February 1st: The Day the CRA Dies

All good things must come to an end, or at least that is what people say. But what about bad things? Do they come to an end as well? Well, if you're talking about Redevelopment Agencies such as Sierra Madre's CRA, the answer is apparently yes. And not only is it coming to an end, but it is also coming to an end today. February 1st.

This really is quite an occasion I'll have you know, and should be noted as such. Maybe we should light candles or something. Or go downtown and taste some CRA wine. After all, your tax money paid for it.

Look at it this way. The largest debacle to hit Sierra Madre in recent years was the Downtown Specific Plan. Fueled in large part by CRA money, it would have ripped down much of our quaint and eclectic downtown area and replaced it with generic government planned high density housing and other structures deemed necessary by clueless public employees. And had there been no CRA? It never would have happened.

Think of all the divisive politics and animosity in this town that never would have occurred had there not been a large slush fund of government cash to be spent on something that almost nobody really wanted. In some ways Measure V was a revolt against government imposed planning and development. And now, without a CRA slush fund for city government planners to draw upon anymore, the threat of a resurrected DSP manque is also gone. Perhaps even taking those planners with them. This really is a great day.

Here is how ABC Los Angeles (click here) describes it all on their website:

Calif. redevelopment funding coming to an end - Hundreds of economic development projects statewide will stop in their tracks when 400 redevelopment agencies shut down Feb. 1.

The shutdown of redevelopment agencies is part of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to save the state money.

Critics say redevelopment has become a subsidy for developers at taxpayers' expense. Building malls, sports stadiums and arenas, instead of funding for schools, roads and other vital needs.

"The $6 billion a year which they were siphoning away, especially from the school districts, is no longer sustainable," said Assemblyman Chris Norby (R-Fullerton). "The state's broke and we can no longer afford this kind of expensive corporate welfare that redevelopment has become."

For public schools, the move means they'll receive $1 billion more a year.

When the doors to redevelopment close, thousands of government jobs will also disappear.

Did I ever tell you that we're big Chris Norby fans around here? The guy should run for governor someday. A lifelong fighter against redevelopment agencies and eminent domain, perhaps nobody in this state has done more to make this day happen than The Norb.

Norby was also one of the few Republicans to vote with Jerry Brown to slay the beast. Something I still cannot figure out.

But then again, who believes in political parties anymore?

In the (not so) long run, will it matter?

This from Cal Watchdog (click here):

Chiang: State Broke on March 8 - State Controller John Chiang shocked California legislators today when he sent a letter announcing that the state will run out of cash on March 8. That is, unless (the) Legislature allows state Treasurer Bill Lockyer to delay $2.4 billion in payments to universities, counties and Medi-Cal, while borrowing another $3.3 billion from Wall Street bankers.

Here is my question. Bad governments throughout the western world have been borrowing vast sums of cash to keep themselves afloat for the last couple of decades or so. Uncle Sam has lately been taking on new debt to the tune of a trillion dollars a year. Which seems like a lot to me. So where does all this loose capital come from? Who has the trillions upon trillions of dollars in loan money necessary to keep awful governments like what we see in Sacramento afloat?

January 2012 Traffic Report

It seems like the year just started, and here we are one month in already. Where does it all go? For January our kind hosts at Google showed The Tattler attracting 45,576 hits, up from the 32,354 of January 2011. Our 2nd best month ever. Which pretty much means that our approach to covering the affairs of Sierra Madre and related news continues to pack 'em in. That is a pretty big number for a town of less than 11,000 souls.

We might have our detractors, but that's OK. If we didn't it would mean we just haven't been doing the job we are not being paid to do. Controversy sells, as they say. And business is good.

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