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Thread for discussing matters of policy

RE: LK - I specifically posted this:

"Obviously, it can be done in small towns and rural areas, but that's not where most of the homeless (and soon to be homeless) live."

RJ, the current policy imagination has its limitations. That's why LA can't figure out how to solve its homelessness crises despite (literally) billions in funds set aside through bond measures. I think the idea of this thread is to talk about policy in both pragmatic, but also theoretical ways, especially when we're discussing federal housing policy.
 
The owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning is building luxury condos near Amalie Arena using opportunity zone funds.

What’s the ROI on that?

It's all about priorities. American capitalism is pretty flexible. We find a way to profit on a lot of the material (and immaterial - see the crypto thread) investments that we make.
 
The owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning is building luxury condos near Amalie Arena using opportunity zone funds.

What’s the ROI on that?

without going to deep into it, OZ funds are private investments of realized capital gains -- not government subsidies

the play the investor here is making is a reduction on the capital gains tax if he keeps his money in for 7+ years (10 years to realize the full benefit) and zero taxes on his additional gains over that time period
 
Without being glib, eminent domain that shit!

While acknowledging that you're not being glib, the use of eminent domain to acquire land still requires that the condemning authority pay the property owner market price for the property taken.
 
can't edit, but should say "direct government subsidies" as tax relief is definitely a government subsidy


re: regional cost differences, an anecdote is that one project we're doing in Fresno, CA is $350 hard construction costs/sf whereas it's $156/sf in Bethel, OH
 
With an average of 1.2M units being built each year. there will have to be very stringent rules about the ownership of the properties to keep them from being plunged into a massive gentrification of the nation.
 
can't edit, but should say "direct government subsidies" as tax relief is definitely a government subsidy


re: regional cost differences, an anecdote is that one project we're doing in Fresno, CA is $350 hard construction costs/sf whereas it's $156/sf in Bethel, OH

No land, no steel ? $350/sf ?
 
it's actually closer to $320

$350 included some stuff that shouldn't count for this discussion

taking out all profit/overhead/contingency/etc. it's $284, so maybe that number is what you're looking for
 
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without going to deep into it, OZ funds are private investments of realized capital gains -- not government subsidies

the play the investor here is making is a reduction on the capital gains tax if he keeps his money in for 7+ years (10 years to realize the full benefit) and zero taxes on his additional gains over that time period

So what’s the ROI on that?
 
Well below market as it’s a tax avoidance strategy.
 
Well below market as it’s a tax avoidance strategy.

What's the tax savings? for example if someone invests 10M for 7 or 10 years how much have they lowered their tax burden?
 
Not sure what this thread's rules are on changing the subject, but here is a really interesting policy idea: desegregating schools by getting rid of the traditional idea of elementary/middle/high school, and instead requiring all students in the district to go to the same school in each grade level. There are only 2 grade levels in most school buildings. So students in these districts go to 7 schools during their K-12 years, all of which are highly integrated. District is the #3 ranked school district in Mississippi. https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-mississippi-an-unlikely-model-for-school-desegregation-11574424004?mod=hp_listb_pos2
 
Can you copy and paste for those of us who don’t subscribe?
 
My school district has 176 schools and I have no idea how that would reduce segregation.

Also, when you’ve spent 70+ years building elementary, middle, and high schools, you’ve built schools tailored to those uses.
 
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What works for a small district in MS probably won’t work for Mecklenburg but it’s worth discussing.
 
so kids move through a school system for 13 years only with people their same age +/- 6 months? that's fucking wild.
 
Can you copy and paste for those of us who don’t subscribe?

CLINTON, Miss.—Nearly five decades ago, this town on Jackson’s outskirts decided to send students to schools organized by grade level, rather than geography.

So all of the kindergartners and first-graders would go to one school, all of the children in second and third grades would be at another, and so forth, all the way through 12th grade. The approach in Clinton was rolled out in 1971 to little fanfare.

Today, the 5,300-student Clinton Public School District is being held up by researchers and educators as a success—and a possible solution as the number of “intensely segregated” minority public schools increases throughout the U.S. The UCLA Civil Rights Project, a research center, defines “intensely segregated” minority schools as those made up of at least 90% of nonwhite students.

