housing projects

i talked with a friend the other day who said that she couldn't see the beauty of the buildings, only rape, poverty, child abuse, drugs, and other crime. well i can't exactly argue that fact when housing projects have been a failed experiment. yet, i don't think the buildings are to blame. i believe in mixed income housing and roads cutting through so that we alleviate the stigma of walling off parts of our society as though being poor is something unsavory but you can do that with the existing buildings. we are in the worst housing crisis since the civil war and everyday our homeless population swells and yet we have structurally sound buildings to quickly rehabilitate and move people inside. it will cost 762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4600 units and replace them with them with 744 units. do the math. there is a disparity there. it is an 82 percent reduction and yet they say they want all our citizens to return. bullshit. in addition they plan to build a 1,000 market rate and tax credit units, which is still a loss of 2700 apartments. these additional buildings will cost over 400,000 each. architects have inspected the existing structures and said that the damage to them is over rated. so start moving people back in while you rehabilitate others. i am all for renovating the structures and implementing mixed income housing but it can be done with the existing structures. cut roads through and bring back police presence via patrol cars and beat cops. it is almost christmas for christ's sake...give the poor some place to live. get them out of the tents and from under the over pass. give them hope. you know i think what we fail to recognize is that these are not just slums, they are the homes of many and just like our homes, they are full of memories. a child's first birthday. the smell of ya mama's stuffed peppers.candle lit dinners. must we continue to punish the poor for being poor, disenfranchising them, deciding things for them and telling them they will be happier in the long run as though they are children? will they see fit to rip down all the trees too, just like they did in st. thomas? make some noise! get out there on the protest lines. do not let them take our city and make it in the image of houston or atlanta. we have soul, so feel it. dust off your compassion. move to action and while you are at it, elect me supreme ruler of the universe. i will make mondays silly walk days, and anyone caught not walking silly will be forced to watch marathon bouts of monty python in clown shoes. because it is my belief that it is hard to take yourself so damn seriously when you are being silly and god help us, but we all take ourselves too seriously. spoke, supreme ruler of the universe...yeh i like the sound of that!