Revitalize city’s core and stimulate economy

Ways to revitalize the urban core and utilize federal stimulus dollars:

Repair or replace sidewalks and curbs in decaying areas. A neighborhood can be transformed by new curbs and sidewalks.

Build smaller, neighborhood-based police stations in high-crime areas. Residents would be more apt to ask for help with a stable police presence, and situations might be defused before escalating to more serious crimes.

Use federal stimulus money to offer low interest loans to qualified homeowners in decaying areas for property repairs. Perhaps set aside some money for grants to elderly and fixed-income residents for repairs.

Demolish abandoned buildings.

Consider using TIF to help create small businesses in the urban core, such as corner grocery stores and barber shops. Ideally, these would be located near the neighborhood police station.

These concepts would create jobs and make the urban core a safer and more attractive place to live.

Todd Davis
Kansas City

Comments

[Stifled Freedom]

You would think we had a federal budget surplus in 2009....hardly the case.

[Marctnts]

"They're NOT necessarily coming out of my pocket."

Now you're just being argumentative. Yeah, not every federal dollar comes out of a taxpayers pocket (although one could argue that the tax that US corporations pay on US profit does indirectly come from US taxpayers). We get it, you found the loophole, congratulations.

[Pub 17]

They're NOT necessarily coming out of my pocket. Remember, corporations are taxed as well, as many bloggers love to remind us. Money they make overseas is part of that.

[Marctnts]

Pub,

I wasn't speaking to the fact that in depressed areas, the influx of money would be from people living outside the depressed area. What I was addressing is the perception of the letter writer, at least in my mind, that the "federal" dollars he was speaking about were someones other than his own.

Everyone seems to talk about landing "federal" dollars for a project like they come from sort of magical pot instead of out of their own pocket through taxes. Yeah, the federal government has responsibilities that need to be funded, but when a few of those dollars land back in the local community, it shouldn't be like hitting some sort of lottery.

[solomon]

I'll only comment on one part of this "pipe dream" letter.

Beat cops. Once the interaction on the streets between wrongdoers and police became passe and police presence became one in vehicles we lost something in america.

[Pub 17]

Marctnts-
THINK. ANY aid to an economically-depressed area is Other People's Money, unless you somehow magically extract it from the depressed area. You can use OPM or you can let the place rot, choose wisely.

[Marctnts]

Not a bad list, but remember, those "federal" dollars are yours, not someone else's magical pot that you just happen to be getting your hands in.

"Consider using TIF to help create small businesses in the urban core, such as corner grocery stores and barber shops. Ideally, these would be located near the neighborhood police station."

What people don't understand is that often, TIF districts are already created for large swaths of land in the urban core, with multiple owners, who all have the ability to access these funds. These areas are often called CID's (community improvement districts), and a TIF overlay is often a part of them.

The issue that arises is that for most small owners located in a CID, the process required to access the TIF funds is long and confusing, and requires experts in the field used to navigating the waters. There are a few good not-for-profits who know how to make things happen in these areas and have had success, but by and large, they are the only ones who are taking advantage of the benefits. Make the system easier, perhaps with the inclusion of more CID staff at the City level who can help the small owners navigate the waters, and I think you'll see real improvement.