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A BETTER IDEA: LET'S PAY UNDESIRABLES TO MOVE OUT OF CITY

By Mike Hudson

If the Urban Renewal Board approves it, this year the city will offer something positively new: They will pay people to move here.

The plan is the much-praised brainchild of new Niagara Falls Community Development Director Seth A. Piccirillo.

Seth’s bold plan would have the city pay 20 people who received at least an associate degree within the past two years $3,492 per year toward student loan payments for two years if they move into neighborhoods deemed in effect “undesirable.”
Undesirable?

If you have to pay people to live there, what else could you call it?

If Seth has his way, $200,000 of federal Urban Renewal money - taken from people around the country in the form of federal taxes – will be spent - with about the usual waste - $140,000 going to pay college grads and $60,000 lost in handling costs - to administer the program.

In order to get the money, young, bright, college grads would move into apartments in the Third Street area, near the Seneca Niagara Casino, Cedar Avenue, Fourth Street or Park Place, areas which possess blighted properties and have a high percentage of African Americans, some of whom have been there for years, work hard to pay their bills, could use an extra $3,492 per year themselves, and some of whom are college graduates themselves.

But if gentrification is planned – let’s be candid – are we are seeking mainly whites?

Paying young college grads to move into these mainly black neighborhoods would, according to what Mayor Paul Dyster told the Buffalo News, make the downtown neighborhoods, "not just affordable and cool but also safe to live (in)."
A youthful, bright, college grad himself, Seth announced to the young gentry he hopes to attract, "We want you to be part of our city. Tell us what you're looking for, and we'll find a way to provide it to you."
And pay you too.

I have a better idea.

If government can pay what they deem "desirable" people to move into certain neighborhoods, it might be cheaper to pay undesirables to leave. They will probably leave for less than it takes you to get people to move in.

Besides, most people would rather pay someone to leave them alone than pay them to be their friend
Especially, if like Seth, they are using other people’s money.

 

 

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com June 19 , 2012