| Mayor Mounce: Redevelopment meeting 'waste of time, money'
Calling this week's redevelopment workshop "a waste of time and money," Lodi Mayor JoAnne Mounce sounded off Friday about the city's inability to bring more average Janes and Joes together to talk about their future."Where's the community? Where is everybody?" the mayor implored, during an interview Friday morning. "We've spent a boat load of money on (redevelopment) brochures and community outreach, but it's not working."That's not to mention the spread of sandwich wraps, meatballs and fruit slices the city purchased for the meeting, which Mounce also called a waste of money.Thursday's workshop was held at the LOEL Center on South Washington Street, in the heart of the city's proposed redevelopment district.Roughly 50 people attended, with city officials and real estate professionals making up a large chunk of the crowd.Mounce, who's been skeptical of the city's redevelopment plans, said she saw hardly any Eastside residents there — and compared the overall message to a "sales job" by city leaders.Vice Mayor Larry Hansen, who was not able to attend the meeting, defended the city's outreach efforts.
Arkansas Blog
While I'm not in favor of abusing anyone, since time began, immigrants coming to this country, legally or illegally have had to start out behind the 8 ball, putting up with whatever abuse was heaped on their heads in order to get a toe hold in their new home. It's a brutal tradition, but one that has worked for 3 centuries. I'd think the law & order types would smile to learn someone might have taken advantage of these people they have zero regard for. Don't you want life to be almost impossibly hard for people sneaking into our country? Are dues not to be paid for the pleasure of your company? I think you have to ask yourself this question every time there is a round-up of hard working people of the non-white color.....are we better off now than we were before the Reyes were raided? Is America safer? Will more people go hungry? Not just the workers who were thrown out of a job, but also the customers looking for good Mexican food? Is our children safer, as Bush might say? The thing that upsets me most is when good people are mistreated or needlessly punished or singled out for punishment.
Home sales fall modestly
Tulsa wasn't immune to the effects of the national housing slump last year, but the drop was mild: 2007 area home sales declined just 5.1 percent from the year before.
An estimated 13,021 homes changed hands last year, compared with 13,722 in 2006, according to statistics from the Greater Tulsa Association of Realtors. Though the drop was the steepest this decade so far, sales remained well above 2001-2004 levels.
National home sales dropped 13 percent, the biggest plunge in a quarter-century and the second losing year in a row, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.
Doug Horton, president of Northeast Oklahoma Real Estate Services, the multiple listing service that compiles home sales data, said the final tally was still strong.
|
