Fannie and Freddie Violate New York’s Public Trust
Posted by Mark Winston Griffith on August 28, 2008
Under ordinary circumstances, Sept. 1—Labor Day—would be a day of celebration and pride. Not only does it commemorate the sacrifice of working families, but, quite fittingly, it’s the date on which a new landmark responsible lending law will go into effect in New York State. On that day countless New Yorkers will be protected from predatory lending practices, and subprime lending institutions will finally be held accountable for abusive practices.
Unfortunately, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, by far the largest secondary market purchasers of mortgages in the country, have decided to rain on New York’s parade by opposing the New York law. In threatening to not purchase New York subprime mortgages, effective Sept. 1, Fannie and Freddie are shirking their responsibility and their charge to serve the public good.
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NYT in a Time Warp?
Posted by Florence Wagman Roisman on August 26, 2008
The following is a letter to the editor I submitted to The New York Times:
The Times’ Aug. 8 article, “Housing Program Moves Poor to the Suburbs, and Tensions Follow,” about which David Varady has written on Rooflines, is irresponsible journalism at its worst. It conflates the Section 8 housing voucher program and foreclosures, prefers anecdotes to objective facts, including solid studies, and encourages white suburbanites to fear and fight any opportunities for poor black people to move from terrible inner-city neighborhoods into areas that have good schools and safe streets.
It is particularly ironic that the Times article focused on Antioch, Calif., where subsidized tenants filed suit claiming that the police there were treating them as if they were criminals, because the article does precisely the same thing. Indeed, the quotes from white women sitting at Starbucks who talked about young black men “roaming” their neighborhoods, with the sympathetic context in which the comments are reported, make me wonder if I were reading a Mississippi paper from 1968, rather than The New York Times in 2008.
Would the woman whose father was robbed by a young African-American man feel any more secure if the robber had been white? Are we to take away from these comments that all black people are criminals or that all criminals are black people? If the robber were a Section 8 recipient, that anecdote might have been relevant. Since the Times’ story doesn’t say that he was, one must infer either that he wasn’t or that neither reporter nor editor made any effort to find out if he were.
The reality is that extensive social science research has shown that when Section 8 enables poor black families to move to neighborhoods of opportunity, both the movers and the neighborhoods do very well.
Unfortunately, because of the historic segregation that characterizes the residential areas of our country, racial fears and prejudices rise to the surface when efforts to break down those barriers are successful. It is shameful for The Times thus recklessly to defame a federal housing program that is, at long last and in far too few places, allowing low-income black people to move to places from which they have been excluded.
The Times owes its readers a careful, thorough discussion of the many studies that have shown the great benefits of Section 8 programs that allow poor black people to escape the resource-starved areas to which they have been confined.
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Reintroducing America to Itself
Posted by Alice Chasan on August 25, 2008
Tonight, the first evening of the Democratic convention, America was reintroduced to its grass roots. Some memorable moments:
- Jimmy Carter addressed the hall via video from New Orleans. As he walked through the still-devastated neighborhoods, he talked with residents about their struggles—ordinary people abandoned by their government but helped by volunteers and community organizations. And he reminded America about the obligation to help the Gulf Coast survivors and other vulnerable people ignored by the Bush administration.
- Teddy Kennedy, despite his malignant brain cancer, traveling to Denver to exhort the crowd to continue the fight for the downtrodden and excluded among us.
- Michelle Obama’s lovely and personal declaration of the shared values that drew her and her husband to work on behalf of South Side Chicago communities in their daily challenges.
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Investing in Communities Key to Obamanomics
Posted by Ted Wysocki on August 25, 2008
With the Dems convening in Denver, the New York Times Magazine offered us David Leonhardt’s review of ‘Advanced Obamanomics’ on Sunday, August 24. In light of the Obama campaign re-launching his urban agenda today, it is timely to consider economics in a community development context.
For the last several years, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has chosen a theme for its annual March conference centered on creating a Fair Economy, calling for a market that works for all communities—urban and rural.
So there are many elements of Obama’s Urban Plan that are not only welcomed but are necessary to achieve a fair economy.
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Native Alaskans See Walrus Harvest Disappear with Sea Ice
Posted by Kari Lydersen on August 24, 2008
Hunting walrus is an age-old tradition, part of the rhythm of life, for the native people of King Island, a tiny rugged island in the Bering Sea off Alaska. The walrus provides meat for the long, dark, frigid winters, and its tusks, skin, blubber, intestines, and other body parts are used for other crucial functions.
The population of King Island has all moved to Nome on the mainland about 90 miles away, but walrus-hunting provides an important link to their roots.
They say the walruses turn a pink color when they are ready to “haul out” onto the sea ice where they can be hunted; watching the sky and sea for signs of the coming walrus migration is an art still passed on from elders to the young generation.
But the effects of climate change have wreaked havoc with Arctic weather conditions that while always extreme and highly changeable, could be read like a book by Natives with centuries of experience and highly detailed language to describe different types of ice, wind and other climate conditions.
Now, Native Alaskans across the state say, they can no longer predict important climactic changes and events like they used to, leading some to freeze to death caught in storms or stranded on ice; or face starvation as their traditional hunts are interrupted.
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Obama-Biden: What Does It Mean?
