Bethlehem's Mayor John Callahan is trying to persuade the School Board to reconsider a tax incentive for Martin Tower that they had recently rejected. Without the tax break, Callahan suggests the developer will build affordable housing, instead of an upscale Shangri-La previously presented. More children will burden the school system, instead of the well heeled patronizing Main Street. The new plan is exactly what the developers would have built in the first place, with or without the tax increment financing. The property is too large, and the demand too small, for high end. The original total TIF request was less than 5% of the project cost. The developer is being more honest than the Mayor; He said that the new plans reflect the market conditions. The School Board only rejected the original plan two months ago, the market conditions has not changed since then. Although it was appropriate for Callahan to encourage the development of the Tower in the first place, he's now just shilling for a developer.
source article by Esack, Assad and Radzievich
The irony of it all. I can remember the young ladies who served as escorts to visitors of the executives of BS, at Martin Tower, back in the day.
ReplyDeleteThis is the office building designed so nearly everyone had a corner office. Now it is this interior space nightmare going to be converted to "affordable housing".
Why do I keep getting visions of Thunderdome in my head. An upscale "Hotel Traylor" in Bethlehem. A subsidized housing project AKA vertical slum that will absolutely bankrupt the BSD and require it's own security force to contain the mayhem.
Perhaps a more fitting use would be repossession by the alien forces that designed this white elephant in the first place. Do you hear me Master Blaster?
"affordable housing" is a term inserted by myself and a member of the school board. callahan connoted that, by saying that without the tax incentive, the monthly rent changes from $1500 to $800.
ReplyDeleteRemember the time this print was posted in just about all "animal" doctors' offices. It brings back wonderful memories.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe irony of it all. I can remember the young ladies who served as escorts to visitors of the executives of BS, at Martin Tower, back in the day.
This is the office building designed so nearly everyone had a corner office. Now it is this interior space nightmare going to be converted to "affordable housing".
Why do I keep getting visions of Thunderdome in my head. An upscale "Hotel Traylor" in Bethlehem. A subsidized housing project AKA vertical slum that will absolutely bankrupt the BSD and require it's own security force to contain the mayhem.
Perhaps a more fitting use would be repossession by the alien forces that designed this white elephant in the first place. Do you hear me Master Blaster?
January 4, 2011 3:44 AM
Chicago's Cabrini-Green was a multi-unit low-income high-rise apartment complex located in the South Side. Murders, rapes, childrens' deaths became the rule, not the exception. People on a daily basis feared for their lives. Finally the city demolished the structures but it took more than two decades and tremendous heartbreak to do so.