We live on one side of a block that is bounded on three sides by apartments (some of them subsidized and on our side be a bunch of small town(/terraced)houses, and open in the middle - like a small park. This is was an important design concept of German urban planning in the 1920s. The green space has become even more important in the intervening decades because the block sits at the corner of two major streets.
The city housing authority wants to build in the middle of the green space - and this, mind you in the second most densely populated part of the city, and in defiance of all considerations of microclimate and historically developed urban social structures.
This has been ongoing for a year, and we (basically me, my wife and another guy, with the full support of all our neighbors) have been working very hard to educate the local politicians. We convinced the district parliament, which voted overwhelmingly (but not unanimously - guess which party is against open space?) against construction in the interior of the block.
The big hurdle was always the city planning commission, and we've been lobbying and communicating with the various parties leading up to tonight's meeting, and from the gossip I'd been getting I figured the odds as only 2:3 against. But still...
So anyway, our topic comes up and the head honcha of the greens grabs the mike and begins, in tone of contempt, "We've all received way too much correspondence on this matter..." (meaning: from the likes of me). Yup. The greens want to fill in open space that was deliberately planned for a low- and middle-income neighborhood (oh, but you should hear her on the subject of building on green space in her neighborhood - obviously it's OKIYAGreen).
The SPD head on the commission (whose relationship to the Green honcha is symbiotic bordering on sycophantic) went into a deer-in-the-headlights act: oh, in principle we're in favor of developing this space but not like that...).
In our fair city, decisions are arrived at by shifting majorities. And in this case, Greens + symbiosycophants had the votes.
So I'm pissed off and bummed. And I came here to vent. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
Deep throat croaks : "Follow the money...."
Who benefits ? Who pays ? Who profits ? keep to the Fen Causeway
As to the money: the city housing authority was semiprivatized several years ago, and the city gets a certain number of seats on the supervisory board (to be filled by councilpersons). And she is definitely there.
The housing authority says the five to ten percent gain in housing units (depending on who's talking and when) means an 80% difference in the roi on this project... but of course they're not coming across with real numbers. Financing is largely public and/or publicly guaranteed. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
