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Sherrod Brown seeks more funding to fight blight
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Beverage bottles fill a garbage can outside a condemned former bakery on Youngstown’s South Side as U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and local leaders conduct a Tuesday news conference to promote the Project Rebuild Act now being considered by Congress. The Project Rebuild Act would replace the Neighborhood Stabilization Plan and would provide about $15 billion in assistance and grants to communities to renovate or tear down dilapidated structures.
YOUNGSTOWN
The Project Rebuild Act would cost more than twice as much as the Neighborhood Stabilization Plan that is ending as one means to contain federal spending.
However, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said the PRA, which would replace NSP, is a necessary investment in local communities.
“We justify it because the need is so great,” Brown said. Like NSP, Brown said he believes the PRA will get bipartisan support. “We don’t grow our way out of this unless housing prices stabilize and communities stabilize,” he said of the real-estate market slump.
Flanked by local leaders, Brown spoke Tuesday at a news conference outside a condemned former bakery at 1941 Glenwood Ave.
“Too many homeowners that have played by the rules, that have worked and paid their taxes and kept their yards and their homes in good condition, see the value of their homes decline because of something they had nothing to do with,” the senator said, referring to neighborhood blight. “We need to help local governments deal with the incredible problems they face.”
NSP, which pays for renovation and demolition, will end Sept. 30, 2013, under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. NSP has disbursed almost $7 billion in three rounds. PRA would allocate $15 billion, split between a formula and competitive grants.
State Treasurer Josh Mandel, Brown’s Republican opponent in the Nov. 6 election, responded quickly to Brown’s visit.
“This is another instance of Sherrod Brown hiding from his failed record in Washington by talking about more borrowing and spending at home. Sherrod Brown has borrowed and spent like there is no tomorrow, and the national debt has increased by $11 trillion since he went to Washington two decades ago,” Mandel said in a news release. “Instead of pushing another partisan bill that spends too much, Sherrod Brown should have voted for the bipartisan JOBS Act the president signed into law last week that helps create an environment for the private sector to grow and create jobs.”
Tony Paglia, vice president of the Regional Chamber, acknowledged the political controversy and the debate about federal spending.
However, Paglia said at the news conference: “Nobody can really deny the continuing need, the growing need, for assistance to local communities around the country for the problems of these blighted neighborhoods and the lack of resources the communities have in order to try to solve some of their problems.”
Paglia added: “Certainly, if we can get rid of some of these old commercial properties that are no longer of use and are hurting communities, we can hopefully put them [the sites they occupy] to good use again.”
DeMaine Kitchen, administrator in the office of Mayor Charles Sammarone, said the long-vacant red brick former bakery was boarded up, but vandals removed the plywood, leaving its litter-strewn interior wide open. He said it will be boarded up again as it awaits demolition.