City Hall Markets New Private Development

[XLFD]

The term corruption covers a broad range of human actions, states a World Bank informational link.  That agency settled on a straightforward definition of corruption— the abuse of public office for private gain.  

"Public office is abused for private gain when an official accepts, solicits, or extorts a bribe. It is also abused when private agents actively offer bribes to circumvent public policies and processes for competitive advantage and profit. Public office can also be abused for personal benefit even if no bribery occurs, through patronage and nepotism, the theft of state assets, or the diversion of state revenues."

Now definitely, the World Bank's purview is international, but the definitions do not really change when you look at corruption happening at the local level.  Municipalities like Ludington typically have measures in place to combat corruption so that they do not resemble a banana republic when compared to other cities; for Ludington in is in their City Code Sec. 2-72.

Yet, the lines often seem to blur when a city (and the state that the city is in) condones and participates in targeted corporate welfare schemes with an ill-defined public purpose.  The City of Ludington (COL) and the State of Michigan will be spending many millions of public revenue and credits in the pursuit of 'low-rent' housing in the downtown area, the old bowling alley block (BAB).  The developer will spend roughly $267,000 per unit for the 'low-rent' housing, while adequate multi-unit rental houses in better neighborhoods sell for less than a third of that.

For decades, the development will be subsidized by the state and COL through a variety of methods few people actually understand, or notice.   Suffice it to say, there will be over $16 million coming from public coffers to make these apartments, and so one would think that the developer would have plenty of extra money to market the new apartments.

Guess again.  These apartments are still a few months from completion and the City of Ludington, through their Facebook site, have decided to do even more for the exploitative developers.  The Community Development Director Heather Tykoski posted, or allowed to be posted under the name of the COL, an advertisement for a private enterprise:

As you can see it has 41 'shares' and nearly as many 'likes' in the two days it has been out there, so this has been a great marketing venue for Continental Property Management and the developer, Bob Jacobson and whatever LLC he currently runs.  If you scroll back through the City of Ludington site, you will not find any other advertisement for rental properties.  Notably, Tom Bogner has noted that the new Pineview Apartments on North Washington will have 16 more units opening up in three months, and more 16 unit buildings to come.  But see whether you can find them putting out a 'for rent' post for any other enterprise.

But the City of Ludington didn't have skin in the game in that development, since the Bogner's forsook public funding at all levels of their private enterprise.  Thankfully, The Depot, featuring an out-of-state developer trying to get more of your tax dollars to build units that would be better made with private dollars, have just been turned down for their subsidy.  

[Willy]

Thanks for the post and information X. I said a long time ago that if the citizens of Ludington think that these units are being created for them, they are sadly mistaken. Since Government funds are being used then anyone can rent them. It's possible that all of the units will be rented to out of town people with no regard to where they came from. This is a perfect scenario for housing the people who have been and are currently being resettled all over the U.S. from foreign countries. These programs are costing us billions of dollars. Many of the resettled come from Muslim countries and have no desire to adapt to Western society. We will be lucky if most of the renters are actually native Ludington citizens. Low income housing, no matter where it has been established, eventually, becomes a drag on the local economy. Detroit has been tearing down all of the low income high rises we the tax payers built not that long ago and we are now footing the bill for new low income housing.

[shinblind]

Willy you might have stumbled on the city's hidden agenda.

What Midwest community is catering to the recreational needs of the Muslim community?

None that I am aware of. 

What a great opportunity for Ludington to cater to the needs of the Muslims.

Why it could be like the Baldwin/Idlewilde area in the days of segregation.

Have a niche market all to ourselves. 

Can the beach be restricted to people who aren't modestly attired?

Could a city sponsored mosque be built?

Think, instead of having a noon and curfew siren wouldn't  a call to prayer be preferable?

And will the $500,000 project bathrooms for Copeyon and Legacy plaza already have plans for foot baths and other Muslim needs exaggerating their costs?

And think how diverse the restaurant scene will become, why that alone will make Ludington a destination stop. It should more than offset the lost revenue from the beer tent.

Ludington could have its own new version of Gus Macker.

And think of the offseason boost to the local trade having a Ramadan festival. May 5 to June 4 this year. April 24 to May 23 the following year. While for the next decade and beyond it doesn't interfere with our 8 week busy season.

And think how much easier driving would be with no women drivers on the road. And the revenue boost that could be garnered for those who violate such precepts. 

