I felt compelled to write after reading your "Akron Getting Big Housing Help" news story describing how Akron is receiving 20 million dollars from the Federal Government. This money is earmarked to raze and rebuild "230 rental units and 50 – 65 houses." This HUD Hope VI Program shows that the remnants of FDR's socialist agenda is alive and well, abetted by the Republican Right doling out our money and glad-handing to secure votes, and the Democrats freely spending the rest of our money in order to fuel a Leftist Utopian vision with a wink and a nudge to Chairman Mao and Lenin.

This is a microcosm of a larger woe afflicting American society, the pandering to the lowest common denominator rather than investing in the best and the brightest. Can you imagine what $40 million dollars in the form of grants and loans to Akron U graduates to start small businesses would do? That could be used to plant the seeds that the market would then decide to germinate or terminate, not the politicians. As the population of the area dwindles and brain drain continues, how much better to have spent this money on those who would contribute most to the area in the forms of jobs, taxes, families and a trickle down economy that would benefit far more people than new housing projects will.

That the project will end up costing $38 to $40 million dollars is astounding. The median home price in Akron is $104,000, with the median rental value of an apartment at $378 per month. It would seem to me that $40 million taxpayer (although ‘some’ funds will come from donations) should build a lot more than a total of 300 housing units. Of course, some of these funds are going for "job training" to make the residents more self-sufficient. I thought we already had a tax-based organization that did this, we call it the Public School system.

"Population in the area will grow, and with it will come retail services that people need, said Jeff Wilhite, Akron's deputy mayor for administration
." Thank goodness for this, I was afraid Akron wasn’t going to have enough Check Cashing and Payday Advance franchises, but this should help. `I don’t think in five years you’ll recognize the place,’" he said. Come by in ten years, I am sure it will look quite familiar by then.
It is frustrating to watch the middle class recede as more and more money is taken from our pockets to fund these feel-good band-aid notions. It is estimated that 62% of those considered by government standards as "poor" have either cable TV or Satellite service, along with 25% having cell phones. These are two things I do without because I don’t have the disposable income for these luxuries, but among all too many we see the reasoning of "You pay for what I need and I'll pay for what I want." And so now not only will we continue to pay for others’ housing, schooling, medicine, food, transportation and more, we will also make sure that the housing is newer and nicer, thus ensuring that there remains no incentive to live and breed within one's means.

Perhaps the most offensive statement was from the City Council President, stating that this area "will have everything other neighborhoods have." Well, everything except the bill. That goes to the rest of us.

Respond.