When the housing bubble popped in 2009, it left many American communities with foreclosed and vacant homes and businesses.
The American Jobs Act would help restore thousands of these abandoned properties and put construction workers back to work in the process with Project Rebuild. The $15 billion project would create thousands of jobs to tear down abandoned properties, renovate foreclosed homes and maintain abandoned properties until they can be sold once again. Intended to initially help communities with the largest number of foreclosed properties, Project Rebuild would create much-needed jobs and energize the country's blighted communities at the same time. Key components of the project include:
It can be difficult for a city to recover when, on top of unemployment, homes are boarded up or downtown is empty. Vacant properties can weigh down the value of nearby homes, increase neighborhood blight and crime, and stand in the way of economic recovery. Project Rebuild's strategies are exactly how smart growth can help communities facing these challenges.
Communities are already using all of Project Rebuild's strategies with great success. Between 2005 to 2009, foreclosure rates rose rapidly in greater Cleveland, Ohio, resulting in tens of thousands of vacant or abandoned properties. These unproductive areas of the city lowered property values and scared away businesses. In response to the crisis, the Cuyahoga County Land Bank was formed to revitalize neighborhoods, improve the local economy, and create jobs. The quasi-governmental organization takes land off the books of lenders if they agree pay for demolition of the properties.
New York State has also used the strategies outlined in Project Rebuild. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the New York Land Bank Act into law on August 1, giving local governments across the state a critical tool to return vacant and abandoned properties to productive, income-generating use. Land banks can promote reuse of existing land, spur downtown investment, and speed neighborhood revitalization. And land banks put control in the hands of local leaders, making it possible to work with specific community circumstances and goals.
Vacant property revitalization is just one of the smart growth strategies included in the American Jobs Act. The bill also includes strong funding for public transportation projects, as well as road repair -- both of which have been proven to create more jobs per dollar than new highway construction. Smart Growth America's analysis of 2009's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act revealed that public transportation projects created 70% more job hours per dollar than highway projects. In addition, studies of transportation job creation show that on average, road repair produces 16% more jobs per dollar than new road construction. Both these types of transportation infrastructure projects mean this bill will help communities above and beyond its direct job creation potential.
The American Jobs Act recognizes that America's towns and cities are a worthy investment. The proposed investments in transportation choices, land banks and vacant property redevelopment as well as the federal grant programs that support these strategies are exactly what many struggling communities have been waiting for. Congress should pass this bill to put thousands of Americans back to work now and rebuild the country's economy for years to come.
Follow Geoffrey Anderson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/smartgrowthusa
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By Mike Lillis - 09/16/11 05:57 AM ET
Leading House Democrats are accusing the Obama administration of ignoring the lingering mortgage crisis and threatening tens of millions of Americans with foreclosure in the process.
The lawmakers — encouraged by Obama's mention of mortgage relief in his address to Congress last week — were quickly deflated just days later when their efforts to learn the details of the White House plan proved unsuccessful.
"The administration has been AWOL on this issue," charged Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), "and the American people are suffering because of the mismanagement."
"In my entire political career, I've never seen anything this irresponsible," he added.
Once a property is condemned there is a system in place that makes it nearly impossible to stop the demolition even when preservationists and the media become involved. One of the biggest problems is that the average person can't take out a loan to purchase a property for restoration that isn't already up to code. It takes cash and there aren't many developers interested in restoration work, they'd rather tear down (at the government's expense) and replace with crap. Even when there is a willing buyer it's nearly impossible to clear up the deed and purchase from the government. It's a complicated mess that continues to destroy our history.
Borrowing money pulls forward demand. But it is not a sustainable model. More epic fail and gvmt waste.
DEMAND is the only thing that can work so you need to build sustainable economic systems off of which areas will grow. We can rebuild all of Detroit with borrowed money but who will live there without any JOBS?
Now comes this idea. Let's pay people to demolish a house, or pay people to improve a house so even fewer people could ever afford it.
This government needs a class in economics.
This Act is nothing more than payback to the unions by Obama and class warfare by leveing a tax on certain classes of people. Doesn't matter that they may have pulled themselves from poverty to success, they have exceed what the government has determined you are allowed to keep from your hard earned money. The question is, how is government going to go on private property enter private homes and take them over for the unions to rentivate? I am sure there will be a hidden costs to the taxpayer in this. Obama can't be trusted to be honest with anyone. Answer this Obama. Out of all the money I make from working hard, how much should I be allowed to take home?
This is what Obama's new Stimulus plan will create. More lost taxpayer money!
Lets stop calling it a jobs program and call it what it really is " A Stimulus packaged, with borrowed money from China, intended to get Obama reelected"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjKiomcj7sM
(12:20-14:45 appx)
Let's spend money on re-vitalizing/improving housing - when we have too many houses right now.
geesh - this was one of the worst parts of the jobs act that we've heard so far.
Housing prices high.
Cost of living high.
Let's lower costs of houses.
Nobody talk about useless things like wages or jobs, both of which being far more important than the supply-siders would ever want to begin to acknowledge.