mentioned that his father, in the export business, had an office/residence
only a few blocks from where we were at, near Times Square. His rent was $75/month until 1985! The controlled rent was costing the city,
literally hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
San Francisco wants their dollars!
In smaller cities those dollars are the backbone of the
education system, the statistics which were released today show little improvement
in comparison with other countries and even a serious reduction in math
proficiency.
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Philadelphia school room |
A week ago or so, NPR featured the inner-city schools of Philadelphia
and cast a concerned attitude over the privatization of the schools to profit
and non-profit entities, many of whom receive their funding from
state-supported Charter schools. True, about
one-third of the funding comes from the private sector; much from Foundations,
but the consequence has been a serious negative change in the funding of the
schools who teach the Black minority.
One single Black mother with three children and a mid-level job says
there is no way she could afford to send her children to Charter school.
She also is concerned about the likelihood that
entitlements, such as food stamps, are coming under increased scrutiny.
My interest in the subject of Privatization was sparked also
by a solution to the California prison crisis, which is privatizing
incarceration. On one hand I find that a
promising arrangement, especially since I have a modest investment in the CXW
Correction company which has gained more than a third value in the 2 ½ years
since I bought it, but it doesn’t bring jobs to California, and it doesn’t
address the social problem of whom are we incarcerating?
So, if there is a point to this post, it would be to
increase the transparency when changes are made to ownership or use of property,
and that we should take a qualified, but serious look at what might be the
unintended consequences of change.
In my next Post I plan to research what is happening to the field that
has coined a new name since the ACA rollout; namely, what is a “Navigator” and
how could I become one? I think you’ll find
it interesting.
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