Research shows that minorities concentrated in high-poverty schools tend to have lower performance and fewer educational opportunities than those who attend schools in more-affluent areas.

The structure in the Clinton schools assures that public-school students learn alongside each other, regardless of race, economic status or where they live in town. According to state education data, the district has maintained diverse schools in an area of the country with a history of racial division.Clinton’s student population is 54% black, 36% white, 6% Asian, 2% Hispanic and 2% other, with almost half of the students considered low-income.

The community has endured as a greater percentage of minority students in the U.S., especially poor ones, attend “intensely segregated” schools than they did decades ago, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal education data.

“In principle, one could do something like this in any district,” said Sean Reardon, professor of poverty and inequality in education at Stanford University. “Done right—with zones drawn to create diverse schools and with school cultures focused on creating real social and academic integration—it’s a promising model.”
Dr. Reardon found several other districts in the U.S. using a grade-level concept, most with enrollments under 5,000 and in different states.

Students in Clinton who start in kindergarten and go through high school will attend seven schools; most are one or two grade levels. A comparable public-school student elsewhere will attend three schools: elementary, middle and high school.

The concept presents challenges. If the district grows, Clinton Superintendent Tim Martin said, it will have to consider splitting schools that have two grades for manageability, requiring additional school buildings.

Some parents said the number of schools students attend was initially concerning, but the benefits outweigh the challenges.

“We do a lot of busing in Clinton, but it works,” said Sharon Alexander, a college administrator who is black with two children in the district. “The children only see schools, not low-income or upper-class.”

Nationwide, about 9.5 million minority students attended intensely segregated schools in 2018, representing 18% of the number of public schools, with the vast majority of the students low-income. That is up from 2.5 million minority students, or 5% of schools, in 1988, according to the Journal’s analysis.
Achieving schools with racial and economic balance has proved perplexing for school districts across the U.S., including a Maryland school district that recently rankled some in the community with a proposal that would reassign some students to help level out concentrations of poor students. In New York City, many parents decried a recent proposal by a mayoral advisory group to phase out elementary gifted and talented programs, where black and Latino students are underrepresented.

Gary Orfield, co-director of the UCLA Civil Rights Project, said several reasons contribute to resegregation, including the ending of desegregation plans in some large districts, growth of charter schools that are less diverse and fewer white students and more nonwhite students in public schools.

Although white students no longer represent the majority of public-school students nationwide, they still attend schools in which nearly seven out of 10 of their classmates are also white, according to a report Dr. Orfield co-wrote in May.

In classrooms at several Clinton schools recently, students of various races and ethnicities worked with each other during chemistry experiments and classroom discussions, exhibiting a familiarity that comes from going to the same schools for years. Those interactions could be seen after school as clusters of students of various races mingled while waiting for rides.

“I feel like we’ve grown up together,” said Caitlin Carter, a 17-year-old white student working on a chemistry project with several classmates. When asked about the district’s grade-level schools, a look of confusion crossed her face.

“It’s normal,” she said. “I’ve mostly gone to schools with two grade levels.”
The district carries an “A” rating by the state and is ranked No. 3 overall. District officials attribute the success in part to the grade structure, under which principals only focus on the curriculum for a couple of grade levels, compared with the typical school with many grades.

Virgil Belue, who became the district’s first superintendent in 1970, came up with the grade-level schools as a way to integrate campuses. Dr. Belue, who is 87 years old and white, said he made rounds to different community groups, including the local NAACP, to sell them on the idea.

“We mixed it all up,” said Dr. Belue, who retired in 1992 and still lives in Clinton. “About time they get to 12th grade, they know one another.”

Dr. Belue—and his idea—are still lauded years later around town.
“The students that live in Clinton know each other,” said Bobby Hathorn, Clinton’s NAACP president. “That makes it almost like a utopia-type situation.”

Some parents called the district a melting pot of different cultures and races.

“That’s what our world is,” said Laci Pittman, a real-estate agent who is white with a daughter in the district. “Each child will go to school together, from beginning to end.”
 
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