Posted by Matthew Hersh on August 23, 2008
The text message hadn’t yet arrived: the media, once again, by way of stakeout, pestered its way to this scoop. After 1 a.m. Saturday morning, and after leaks throughout Friday evening indicated that Barack Obama’s vice presidential finalists were being slowly disqualified from the veepstakes, it’s official that Obama will run with six-term Delaware Democratic Sen. Joe Biden.
Obama’s choosing Biden will present all of the positive and negative effects that the punditocracy can muster up, but picking Biden is certainly more than simply running with a Washington fixture with a quick wit and a progressive bent. He has more foreign policy experience than John McCain, and that’s what we’re going to hear in the coming days.
But what about at home? Biden’s 1994 crime bill was lauded as putting more police on the streets resulting in a reduction in violence nationwide. In 2007, the senator introduced a reauthorization of many of the original elements of the 1994 bill, including the reauthorization of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services; adding 1,000 FBI agents to focus on traditional crime (Biden has argued a drop in FBI resources since 9/11); creating a national commission on crime intervention and prevention strategies; a proposed reduction in recidivism; and not to mention the renewing of the assault weapons ban while closing the gun show loophole.
So while we’re going to hear a lot about a foreign policy balance on the Democratic ticket, let’s ask ourselves what this ticket, with Obama’s community organizing background, can do for American communities.
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Wait: How Many Houses DO I Have?
Posted by Matthew Hersh on August 21, 2008
John McCain could have dismissed his inability to recall how many houses he has as a senior moment, but that would have pointed to his age.
So there wasn’t any way for John McMansion to dig out of this one, but one thing is clear: the McCains have more houses than you or I do, and his inability to count them is not due to a simple forgetful moment, but because of a legitimate clarity issue in how to count separate houses on one estate, what is owned by the senator and what is owned by the financially reticent Mrs. McCain, and how many condos they fused into one giant McCondo-seum.
Fortunately, most of us are privileged enough that we will never, ever have to deal with such pesky clarity issues.
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One Less Truth-Teller
Posted by Alice Chasan on August 21, 2008
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Democrat of Ohio, died yesterday after suffering a burst brain aneurysm.
Tubbs Jones, 58, was the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress. She was first elected in 1998 to represent Ohio’s 11th District, which includes Cleveland, and in the 110th Congress served as chair of the House Ethics Committee.
Those are the facts that any obituary would report. They’re impressive enough to convince readers that the world has lost a trail-blazer and a woman of great substance.
Rooflines marks her passing with sadness, as the loss of a determined champion of the least among us, an advocate of affordable housing, and a passionate seeker after social and economic justice.
When a truth-teller dies, the world is diminished.
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Baltimore: What The NYT Didn’t See Fit to Print
Posted by Matthew Schwarzfeld on August 19, 2008
Editor’s Note: The sixteenth and seventeenth paragraphs of this post have been revised to clarify the controversy over the two research studies mentioned.
Johns Hopkins has a complex and mixed relationship with the mostly black residents of the east Baltimore neighborhood in which the main campus is located, but a recent article in The New York Times on the university’s $1.8 billion expansion plan largely ignores the issue. Though the university expansion will result in the dislocation of thousands of low-income residents, The Times looks almost entirely at the positive business impact.
Johns Hopkins’ expansion is the largest urban renewal project in the country. The university, through a nonprofit partnership, the East Baltimore Development Inc., has acquired 88 acres, much of it through eminent domain. The project will raze a large part of East Baltimore—an infamously crime-ridden area with high vacancy rates—and replace it with office buildings, university lab facilities, and mixed-income housing.
The Times article, which ran in the real estate section, sees the project as nothing but a positive. It describes EBPI’s work as “turning what had become an urban wasteland into a vibrant, 88-acre community” and “demolish[ing] a neighborhood to save it.” (A June 2007 article that ran in The Times national section presents a more-balanced view).
Advocates have strongly opposed The Times’ characterization of Johns Hopkins as saving the neighborhood. In fact, many area residents see the university as anything but a good community partner—both in the course of this project and historically.
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What Responsibilities Do Institutions Have In Their Communities?
Posted by David Holtzman on August 17, 2008
I read with interest a recent story in The New York Times about Johns Hopkins University’s foray into redevelopment in East Baltimore.
The school has teamed with private and public interests to level a large part of the neighborhood and to make it bloom again as a biotech park. The project promises gains for the university’s research program, but many of the largely low-income neighborhood’s residents are not pleased. Resistance to the redevelopment, at least as far as how residents will be compensated for having to move, has been documented here and more recently here in the pages of Shelterforce.
Clearly, this was and is a very troubled area of the city. Abandonment and crime are widespread. The university has acted as many of its fellow institutions around the country have to revitalize their surroundings, out of concern that further deterioration posed a threat to their ability to attract students and faculty. But the school obviously also sees a potential for great economic growth for itself, on the acres of land it will have access to once residents are moved from the area.
So what is the university’s responsibility to the community? Is the school just another private mega-developer, using the power of eminent domain and ties to political leaders to pursue its own goals? As a non-profit, educational institution, one with tremendous resources, does Johns Hopkins owe something to its neighbors?
National Housing Institute
