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Isle needs invention and quality jobs
By Tony Janca
Contributor
Published November 5, 2009
As Galveston flounders trying to decide whether 20 percent subsidized housing is an appropriate number for an island of 42,000 people, the Galveston Housing Authority and the residents have lost sight of the fact that, even with this infusion of new subsidized apartments, a good majority of the island families are still well below the national average for household income.
Couple this with increased taxes for fewer services and there really isn’t a reason for the island to rebound economically. It was receding before Hurricane Ike, and now that catastrophe has only exacerbated the dynamics of the root problem.
Noted economist Thomas Sowell once said what we created in the 1960s as housing projects only reinforces the impact of poverty and doesn’t address how to bring people out of dependence upon the federal government.
It would be far better to use the $88 million rebuilding Galveston’s thousands of decrepit homes, and then have a creative rent voucher system that would inspire home maintenance and ownership. A renter who participated in basic upkeep, maintenance and minor repairs could move up to a nicer home, one more intermingled into the average neighborhood.
The $88 million could be used to hire contractors to improve homes across the island, especially those impacted the most along the Magnolia Manor corridor.
Recently, I was on the island. Being a BOI, it was sad to see the homes’ condition. As far as the eye could see, there were poorly maintained homes, their rooftops with blue tarps and yards looking like a junkyard. Before Galveston can reverse this downward spiral, the city needs quality jobs, educational institutions, housing and services such as neighborhood shopping centers with well-founded stores.
There are quality jobs at University of Texas Medical Branch, and once there were quality jobs at American National, Kempner Cotton, Lipton Tea, Stewart Title, Santa Fe, etc. But the families that built this island around those businesses have abandoned the island.
Galveston should be proud of its sons George Mitchell and Tilman Fertitta, who are willing to make large investments in the community. However, to bring quality jobs to the island, people must be willing to invest millions into the community as a gamble that it can return to the growing vibrant and prosperous community it should be.
This won’t happen as long as the political administration and numerous other people who resent these successful BOIs would rather have no growth and continue to live in less than quality housing and environments. Let Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas bring back industry with quality jobs. The island would welcome another cotton compress, an import company or even a tea company.
To break this chain of no progress, we must have a change in the mindset that the federal government will provide for Galveston, then spend more effort to develop and allow entrepreneurship to rebuild the island. We must keep in focus that an economic vibrant community must have positive growth and, finally, keep an open mind to all new business ventures that will bring in quality jobs.
Unfortunately, if left to the “no growth” islanders, GHA will build new ghettos and the world will continue to pass Galveston by.
Tony Janca, a BOI, now lives in Shreveport, La.
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