Hood Owners Association

by with No Comment CultureFeatured

When a person buys a home, they more than likely become the newest member of their community’s homeowners association. That association has rules and guidelines for residents… rules and guidelines that new residents have little to no say about. 

HOA’s use extreme measures to enforce their rules and often stand by the notion its to “preserve the community for the liking of all residents.” 

Humm… 

If only that mindset could be applied to neighborhoods that are majority Black and Brown.

Nope, Black and Brown people are subject to gentrification instead of preservation. Gentrification… a process I’ll refer to as the grandchild of urban “White flight” post World War II, is possibly the simplest and most forward example of racial division in the United States. 

White flight was when droves of White people moved from within the city limits of most major cities to get away from their Black neighbors.

This continued even until the mid-90s… then a reverse Uno card was placed down on major cities across the country and White people started moving back into major cities.

However, they didn’t move back to major cities with the original residents nor the conditions in which Black and Brown people had to endure. Since the 90s, many White people have been incentivized to move into newly developed and transformed neighborhoods for their pleasure and liking. 

Their homeowners association, the American racism foundation, long neglected the cries of Black and Brown residents. Everyone from real estate developers to elected officials ignored the cry for better recreational centers, places of commerce, and healthy eating options. 

Whole communities from Harlem to Houston have been gutted and transformed with a tag of $2,100 a month rent.

First residents from Cabrini Green of Chicago to downtown Brooklyn were either relocated because of their federal housing status or simply priced out due to higher rents.

Then came the tearing down of aging and dilapidated homes and apartments, followed by swanky new townhomes and condos, then finished off with a new Chipotle, Starbucks, and of course… bike lanes and a pet grooming store.

Black and Brown neighborhoods aren’t even offered fresh food options, yet White residents are given brand new communities before signing their Wells Fargo home loan.

Guess a “hood” owners association should be founded to keep the soul, cost, and originality of communities intact. But we need to act fast! Kroger and CVS are coming soon! 

Similar Read: Returning to Work?

Trump’s Tax Bill Might Destroy the Middle-Class

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Inside the numbers… According to a recent WSJ Poll, only 24% of Americans believe this is tax bill is a good idea and 41% think it’s a bad idea; 63% of Americans think it’s designed for corporations and the wealthy, and only 7% think it’s designed for the middle-class, which has been a Republican talking point over the past few weeks.

As this recent poll states, this tax plan is highly unpopular.

Without going into grave policy detail… this tax plan will absolutely benefit corporations and wealthy individuals more than the middle-class. It will increase wage inequality and shrink the middle-class, sending more households to the lower class and fewer to the upper class. Also, this tax plan repeals the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act. According to the CBO (Congressional Budget Office), a nonpartisan group of economists, roughly 13 million people will lose their health insurance due to repealing the mandate.

What Republicans are not telling us, excuse me, what they’re not admitting, is that they know trickle down economics doesn’t work. They also know that corporations likely won’t hire more employees or increase wages when these tax cuts are signed into law, instead, they’ll reinvest in their businesses, buy back stock, and give out record bonuses to their top management and c-suite executives. While this tax bill adds $1.5 trillion to our national debt, they’re already planning on proposing huge cuts to entitlement programs in 2018_ all while 6-7-8 figure earners, as well as select groups like real estate developers and private equity professionals, benefit from these massive tax cuts.

With all that being said, Republican’s brilliantly designed this bill to have an immediate positive impact on most middle-class households [short-term]. But considering the personal tax provisions are set to expire in 10 years, it’s important to note that the business tax cuts will not. Therefore, the positive impact for corporations and the wealthy [in the long-term] is astounding and much greater. For example, in 2027, two-thirds of middle-class households will see a tax increase in their personal income taxes, and none of them will see a tax cut.

By design, this middle-class tax honeymoon will surely last long enough to surpass the 2018 mid-terms and 2020 presidential election. However, can Democrats capitalize on recent big wins in Virginia, New Jersey, and most recently Alabama, and pick up enough seats to challenge Trump and maybe win the White House? IF Democrats can somehow win the House and Senate, and the White House in 2020, can such a massic tax bill be easily reversed, or amended to thwart such a negative long-term impact on lower and middle-class households?

Kushner’s Miserable Peace Prospects

by with No Comment FeaturedGen ZPolitics

Last week I saw a headline that read “Kushner’s First Foray into MidEast Peace Reveals Challenges Ahead.” Wow. Breaking News: Trump’s son-In-Law finds out Middle East peace is hard. What a shocker.

It continues to amaze me that Jared Kushner, the real estate-heir whose only real qualifications are being born into the right family and marrying well, has such an immense policy portfolio. In fact, Jared Kushner is responsible for so much of the Trump Administration’s agenda that CNN has jokingly referred to him as “Trump’s Secretary of Everything.” When you consider all the policy areas that Mr. Kushner is probably the least equipped to handle, foreign policy is definitely in the top two (healthcare reform is arguably the other as it increasingly seems that no one in the Trump administration understands or cares how the American healthcare system works). Yet, somehow with no diplomatic experience, no background in the region’s complicated political history, and no evidence that he has a substantive grasp of geopolitics, the 36-year-old is one of the Administration’s defacto lead diplomats and is somehow in charge of brokering Middle East Peace.  (And he’s the subject of the ever-widening federal investigation, but that’s a topic for another piece.)

The headline quoted above might actually be a little generous to Kushner. His trip to the Middle East to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and advisors didn’t just reveal challenges. It seems to have failed miserably. Kushner met with Abbas in Ramallah as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts to jumpstart peace negotiations that have been stalled since the assault on the Gaza Strip in 2014. He then proceeded to accost Abbas for not condemning an attack on Israeli soldiers, and according to Palestinian officials, merely listed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s demands “and acted like Netanyahu’s advisors instead of a fair arbiter.”

“Greatly disappointed”, “tense”, and “furious” are just some of the buzzwords appearing in Arab and Israeli newspapers regarding the meeting. If the Trump Administration can’t get both sides to see them as a neutral party then peace talks are DOA. Perhaps putting someone with actual experience and knowledge of the conflict might be a step in the right direction.