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 ...
Isn't this the reason companies are pulling out and why Insurance premiums now have to be so high ? Floridans are now going to have to pay the cost of living in such a High Risk state !!
At $22 Billion, Insured Losses from Four Florida Hurricanes Will Exceed Andrew's Record
October 1, 2004
Insurance claim payments to victims of the four Florida hurricanes to date will exceed $22 billion, surpassing the insurance payout from Hurricane Andrew, the costliest natural disaster in history, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
Only the $32 billion in insured losses from the 9/11 terrorist attack exceeds the estimated claim payments from this year's Florida hurricanes.
Claims from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 totaled $15.5 billion or $20 billion in today's dollars, the I.I.I. said. Claim payments from the four storms are estimated at between $22 billion to $23 billion.
Insurance Services Office, Inc.'s Property Claim Services has estimated insured losses from Hurricane Charley at $6.8 billion and Hurricane Frances at $4.4 billion. Preliminary estimates from modeling firms project insured losses from Hurricanes Ivan and Jeanne in the $4 billion to $7 billion range each.
This means that four of the top 10 most costly hurricanes in U.S. history have occurred in Florida this year within a span of just six weeks.
We don't need any socialist housing schemes, but on the other hand, it's high time to eliminate building code and zoning provisions that make it illegal for people live within their means. Our ancestors built log cabins, heated them via fireplaces they built from field stone and wood they chopped themselves, and hauled their water in buckets from the nearest stream. It wasn't grand, but it was the best that many of them could manage, and they did okay living in those humble homes and raising their children there. That would be illegal now, practically everywhere in the U.S.
"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? "
You're funny...
The problem is that part of FL has basically become zoned by developers.
They are fueling speculation and many of those condos are time share/hotel units which are prohibited from having a homestead tax cap.
This is not about afordable housing this is about passing some excuse (which will be overturned as a government taking) just to get the next wave of speculation (buy and flip) residential units.
The problem is not the market, the problem is the "crony politics" have allowed developers to build regardless of zoning restrictions. Basically a developer can now obtain any variance or change in the law because they are "insiders" vs the mom and pop who may have had a few pieces of income property.
This is not unlike the days when the insiders used to find out where the offramps were going to be built BEFORE the public would know and then buy up that land. (with a greenback handshake thankyou)
Palm Beach has some restrictions on this type of development because this is where the developers actually live.
ping
How about all those "sustainable development" laws which did TAKING WITHOUT COMPENSATION by restricting the amount of housing units a person could build on already zoned law!?
The city wants to restrict using via taking by regulation and then complains when they can't take some more.
Actually, Florida is a low-tax state. No state income tax, and real estate taxes are very low.
The problem is that many people like warm weather better than cold. I know, it's a strange thought, but true. So the people who like warm weather flock to the few warm weather areas that exist in the US (South Florida, Southern California, etc), making life there very expensive.
Other than annexing Cuba, Mexico or Carribean islands, I don't see any good solution to this little problem.
D
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Wait a minute, I thought it was government's job to give me everything I want. Burn this heretic!
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Something new, called economic rights, began to supplant the old property rights. This change, which occurred with remarkably little fanfare, was staggeringly significant. With the advent of "economic rights," the original meaning of rights was effectively destroyed. These new "rights" imposed obligations, not limits, on the state. It thus became government's job not to protect property but, rather, to regulate and redistribute it. And, the epic proportions of the disaster which has befallen millions of people during the ensuing decades has not altered our fervent commitment to statism.
- CA Justice Janice Rogers Brown
Wow, what a concept.
You beat me to it!
I know...
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