INCLUSION IS A MUST!
Well, this
is one of 3 wheelchair ramped houses on the short side street of SW 18 Ave between
SW 14-16 Aves.
That much
need for access is proof positive that:
Disability
is NOT an outlier.
Inclusion is
a MUST!
WORK TIREDLESSLY TO VOTE THE ABLEIST OUT OF OFFICE.
Ask why they don’t boast of bare minimum:
Saving taxpayer dollars.
Constituent services.
Compliance with city laws.
Then vote them out!
TRULY ACCESSIBLE UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE CEILING
A pair of horribly steep/bumpy power
line covers on Ocean Drive at the Clevelander = the miserable minimum.
A world famous street in one of the
biggest tourist destinations in the U.S. with a pulsing tax base from all the
development – should NEVER settle for lousy mobility.
Miami Beach – fix this.
IN THE FAR BACK OF THE HOUSE – ENSURING SEATED PATRONS WILL HAVE THE WORST SIGHT LINES FOR EVERY CONCERT
The view is of a sea of standing
bodies as much as the stage.
CLOSERS FOOLISHLY FORCE MULTIPLE CROSSINGS
OF DANGEROUS TRAFFIC TO COMPLETE A JOURNEY
Tragically,
dozens of downtown Miami sidewalks are closed for construction — putting people
on peril.
AND EVERY BIT AS LOATHSOMELY BIGOTED AS RACISTS
Every time I
post a picture of neglected landscaping blocking sidewalk accessibility, I get
"If it bothers you, why don't you trim it." snotty response.
Many find
requests for the basic dignity/civil rights of wheelchair access so offensive,
that they demonize the person requesting them.
No one would
tell a burglarized person to become police and solve it.
But
underscore a barrier and they scream at you to fix it yourself.
Diminishing
the needs of people with disabilities is ableism.
Ableism is toxic.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
She is running for South Carolina
House District 99, gearing up for the primary.
“Most of my platform is tax reform and
infrastructure.
We are in an infrastructure crisis, so
we must reallocate money for roads and bridges,” she said, saying fiscally
conservative policy can reduce tax burden while redirecting funds to pay for
the basics.
Gore said she learned to navigate
difficult decisions while reviewing controversial developments during her year
and a half on the planning and zoning commission.
“A planning vote recently dealt with a
medium-sized commercial parcel that backed up to residential.
I have become very familiar with wetlands in my real estate career.
I have seen individual homeowners end up
paying dearly for planning and zoning decisions done poorly.
I voted against a plan to change the
zoning for that commercial plan,” Gore said, noting that the plan ultimately
was approved.
A no vote can cause a developer to pay
attention more to neighborhood flooding concerns.
She said a developer can revise a
plan, creating less concrete lot coverage and more on-site ponds, before a
council gives its final approval.
“We have to be responsible in our development.
The leadership class was very eye opening.”
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
“Healthy tourism keeps taxes low,” Dix noted. “Good schools, a fire and police presence and sustaining healthy communities are the things buyers and sellers focus on.
We are teaching that the beauty of
local government is paving roads, picking up trash, and maintaining and
improving the quality of life.”
Because Charleston has one of the
richest architectural histories in the nation, the academy also teaches about
how to protect the skyline and how to evaluate redevelopment that is sensitive
to historic districts.
Participants learn about accessory dwelling units, missing middle housing, other diverse, affordable housing types, and that higher density does not have to mean taller buildings.
Missing
middle housing includes duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and bungalows as well
as cluster homes and cottage courts.
The academy is very hands on about preparing people to run for election.
Many of its graduates serve on boards and
commissions as well as in elective office.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
“We try to teach you the nuts and bolts of running for office — polling data reading, putting a team together and strategy for campaigning,” Josh Dix, consulting advisor to CTAR’s CEO, said.
“We also explain how parliamentary procedure works.
If you want to be on a
board or commission, parliamentary is a key tool.”
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
The first class graduated in 2021.
One course session is a trip to
Columbia to meet with legislators and heads of key state departments.
Participants learn about financing,
policy and how land-use decisions can sometimes wind up in the court system.
The class is educating land-use
decision-makers to vote based on sound planning.
“We were having a hard time when
projects came to the planning commission or council. There really wasn’t a
REALTOR® voice in those projects.
Projects were approved or denied for
reasons that were not justified,” said Josh Dix, consulting advisor to CTAR’s
CEO.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
The Charleston Trident Association of
REALTORS® (CTAR), the Charleston Home Builders Association and the Charleston
Metro Chamber of Commerce partnered to create a knowledge base that prepares
active community members for elected office, as well as appointments to
planning and advisory boards.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
She said some areas are looking at a
series of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) to fund some capital costs, but
it may be difficult to convince property owners to the additional self-taxing
that comes via a BID, as those may be downtown businesses already hurting from
the shift to remote work and hybrid work from home.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
She explained that many commercial
buildings have lost value because they have vacancies due to the shift to
remote work.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
“Land value return is based on a simple core premise: public action should generate public benefit.
As challenges mount from rapid
urbanization, deteriorating infrastructure, climate change, and more, this
funding source has never been more important to the future of municipalities,”said
the Germán-Bernstein brief titled “Land Value Return Tools to Finance Our Urban
Future.”
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
“In an era of tight budgets and
exploding need, cities around the world are funding infrastructure and other
public improvements through land value return, also known as land value
capture.
This policy approach offers an array
of public finance tools that enable communities to recover and reinvest land
value increases resulting from public investment and other government actions.
Notably, as new subway lines, roads
and other public works raise the value of nearby land and real estate;
developers and property owners share that publicly generated windfall to help
local governments pay for new bridges, transit, parks, affordable housing and
other infrastructure upgrades,” Lourdes Germán and Allison Ehrich Bernstein
wrote in a policy brief published before deep federal funding cuts became a
reality.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
The new district was the Broward
County Children’s Services Council.
Shayne Kavanagh, senior manager of
research for the 26,000-plus member Government Finance Officers Association, said
local government must challenge itself to find ways of increasing economic
activity without increasing operational costs.
He said better coordination of
land-use policy to economic development could help.
Development that results in urban
sprawl often costs as much or more than the new taxes generated by the
development itself.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
He noted that even in an era of strong
anti-tax sentiment, communities successfully gained voter approval when they
associated the tax with a concrete purpose that citizens value.
“For Plant City, Fla., 50 percent of
its 160 miles of streets were in poor condition.
Staff estimated that it would take up
to 60 years to resurface or reconstruct all roads in the city, based on
available resources at the time.
Street quality served as the
foundation for a new tax,” Kavanagh reported.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
Projected transit service cuts of up
to 40 percent, mass layoffs and fare increases “would have a devastating impact
on our communities, including people with disabilities who live here.”
“For disabled residents, especially
those who can’t drive or afford their own wheelchair-accessible vehicle, public
transit is the foundation of daily life — a way to get to work, attend school,
access medical care, visit family and be part of the community,” Tamley’s op-ed
stated.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
“Public transportation for people with disabilities is the difference between a life of isolation and full independence.
Right now, for those who live in the Chicago region, independence
is on the line,” Tamley wrote in an August Chicago Tribune opinion
piece.
AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
Cities need to be nimble and not be
restricted from creating the kind of revenues they need to continue delivering
services,” said Michael Pagano, dean emeritus, University of Illinois at
Chicago College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and former Brookings Metro
non-resident fellow.
There is no such thing as a magic
bullet that works in every city.
Having worked in the core of Chicago
for two decades, Pagano also noted that commercial occupancy hovers around 70
percent downtown.
That has a huge negative impact on
transit ridership and funding.
