Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?

Heard about Pittsburgh, P. A.?


File this under "Life during wartime", but no, this isn’t about a famous punk club, CBGB: that's shameless bait-and-switch on my part.

This is about the not-famous-enough federal grant programs called Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). It’s what we call "flexible" money used for economic development, home ownership and programs for the homeless, for youth, homeless youth, domestic violence prevention, job development, job training and a ton of other extremely worthy and worthwhile things.

So why should you care? Well, because odds are really good that wherever you are you're within shouting distance of some program in your town that helps the weak and the struggling...and its funded by CDBG money.

And given that the program is not designed to throw money at the already insanely wealthy Barons of Petrolem, but to help out home buyers, to poor, the unemployer, small business, the sick and the fragile, it is perhaps needless to say the Bush Administration is out to destroy it.

Also needless to say, this is largely an urban program, itd deliberate destruction is part of the ongoing GOP War on the Cities. Or, as a conservative colleague of mine put it, ”Cities didn’t vote for the President, so what did you expect?” Because for them its not about whether to programs actually works; its about annihilating the heretics and apostates and heathens who have not followed the Republican Piper at the Gates of Hell into the darkness.

Also needless to say, like every other parcel of bullshit these evil clown try to fob off on the public, the legislation is neatly wrapped in a name that means exactly the opposite of what it does: in this case its called “Strengthening America’s Communities Grant Program”.

This from the City Mayor’s Website

...
The US Conference of Mayors President and Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic said, “This new proposal is totally unacceptable and we are extremely disappointed that this tactic is being used as an excuse to eliminate CDBG and cut much needed resources to local communities.“A key priority of this Administration is stimulating the domestic economy by creating jobs and expanding home ownership, and that is exactly what CDBG does. CDBG is good business and is the foundation of our nation’s communities,” he continued. The business community also has a stake in the community development block grant program. In the financial year 2004, CDBG created or retained 90,637 jobs. Furthermore, for every one dollar of CDBG funding, approximately $2.79 in private funding was leveraged for economic development projects like shopping centers and grocery stores.

...

In Los Angeles, California, CDBG funds were used in the Chesterfield Square project in Southwest Los Angeles, which brought a major supermarket, a Home Depot, a major drug store and other stores and restaurants to this underserved community. This project alone created over 500 jobs and brought newfound pride to the community.
...

In the 2004 financial year, the program assisted 168,938 households with their housing needs, which included homeownership assistance, construction of housing,
rehabilitation of existing housing, and energy efficiency improvements.
...

The coalition of mayors, county officials and business leaders contends that for the future of this nation, CDBG must not be eliminated, nor see any major cuts to the program. “CDBG is an effective program that helps millions of Americans by investing in our communities. We will take our message to Capitol Hill to fight for our federal and local government partnerships that have been successful for over three decades,” Plusquellic concluded.

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
this ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey.
I ain't got time for that now.