My bullshit meter does me in...

Today there was a special presentation, open to people from New Orleans, about urban Main Street programs, to help build awareness of the program as New Orleans begins the process of creating Main Street programs. The session, all in all, was lightly attended. You already saw some of my thoughts about this in the previous entry.

One of the presenters was by James Carr, a vice president of Fannie Mae Foundation. His presentation made me so angry I almost cried.

First, a big part was about how the unbanked are underserved by financial options and that the money they spend in fees at places like check cashing places could be spent in neighborhood commercial districts, if they would bank in traditional institutions.

I don't know if Fannie Mae ever took a position when the big banks got legislation passed allowing them to charge relatively large fees for cashing checks that are drawn on their institutions, but by people without accounts at those particular institutions.

The law used to be that banks were legally required to cash checks drawn on their institution without charging any fees to non-account holders.

No longer.

But then he went into "cultural authenticity" and said that he is coming out with a journal article about the value of independently owned businesses, microenterprise development, etc. to traditional commercial districts. And how too many cities are oriented to urban renewal and attracting retail chains--making our downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts no more distinctive than a suburban shopping mall.

Hmm. He's not the first person to realize this. It's a fundamental part of Main Street, although I would say that facilities and programs to nurture the development of independently owned businesses is a weak part on the implementation side.

In the Q&A portion, I asked how do we get traditional funders such as Fannie Mae to support such efforts, how in DC Fannie Mae grants support anti-authenticity efforts across the board, and that Fannie Mae funding, with the possible exception of the Howard University project of a few years ago, has been essential to the destruction of authenticity in DC--in particular historic buildings demolished by the CDCs that they fund.

And that their pilot program in asset development and wealth building from 2001-2002 accomplished almost nothing with their DC-based grantee, the H Street Community Development Corporation, and how I had extended conversations with the national program officer dealing with that program and the likely problems with success with their particular grantee, and how could they call a program "asset-based community development," when they provided no link to replicable criteria, such as that outlined by the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University.

His response was that Fannie Mae funds from the proposals that are submitted and that it is up to people like me to get the organizations to change their approach.

I can't tell you how angry I was.

What about not funding shitty proposals?

What about rewarding organizations that do good work, and ceasing the funding of organizations that don't do asset-based work?

I didn't mention the funding irregularities of the parent organization.

Note that some of the money that funds the Fannie Mae Foundation comes from the somewhat under $300 million that the parent corporation doesn't have to pay in local income taxes, since Fannie Mae Corporation has an exemption from local (but not federal) taxes.

In fact, I consider myself "blowback," to the H Street Community Development Corporation. I finally got involved in local activities in 2000 because I felt if I didn't the neighborhood would continue to languish. I wondered why the more than one hundred million dollars expended in the H Street neighborhood by the Federal government, local government, and foundations had virtually no improvement effect.

In fact, things got worse, judging by the demolition of buildings on the 300 block of H Street NE, both the north and south sides, the continued failure of businesses, and BP put out their proposal to replace most of a square as a 50,000 square foot super gas station.



The only thing that cooled me out afterwards was the Main Street party afterwards. Karaoke, food, and Hurricanes at a place on Bourbon Street. It gave me a new perspective on Bourbon Street... But I missed an important appointment.

The follow-on questioner supported what I said, and some of the people said supportive things as we left the session.

This stuff is hard, especially when there are so many institutional barriers that promote failure instead of success.

E.g., I had a conversation with a woman during lunch. She works for a Main Street program funded by a city and LISC, that is located within a CDC. She works for a CDC, and she asked me if there are any CDCs in the country that have truly successful affordable housing development programs!

I mentioned Bethel New Life in Chicago, and some of the efforts in NYC, plus the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. There are others, Famicos Foundation and other CDCs in Cleveland, and the Historic District Development Corporation in Atlanta. And yes, there are more good examples. But there are hundreds in fact a few thousand CDCs in total.

But there are more bad examples than good ones.

It would be a lot easier if I didn't care. I mean, Butch Hopkins, director of the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation, has his Mercedes leased by the CDC--it's part of his compensation package. (This was true in Feb. 2002, when the Post published two long pieces, and and editorial about the practices of CDCs in DC. I don't know currently, although I can't imagine it's changed.)

Meanwhile, I ride a bike, and advocate for better transit...

Index Keywords: hypocrisy