Tag: MEMA Cottages

Around the GO Zone in 60 Seconds: Drinking ‘Shroom juice at the Wall Street Journal, Cottages, Community, Warr and Wind Pool

I must be quick so I can get on the road to Buzzard Roost and there are several items that we need to cover so let’s start with the men and women on the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial board who evidently found a local source for psyclobin mushrooms (and consumed alot of tea) before they wrote this:

Mr. Crist’s behavior stands in contrast to that of Louisiana, of all places. Baton Rouge also established a Citizens insurer after Katrina but only as a “last resort.” Louisiana has a thriving private insurance market, in part because regulators have let companies adjust their rates. By law, Louisiana Citizens cannot offer competitive prices, save in a few high-risk coastal areas. From a peak of about 170,000 policies in 2007, it now holds about 130,000 (about what it had before Katrina) and is aiming to get below 100,000.

Note how these lit and hallucinating buffoons neglected to mention how many policies Louisiana Citizen’s had in 2004 and 2005 or the fact the guy running Louisiana Citizens (now under federal indictment) that entire time was paying his daughter’s prom bill with policyholder premiums.  Maybe next time they should check with Jim Brown before they have their combo mushroom binges/editorial board meetings. Since Bob Bartley died the only thing I can add about the remaining folks in opinion at the WSJ is that you guys really suck.

Watching the cottage controversy unfold from afar I shake my head at the utter uselessness of the approach taken by certain of the affordable housing advocates. Nowdy, who happens to know a thing or two about these type issues, contends in our internal Slabbed editorial board meetings very real issues are being obscured by the yet “another Thompson/Barbour pissing contest” and I’m inclined to agree and in this case I don’t blame our Gov.  It is simple economics; throwing money putting people without means into “affordable housing” does nothing to fix the larger problem.  Good paying jobs makes housing affordable. Meantime we have renters that actually work full time who are wondering where they will live when the FEMA rental assistance program ends this month. To the extent the renters work, received no grant and have no shot at a freebie cottage they have my sympathies. And since they work they can’t spend time raising cain at local City council meetings which brings us back to the “uselessness”. Solutions to thorny issues lie in the advancement of knowledge and awareness. People of goodwill can genuinely disagree but that doesn’t mean they can’t work together trying to find workable solutions to hard issues. Sometimes the politicians don’t make it easy but I’ve found both the Bay and Waveland the city councils are listening to a variety of opinions and genuinely want to do what is best for the community. Continue reading “Around the GO Zone in 60 Seconds: Drinking ‘Shroom juice at the Wall Street Journal, Cottages, Community, Warr and Wind Pool”

Around the GO Zone in 60 Seconds: Lipstick on a Taxpayer Subsidy, Confidence and Cottages

As I once again catch up to the news I was struck by the assortment of local stories that dovetail nicely with our theme and recent posts here on Slabbed. We’ll start with the Sun Herald editorial board and a recent Op-ed that left me scratching my head as I was reminded of the old popular stock cliche’ in “Lipstick on a pig”.  Let’s start with some excerpts:

Lawmakers need to do all they can do during this legislative session to ensure that insurance will be both affordable and available for homeowners in South Mississippi.

To provide further proof of the necessity of such legislative action, the Gulf Coast Business Council has commissioned an independent study by the Stennis Institute to calculate the statewide economic impact of current insurance rates on the Coast. The report will estimate how much tax revenue — from sales taxes on construction materials to income taxes on those employed in every phase of the housing industry — the state is losing due to current insurance rates.

That report is expected to more than justify putting more money into the “wind pool” to lower premiums.

That, in turn, should result in increased economic activity on the Coast.

With this new report, all legislators should be convinced that Mississippi needs to make a clear commitment to the Coast in recognition of this region’s economic importance to the entire state.

And of course the swine lipstick slather party is couching a taxpayer subsidy in terms of economic development. We’ve covered these concepts many times on Slabbed and it doesn’t take an expensive study to figure the obvious that the high cost of insurance costs Mississippians taxes, money and jobs. But does that justify putting more taxpayer money into the Mississippi wind pool? The editorial board at the Sun Herald seems to think so as the editorial continues: Continue reading “Around the GO Zone in 60 Seconds: Lipstick on a Taxpayer Subsidy, Confidence and Cottages”

A Quick Thought on Recent Cottage Developments

This post is quick and dirty and I’ll leave it to those so interested to google up the stories at the Sun Herald, the Seacoast Echo and WLOX.

First the residents didn’t want them but now cognitive dissonance over the initial decision to ban them has set in. The perceptions are pretty simple to understand, people that are sinking $50K into just their flood mitigated foundations aren’t too keen on having a $26,000 MEMA cottage as their next door neighbor. Dr Mac didn’t help things speaking out at the BSL City Council meeting; too many people remember how much money he got from the Farm.

Meantime and with the deadline to vacate the cottages looming, a few former cottage residents have replaced their cottages with true modular housing. Whatever fears the neighbors had about the cottages have been replaced with the stark terror of having an elevated glorified trailer for a neighbor. Throw in a healthy dose of freeloaders and out of town residents who used their cottages as weekend getaways and the toxic gumbo pot is complete. (I know I promised no links but this loser seems to think he is entitled to a free house without the bother of a mortgage.) Continue reading “A Quick Thought on Recent Cottage Developments”