How far are we to kicking off the Pure Ludington campaign in Dearborn and beyond.

[Willy]

shinblind, I was pointing out one possible scenario of opening up low income housing to anyone the Government wants to provide housing to. Addicts for instance who are on Government assistance  can qualify for low income housing. It used to be that senior housing, paid for by taxpayers, was only for seniors, now anyone on assistance can live there. The City of Lansing had to convert all of their senior housing to accommodate addicts and they have been having nothing but trouble. Importing Muslims is a definite goal of the Progressives which blossomed in Obama's reign. Islam and Western culture do not mix. Ask the English. Muhammed is now the most popular baby's name for boys in England. I don't know if your from Ludington or not but unless you haven't noticed, outsiders have been and are still trying to change the culture of the area. Change can be good but not what is going on at present. you may not take it seriously but in Dearbonrn the Constitution is being replace with Sharia Law. Continue to joke and ignore it  Shinblind.  I hope your grandchildren and their children will not inherit your lack of concern.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8sWK2fp3DM&bpctr=1546817174

[shinblind]

Is it confirmed that both buildings are now going to be 4 story 30 unit structures?  Wasn't it mentioned at a previous meeting that one structure might be a 2 story unit?

I have seen this happen before where financing is obtained to build a certain sized structure, then the plans are changed to construct a smaller size structure while keeping the same funding which happens to go into the developers  pockets.

Isn't there oversite  by the city council?

And if one unit is downsized who gets the shaft? The geezers or the poor? Wouldn't it be more equitable to construct two 3 story structures?

And does it violate segregation laws to have one unit devoted solely for the geezers and one unit devoted solely to the economic disadvantaged? Shouldn't they be mixed?

Will the city be giving Tom Bogner some ad space also?

[XLFD]

Lots of questions, I can surely answer the last question:  no, nor will they give any other local landlord any advertisement, nor should they have given this one any.

Recall Spence Riggs?  While he was serving on the Planning Commission and directing the local Mason County Growth Alliance in June 2017 he posted the picture on the right of the BAB development.  Quite a bit different than what's going up now, where the two buildings are on opposite corners and the parking is a lot different.  Did any changes come before the PC or the city council between that time and now?  No, but it reflects the four level structure currently (the ground floor is for retail space).  

The BAB development was only going to happen if the city council passed the rental inspection ordinance (RIO).  The RIO, as many landlords, tenants, and other concerned locals told the council, would have the effect of exploding rents in Ludington, as many landlords of one and two star rental properties would not be able to continue operations and make the improvements needed to pass without jacking up rents dramatically.  Whatever may have prevented landlords from making improvements in the past beyond regular maintenance, surely was not cured by the RIO, only aggravated.

Ergo, the low-income housing either became vacant, became middle-income housing, or were sold-- often to be converted back into duplexes or single family residences.  I've seen several of those in my neighborhood, the ones that exist are really unaffordable for many of our poorest residents. 

Why did the City screw the poor out of housing options?  Because they couldn't interest developers into creating their desired types of subsidized 'middle-level housing' when the local average rental costs were so low.  City records show that the usual suspects (the former CM, the current CDD), actively set the table for inflating the rents so that these developers could come in and do their thing, with every landlord, tenant and homeowner of Ludington helping to pay their bill for years to come.  

This 1997 overview of why subsidized housing doesn't work and how it poisons the housing market is even more applicable 20 years later, when the LIHTC and other mechanisms for subsidizing housing units has shown over those two decades has only failed the public more.

[Willy]

It could be possible that since the Government is involved with this project that the local entity is required to advertise it's availability. I'm sure there are a lot of palms being greased and under the table money changing hands with this project. 

[stump]

Next ad, Boat slips for rent in the City Marina.

[XLFD]

That's subtly different; the city marina is a publicly-ran (via the COL) facility and they could market their marina (unfair as it would be to their competitors in the private sector).  The COL's Facebook presence "City of Ludington", labels itself a 'government organization-city' and should not be marketing one private concern over others.  You can't really do this fairly without including every single other landlord who wants to market their open apartment(s) to a wider audience, but such marketing would overwhelm the general scope of what the COL wants to accomplish by having a Facebook site for city government.

The City of Ludington has no obligation to market these apartments, the only reason they do so is to once again stick their finger into the eye of every other person offering apartments or houses up for lease or rent, and show who exactly the boss is.