....Which means, of course, that his political future is now in here......
Posted on 05/22/2006 9:41:04 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Mega-developers and the city's mayor are shooting down a proposed affordable-housing law, calling it unfair, communistic and doomed to failure. People could afford a place to live, the mayor said, if they were willing to work harder.
Mayor Jim Naugle, a conservative politician in his final term, said people mistakenly think they're entitled to affordable single-family houses on a 40-hour work routine. They need to work more hours, and even then settle for a condo or townhouse, Naugle said.
"I'm supposed to subsidize some schlock sitting on the sofa and drinking a beer, who won't work more than 40 hours a week?" he asked. "I deny that there is a problem. You can buy condos all day for $160,000."
Naugle's comments may be contested by the working-class citizens who've told the city they want homes but can't afford them. But his ideas might hit home in other circles, where a city proposal to make developers slash prices or pay a fee was met with skepticism.
"We ought to let the free market work," said Bill Scherer, a lawyer-developer on the city's Downtown Development Authority.
South Florida's cities only recently decided housing prices had reached crisis-level highs, and Fort Lauderdale is one of the first to try to pass a law to do something about it. The city is under pressure from Broward County to pass a law; otherwise, the county says it won't allow another wave of construction of thousands of condos downtown.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
If they want to live in a community with outrageously expensive housing prices, yes.
This fellow's term-limited, he's out after this term no matter what. Ergo, he can actually speak truth.
Hope not...
That's the way they "fix" things here behind the maple curtain.
You seem to be operating under the assumption or expectation that working people are entitled to nice stuff. It's not working, alone, which allows for nice stuff (if that was the case, most people on Judge Judy would seem successful in life); but rather what you do and how you do it.
Isn't that a schlage?
Why should they? The rich don't have to move so why should the rest of us? Isn't there supposed to be equality under the law? That is not fair and you are mean-spirited.
Those comments are so ridiculous I would think everyone would recognize them as sarcasm. However, there are so many idiots who think that way I had better say that I am not one of them.
Can you see it now?
No! But I don't think Americans should have two or three jobs so you can have a decent place to live. ;-)
He is right. Leave the market alone. People will leave the city. Demand will become less constrictive. Prices will fall. People will move back. It is a very simple theory and very real.
Brittany Wallman?
OMG, another Brittany in the workforce.
who is screaming about the prices? illegals? hispanics? cubans? haitians? druggies? that's about all that lives in S. Florida anyway.
What they need to be addressing more than subsidized housing is the lack of homeowners insurance in this state. We had our housing growth over the last few years. It has been phenomenal but at some point, the "bubble" has to break and it is slowly leaking. What is not changing is the fact that 1) most companies in Florida do not pay even close to the national average in salaries because we don't have state tax here. (2) because of the hurricanes, the cost of housing has risen to the point that it is darn near impossible for a young, married couple to buy a home in Florida that they can afford that is of any descency. (3) Even if you can find a 1/2 way descent place to live, it is even more difficult to find homeowners insurance. Insurance carriers are dropping homeowners like flies and leaving this state, which leaves homeowners like myself the option to have no insurance or pay $6,000 to $8,000 a year for a $160,000.00 house through the state funded Citizens insurance! Many, many people are opting for no insurance because they cannot afford the monopoly price.
Jeb and others had an emergency meeting a week or so ago but Floridians are still in a quandry over what they will do. My homeowners insurance is cancelling me as of June 1. I have nowhere to turn but Citizens and with kids in college, kids at home, medical bills, and both hubby and me working...well, I don't know what we'll do. And it's not because we're shlocks and drink beer! It's because we live in a geriatric hurricane state and the big man is screwing us once again. Insurance companies. All these years we put our money into these dang companies with not one claim and then they do this - split and run. Hundreds of thousands of dollars gone over the years.
Wouldn't it be great if the insurance companies, before they moved out of the state, be made to pay the homeowners the amount paid on the policies minus any claims on the policies? I think it would make the insurance companies think twice about pulling out of the state.
The problem is those who would take these jobs, can't afford to live here.
This labour crisis can then lead to the employment of illegal immigrants, who will live twenty people to a 1200sq foot apartment.
"Communism is fine for small groups of people."
Recent studies of the plight of the Israeli kibbutz will disabuse you of this notion.
Har! I like the way this guy talks, but honestly, how do you explain the fact that my parents raised 7 kids on a single teacher's salary for all those years? Now instead of raising kids, we have to raise a gubmint, and they're all 500-lb brats.
City Councils. They are frightening, indeed.
I watch city council meetings in my town, on TV. Planning commission meetings, as well. For each intelligent council/commission member, there are at minimum two idiots. I suppose I should get involved somehow rather than bit@h about it.
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