Another buried lead

New Mexico Business Weekly's report on Eclipse today has another pundit thinking ;)

I'm following the story for many reasons, including the fact that it directly affects a member of my fam...

A quick re-cap for folks:

This week I heard from very good sources that employee mileage reimbursement checks from Eclipse were bouncing. Not a good sign. Then employees were sent home without pay. Then today, NMBW says Albuquerque mayor Martin Chavez said the aircraft manufacturing company told employees it was close to finding some new financing. (This was also confirmed by very good source.)

But it was a quote deeper in the story that really caught my eye.

The current financial crisis has made it difficult to raise new investments, Chavez said.

“It’s very clear the nation is in a recession, which is primarily centered around credit,” Chavez said. “My hope is that Eclipse doesn’t get caught up in that, but it’s the same story unfolding in every major city in America.”

Whaaa?

Here's what another pundit is thinking about. While the G-20 meet this weekend amidst a national and global financial crisis caused by a neo-liberal model of the pursuit of capital at all costs and corporate interests in control of all branches of government, we can't forget just how much the Marty Chavez's of the world and their developer friends are part of this financial disaster.

The real story unfolding is how "every major city in America" has been controlled by developers who borrowed money on state, county, local, city and other governments' credit...with much of their bidding done by Mayors like Marty Chavez. These developers are every bit as responsible as anyone for the mess we're in.

From Displacing the Dream, a report I was a major writer and contributor to...

...As available pipelines of public financing from the Federal Government to cities have dried up, public services—from welfare to subsidized housing—have been slashed from the federal budget.5

As a result of this domestic divestment, cities are more and more dependent on real estate taxes to raise their budgets. Developers that build on city land are essentially giving city governments the money they need to operate; the more upmarket the development, the more taxes the city can collect. In this context the profits that developers reap are both monetary and political, including increased control over the policy and planning decisions that shape civic life.6

This privatization of local financing and political power is unprecedented. It has transformed the cyclical process of development into wide scale privatization of public space and services. As more and more city space sells out to the highest bidder, longstanding communities—usually African-American, Latino, and Asian— which held rich social, economic, and cultural networks, are being displaced and thus, destroyed. And with that destruction, there is tremendous cost.

I think we all know the costs now...

5. Hackworth, Jason. The Neoliberal City. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007.

6. Ibid.

Displacing the Dream

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