We can't just blame Anne Sullivan for up and splitting the sinking Gordon campaign. After all, even Gordon admits it happens with campaigns all the time.
Four years ago there was a lady I met while volunteering for the Harrington campaign. Her name is Carol Contereas. After a couple of months with Harrington - and just weeks before the 2003 election, Carol joined the Aldermans side - then after the election, she up and moved out to the ward. Basically Carol abandoned Harrington like Mr. Coe abandons CPAN housing units.
Fast foreword to the current election cycle. The lady I met long ago has suddenly re-appeared in our ward. She showed up at the Alderman's informercial last week touting the Alderman. Not the high priced developments. The Alderman himself. Mind you, she doesn't live in the neighborhood anymore, and she doesn't contribute anything to the 49th ward tax base, yet she felt the need to come up to Rogers Park on a Tuesday evening - wearing her re-elect Joe Moore campaign button and to stand up preaching the Alderman's policies while we were talking about a high end development project on Morse Avenue.
And what mind you were we as a community discussing when she got on her 'let's all back the Alderman' filibuster?
Affordable housing.
The Alderman was taking a ear full from a couple of people in the crowd, (aldermanic candidates Gordon and Ginderske) regarding the lack of affordable housing. Then Carol, who we haven't seen in years got up and tried to defend the Alderman on his ability to deliver affordable housing to the community while the wanna-be politicians were preaching. I was stunned.
This lady, who moved out of Rogers Park because of higher rents was telling us how the Alderman delivers on affordable housing. I couldn't take her mounds of bullshit anymore. I had to tell her to just please sit down.
Unless Carol came into a lot of money recently, there was no way she was going to afford one of the puppies. Just because these condos are placed near a blue light, doesn't mean there a blue light special. Plus, no units are being set-aside for affordable. These 2 bedroom condos are starting at the mid-$300,000 thousands. Nothing affordable here.
See, like I said, she up and split the community because of the lack of affordable housing, yet like Anne Sullivan, she changes sides and defends the person who's policies ran her out the neighborhood in the first place.
Why would anyone listen to Carol, she's a traitor. Just like Anne Sullivan.
Blognotes: Are you one of the lucky 1 in 5? The News-Star today reports only 20% of Chicago residents can afford a condo over $250,000.
All those who complain about my spelling "shouuld" send the News Star a note regarding their headline to this story. After all, they are selling their words, mine are free.
9 comments:
Is this the bad news I've been dreading - that Joe Moore will be reelected?
Goddamn, do people care that he is not good for the ward?
I can't say what the story is with this woman, but it is sad to see how loudly money talks and that people will trade their values for a paycheck. I guess it happens all the time, but that doesn't make it okay does it?
CPAN is a joke.
1) It makes very few condos available because they are only required for new construction. CPAN is not available for condo conversions.
2) You have to get in the CPAN Lottery to play. There is no guarantee if you live in Rogers Park and you win the CPAN lottery you get to buy in Rogers Park. It could be somewhere else in the city. Any CPAN unit in Rogers Park can have a winning purchasor from anywhere in the city.
3) To qualify to buy a CPAN unit you first must be able to qualify for a mortgage on your own. If your credit is bad, you do not qualify.
4) CPAN gives you a no-interest second mortgage for the difference between the CPAN price (around $160,000) and the actual selling price of the unit (if the unit would sell for $250,000 the second mortgage is $90,000).
5) As the buyer any equity must first go to pay off the second mortgage before you have equity in the unit.
6) You do not get to keep the 2nd mortgage equity unless you live in the unit for 10 years.
7) There is nothing to stop a recent college grad from buying a CPAN unit despite the fact that down the road they'll have income far exceeding the CPAN income limitations.
8) If you sell your CPAN unit, CPAN has first refusal to purchase the property. Then CPAN can turn that unit into a rental unit at anytime, even if your condo assn. prohibits rentals.
9) CPAN may sell that unit and use the funds for anyother program it deems it wants to give the money to, like rentals subsidies or job training. It's supposed to be a housing program, but like TIFs and SSAs the money can be siphoned off elsewhere.
10) People hold CPAN out like its some kind of holy grail for affordability. Unfortunately, developers will only turn over their least marketable property to CPAN, rather than their better properties. CPAN will not create "family" housing. What it will create is a lot high priced studio and 1 bedroom apartments/condos.
11) Right now you can buy a studio or a small one bedroom in Edgewater for $160,000 without even going through CPAN and still qualify for city/state and county downpayment assistance programs.
12) I've got a friend with a 1 bedroom for sale on Catalpa and Winthrop for $165,000, just about the same as a CPAN unit. And you get to keep your equity.
13)If you want affordable housing, put a tax on everyone's property transfer in the county. That way everybody pays for it. As it stands now the other condo owners are subsidizing CPAN through higher prices in their units. (That $90,000 "contribution" from the developer actually get's tacked on to the price of the other condos). And who's to say why we should have to make one person's condo "un-affordable" so another person's condo can be "affordable."
If you feel so righteous about affordability, make everybody pay for it.
The problem is that the only real semblance of an online community that RP has is this blog. The guy that runs this blog hates every candidate equally, so here we are fragmented without knowing a whole lot about any of the challengers and Joe is getting ready to server another term.
> 4) CPAN gives you a no-interest second mortgage
This understates the benefits of the program. The City loans the buyer a 2nd interest-free and PAYMENT-free mortgage which goes away after 10 years.
> 8) If you sell your CPAN unit, CPAN has first refusal to purchase the property. Then CPAN can turn that unit into a rental unit at anytime, even if your condo assn. prohibits rentals.
> 9) CPAN may sell that unit and use the funds for anyother program it deems it wants to give the money to, like rentals subsidies or job training. It's supposed to be a housing program, but like TIFs and SSAs the money can be siphoned off elsewhere.
To my knowledge this has not happened: no CPAN unit has been rented or sold to raise cash for other programs. CPAN has more interested buyers than condos.
> CPAN and other subsidies for moderate to middle income buyers are probably helping to drive prices high
The CPAN program is way too small compared to market rate condos in Chicago to have any significant impact on condo prices.
> The CPAN program ... does not really make a place more affordable, it only defers the hit. If there is anything a struggling moderate-income family or individual does not need, it's a second mortgage right out of the gate. You might as well figure it's a mortgage, not a grant, because most people will never stay the period of time necessary for it to be subsidized completely.
It's a 2nd mortgage that doesn't have to be paid off and is "forgiven" incrementally over 10 years, so it DOES make a purchase more affordable, to that extent it IS like a grant. As far as I know, no one who has been placed in a CPAN condo has tapped out, when you think about it you'ld have to be nuts to not hang on to it. Meanwhile the 2nd mortgage held by the City serves the city as a sort of lien against the property, making sure the owner does not do any funny business like try to resell without a rep from the City at the closing, protecting the public interest in the subsidized unit.
> ... whether the CPAN program really delivers truly affordable housing.
Yes, CPAN can be criticized for not doing enough - not reaching lower incomes (it is an ownership-based program after all) and not providing more units.
Yes, CPAN is taxpayer subsidized.
> ... the developer ... is forced to subsidize a few select buyers to the tune of $60K-90K each ...
Well, taxpayers help make up the difference, and the developer gets a pre-construction garunteed sale for the least desirable units from the CPAN waiting lists, no small benefit in a slow and slowing market.
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