What's driving the city's Point Breeze land grab? Hint: It's not tax delinquencies

[JakeL]

I thought the PB bill was 12055?

The meeting agenda for today (http://legislation.phila.gov/meeting...a_(Short).pdf) shows these two bills that were introduced last week and were scheduled for final passage this week:

Master Detail Report
Master Detail Report

They're both related to acquiring deeds and titles for the properties. 120764 appears to be related to side yards? Not sure why this one wasn't up.

[bootsywannabe]

Look I know he only won by 46 votes, but I don't think the next election will be close enough that this development sways it in his favor. If anything it has galvanized the opposition and I would expect it to swing widely the other direction if there is a credible opposition candidate. Besides, the other problem with that line of thinking is that you assume all of the people who eventually buy these houses will vote for him. If they have the same income limits as most of the current affordable housing being built, that's pretty unlikely.

I think the idea that this is retribution or an attempt to steal the next election are pretty far fetched. It seems much more like what they say it is, an attempt to ensure housing affordability as area prices rise. What they do not publicly say is that it's also meant to provide a fairly minor counterbalance to the major demographic shift going on in the neighborhood. As long as Philadelphia is run by Democrats there will be an insatiable desire for affordable housing, it's just that the way they're going about this particular development is insane.

There are already some nice rehabs for sale by that are affordable without needing government subsidies. The private market is still somehow filling that need for houses in the 130-200k range without having to forcibly take people's property. Oh yeah, and many of those developers are buying those houses at sheriff's sale and sending tax dollars back into the City coffers in the process. Point Breeze is already an affordable neighborhood which is part of why so many people are flocking to it, there is no need for the city to get in the way of that.

There were enough inconsistencies (i.e. instances of fraud) in the last election to raise very serious doubts about whether he won at all. It's funny how those polling stations always seem to report overcounts, and how those polling machines always seem to arrive, or leave with extra votes put on them all for one candidate. Hmmmm.

How about recalling KJ, is that feasible under the City rules? I would doubt it, given the infallibility of city council.

[ArcticSplash]

They just jumped over bills 120763 and 120764, does this mean that Johnson pulled these bills?

No. Only until the committee reports a bill does it go back to the floor for the second and final reading. Bills arrive out of committee at random based on debate, rewrites and holds or they die in committee.