Tag "redevelopment"

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Municipal Bankruptcy Stalks Stockton

FEB. 27, 2012 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Stockton, California’s 13th largest city, may be moving from “Fat City” to “Mudville.” Both were former historical names for Stockton.  “BK” is shorthand for bankruptcy. On Feb. 23, Stockton City Manager Robert Deis asked

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Think ‘Big Labor’ For Arena Deal

Katy Grimes: What does a city do when the chips are down, the deficit is huge, services are cut and public approval is at a record low?  Why, of course, it’s time to build a sports arena. In Sacramento, despite

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Redevelopment Agencies Facing Default

JAN. 23, 2012 By CHRISS STREET Public officials are scrambling to deal with the California Supreme Court’s decision in California Redevelopment Agency vs. Matosantos. It upheld the elimination of the RDAs last year by Gov. Jerry Brown and the California

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Market, Not Govt., Builds Cheaper Housing

JAN. 17, 2012 By WAYNE LUSVARDI Is the demise of redevelopment hurting the poor? El Monte Mayor Andre Quintero says it is. He’s bemoaning that, when Gov. Jerry Brown  and the Legislature killed redevelopment, the source of funds for affordable

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Redevelopment barons plot comeback

JAN. 9, 2012 I’m still giddy after the California Supreme Court ruled last month that the state had every right to shut down those noxious enemies of property rights and fiscal responsibility — redevelopment agencies. Better yet, the state’s high

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Supreme Court Rebukes Crony Capitalism

The following first appeared in City Journal California. JAN. 6, 2012 By STEVEN GREENHUT On December 29, 2011, the California Supreme Court handed down what the state’s urban redevelopment agencies (RDAs) and their supporters called a “worst of all worlds” ruling—first upholding

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Choo-Choo Boondoggle Runs Off Cliff

John Seiler: Ding-dong, the stupid bullet train is dead. It’s all over but the scrambling for a couple hundred million dollars of our tax money in various funds. The California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group yesterday issued a report condemning the

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Redevelopment Partners In Slime

Katy Grimes: Trying to fill the thrice-vacant City Manager position, Sacramento’s City Council made a job offer to a candidate yesterday. But the politically incestuous connection local politicians have with John Shirey, the candidate and current head of the California Redevelopment

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Democrats Pass Hinky Budget

JUNE 29, 2011 By KATY GRIMES With a surprising lack of debate between parties, the California Legislature passed the budget late last evening, and only with a majority vote, attempting to close what began the year as a $26.6 billion

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Redevelopment is Prop. 13 in Reverse

JUNE 28, 2011 by WAYNE LUSVARDI To California redevelopment advocates, the policy brings the Midas touch to cities, turning everything into gold for the Golden State. Redevelopment fans point to all the beautiful new malls, restored Old Town business districts, industrial

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