Keep using this quote!
Wasn't gonna blog this week [gotta work on Prospectus]. But I couldn't let this go unlinked:
The Center of the Op-Ed Universe, The New York Times, Tuesday ran this piece by former Treasury Secy Paul O’Neill [right] -- Tear Down That House -- about how if President Obama is looking for things to spend money on to stimluate the economy, he ought to help shrinking cities count, and then remove, the growing number of abandoned houses.
The federal government should reimburse cities and towns who hire people from the unemployment rolls to tear down these structures, clean up the properties and, if there is no immediate buyer for them, to turn them into green spaces.
Not only will this create jobs, it will also provide lasting economic value as the properties get placed back on the tax rolls. And the program would give clear evidence that the taxpayers’ (borrowed) dollars are producing a tangible public benefit. To encourage participation, Washington might consider giving cities and towns a 25 percent bonus — beyond reimbursing them for what they spend on reclamation. We could get such a program running by early next year, and it could run through, say, mid-2011.
Of course, we agree. Of course, we beat him to it. Of course, we both stole the allusion from the same source.
- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
p.s. Here's another one.
