{"id":670,"date":"2011-06-22T04:36:54","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T04:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/?p=670"},"modified":"2011-07-08T16:45:35","modified_gmt":"2011-07-08T16:45:35","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-eliminate-emeryvilles-redevelopment-agency-and-eliminate-the-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/?p=670","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the Editor: Eliminate Emeryville’s Redevelopment Agency and Eliminate the Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Redevelopment Agency in Emeryville is a fiasco: money for developers, bankers\/brokers, attorneys, and consultants.\u00a0 Emeryville runs a tight little agency with many city staffers working on mostly redevelopment agendas.\u00a0 Where do the property taxes go?\u00a0 They go back into the agency, thereby negating monies meant for\u00a0cities, counties, and school districts that would normally receive them.\u00a0 Who pays the bills on the loan interest?\u00a0 I look to the general fund to see.\u00a0\u00a0Help me understand a city that continues to\u00a0subsidize big business,\u00a0while at the same time failing to support\u00a0the one early education facility in town, and also\u00a0failing to support family friendly housing — a purported goal of a redevelopment agency.<\/div>\n
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The redevelopment agency — comprised of the city’s 5 council members — has made these deals with corporations in good faith<\/strong>, expecting to get a return for the city.\u00a0 What are these corporations doing?\u00a0 Disney Pixar, Novartis, etc., etc.\u00a0 They are going to the county and demanding that their property taxes be lowered.\u00a0 So much for your good faith contracts with the big boys in town.\u00a0 And as for housing, it has been severely compromised, with little or no family housing being built.\u00a0 Land set aside for family housing was\u00a0given away at a pittance to Disney Pixar for a parking lot!<\/div>\n
The abuse is abysmal and to try and make superficial amendments at this late date is untenable.<\/div>\n
Ruth Major<\/div>\n
Ruth Major lives at Watergate in Emeryville. She is an expert in early childhood education and writes the column “Children Matter”\u00a0 for The Secret News.<\/em><\/div>\n
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