Saturday, March 7, 2020

Public Problems require Civil Service Solutions not Parochial Profiteering

Wiener’s “SB 899” panders with band aids, blurs church-state separation, fails to proffer public-interest solutions

Quick fixes conceived under pressure of crisis (and compounded crises) made not by inadequacy of the entity or institution of government — but by the impenetrable corruption, nepotism, incompetence, carelessness, and neglect of men and women ensconced in and around public office over many years.

Alternatives which are narrow-minded, shortsighted “nongovernmental” (anti-“bureaucracy,” anti-“government”), which amass wealth masked as doing good, which cash in and drain the public treasury (as surely as the military industrial complex) never aid public health and welfare. 
 
More often than not, as with Wiener's proposal, they selfishly
(a) breach the crucial barrier, in place to avert conflict and tribalism, which separates sectarianism from civil service (State)
(b) undermine essential, duly-designated public sector issues and priorities; and 
(c) further destroy public taxes-funded (and mandated) competent civil service for the general public health and welfare.
P
oliticians’ Pandering Never Solves Problems 

Duke University graduate, Fulbright Scholar, Harvard Law graduate Scott Wiener was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, grew up in southern New Jersey, and worked as a litigator for the bankrupt multinational Limited Liability Partnership Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe headquartered in San Francisco, California.
  • In 2008, his former firm “filed a voluntary petition for chapter 11 bankruptcy for protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California” throwing the firm into chaos over who was “entitled to revenue from client matters pending at the time of bankruptcy.” In 2016, the dispute reached the California Supreme Court.
  • In November 2016 Scott Wiener became a state senator for California’s District 11.
  • Estimated daily homelessness (2019) in Wiener’s old and later states of residency
Pennsylvania: 13,199
New Jersey: 8,862
California: 151,278
  • Public school student homelessness conditions school year 2017-2018
Pennsylvania: 440 students unsheltered, 6,681 in shelters, 2,231 in hotels/motels, and 21,901 doubled up.
New Jersey: 76 unsheltered, 1,982 in shelters, 1,511 in hotels/motels, and 9,665 doubled up
California: 10,407 unsheltered, 17,299 in shelters, 13,713 in hotels/motels, and 221,639 doubled up.
March 2020
S
an Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener introduces “SB 899 to allow faith institutions (such as churches, synagogues, and mosques) along with nonprofit hospitals to build affordable housing on their property by right, even if local zoning prohibits this type of housing.”

Wiener’s stated Rationale for his quick fix
  • Because: “Churches and other religious and charitable institutions often have land to spare, and they should be able to use that land to build affordable housing and thus further their mission.”
  • Because: “California desperately needs housing of all kinds, including affordable housing for ‘our’ low income residents.”

N
ONSENSE!

Contrary to the state senator’s enthusiasm for further breaching of the time-honored doctrine of separation of church and state, the government should not be in the business of helping sectarians further their “mission.” Their “mission” is their issue.

Nevertheless… sheep follow

California State Assembly (15th Assembly District) Hillary’ite Buffy Jo Christina Wicks:
“The State needs to consider all options for alleviating our [it is disgusting how politicians and media personalities incessantly and insincerely use the first person plural possessive "our"] housing crisis, and removing roadblocks for the faith community is a critical step in the right direction.”
Ethically compromised San Francisco Mayor London Breed:
“Our housing shortage is the result of decades of under building and restrictive zoning, and as a result, the cost of housing in San Francisco is unaffordable for many of our residents. We need solutions to eliminate the red tape that gets in the way of creating more affordable homes in our city.”
Breed’s get-government (unelected-bureaucrats) -off-our-backs reasoning” is ideologically scripted and fatally flawed. Her facts only minimally true. 

San Francisco is a big place with many buildings. And every municipality in the country has, one expects, properly thought out zoning laws.

In serious terms of permanent priorities and principled policies, politicians— as always, operating from crisis to crisis and election to election — fail to address critical issues in the public interest and for the long term.

C
ritical issues crafty politicians omit
  • Inferior education and training
  • Inadequate transferable skills
  • Uneasy or impossible access to mental health and referral services and more general human resources
  • Lack of or insufficient innovative workplaces planned and designed to replace incursion of automation
  • Under- and unemployment
  • Work and income insufficiency to cover costs of housing and related necessities
  • Wherewithal overall (mentally and physically) to stave off homelessness
People don’t need churches or other profiteers calling themselves non-profits.
People do not need others' guilt or alms or "do-gooding" "missions" or 
condescending, self-serving “charity.”
People don't need proselytizing
 People need strengthening resources permanently enabling self-sufficiency and independence.

Why not for public good instead of mere private gain employ the principle of —

E
minent Domain

As to the specific area of affordable housing, eminent domain is the better public course for the public good.

It lacks hidden motives and /or government laundering public money through private sectarian “nonprofit” enterprises, or private sectarian “nonprofits” laundering money through government. 

It is a traditional public instrument that avoids breaching important public doctrines such as the separation of church and state.

The law of eminent domain (land acquisition, compulsory purchase) means the State, Province or National Government is empowered “to take private property for public use.”
To serve the general public, the federal legislature, acting on behalf of the general public, could declare excess properties held by religious places or spaces (churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc., shouldn't object since they are such do-gooders) for public use; and make a one-time “just compensation” to the owners.



Sources

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
“New Jersey Homelessness Statistics” https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/nj
“Pennsylvania Homelessness Statistics” https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/paa
“California Homelessness Statistics” https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-statistics/ca

https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/news/20200306-senator-wiener-introduces-housing-legislation-allow-churches-and-other-charitable
https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Wiener
Eminent domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain#United_States

Curbed San Francisco “New bill would allow churches and hospitals to build housing on their land: Faith can be your shelter, but it probably shouldn’t be the only one” Adam Brinklow
March 6, 2020 https://sf.curbed.com/2020/3/6/21168455/wiener-church-affordable-housing-sb-899-bay-area

Curbed reports on “homes, streets, neighborhoods, and cities as inextricably related” (and brings) “local issues to a broad, national audience.”  https://www.curbed.com/pages/about-curbed

London Breed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Breed
Buffy Wicks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_Wicks

Other supporters of Wiener in their own narrow interests:
Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California Executive Director Amie Fishman
Nonprofit Housing Association of Southern California Executive Director Alan Greenlee
https://sd11.senate.ca.gov/news/20200306-senator-wiener-introduces-housing-legislation-allow-churches-and-other-charitable


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