You want to talk about good intentions gone bad, look no further than the whole public housing/affordable housing racket. It is an ugly marriage between poverty and wealth. While there may be a few good stories to tell, the biggest thing it has created is a constituency. A constituency divided into two groups: recipients and developers.
But it is what it is, and elected officials have to thread the needle between the two groups.
Locally this racket is manifested by the HACEP.
Here the residents and developers that benefit from these policies work together or work against each other.
In this particular case, we are looking at residents and a developer working against each other.
So what happens? And what does one group do to get the upperhand?
They enlist the support of an elected official.
Who is the elected official in question? City Representative Cortney Niland.
Who are the residents in question? Folks living in Sherman Apartments.
Who is the developer? No other than Bobby Bowling the 24th. Or is it 14th? Doesn't matter.
As things stand now, instead of having Sherman Apartments renovated, Niland is looking to help Bowling instead.
Again, Max finds all of this housing policy to be toxic. I am not going to defend one side or the other.
What I do find interesting is the math.
Yes, residents that benefit from HACEP do not have money to give to political campaigns, like say a Bobby Bowling.
But what they do have are votes. I do not know exactly how many people in Niland's district benefit from the HACEP, but I am sure it is enough to tilt an election.
Bobby Bowling may give Niland a check for $5,000, but it does not matter when you have an organized constituency that can turnout 5,000 votes against you.
Niland is supposed to destroy her opponent Josh Dagda.
But Niland is not supposed to destroy herself, which she may end up doing.