Link Biscuits: 14 February 2010
Submitted by Matt Lewis on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 00:36
- Contra Costa Times, Stimulus housing plan slow to take shape: "A year into a $6 billion federal program to buy up, rehab and sell abandoned properties in hard-hit neighborhoods, the bulk of the first $40 million in Bay Area grants remains unspent. Cities and counties are struggling to get their hands on the right homes, competing with cash-carrying investors and thwarted by banks reluctant to put foreclosed houses on the market. The creeping pace of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program seems to defy both the idea of rapid federal stimulus and the fast flow of houses bobbing into foreclosure — one every 18 minutes in the Bay Area. Housing experts say its troubles are partly attributable to red tape and overwhelmed banks, but mostly to what they never anticipated: a surge in the market for beleaguered properties."
- Harley Shaiken, Put the brakes on Toyota's NUMMI plant closure in Fremont: "President Barack Obama mentioned "jobs" 23 times in his State of the Union address, underscoring that the fragile recovery is bypassing millions of Americans. About the last thing the economy needs is a major plant closing. Nonetheless, Toyota is going ahead with plans to close the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. assembly plant — a joint venture started in 1984 with General Motors — in Fremont, on April 1. Nearly 5,000 NUMMI jobs will evaporate and up to 50,000 jobs are at risk, including those at 1,000 suppliers throughout the state, according to the company's own numbers. At stake for thousands are homes, college educations and a middle-class lifestyle that came out of decades of hard work."
- NY Times, In Detroit, Is There Life After The Big Three?: "CRUISE the blighted streets that shoot off in either direction from 8 Mile Road, and the scars of the automotive crisis abound. “For sale” signs adorn the front of long-shuttered metal, paint and tool-and-die shops. And at factories still in business, the small number of cars in the parking lots testify that the shops are working below capacity. But pull into the bustling headquarters of W Industries, a compound of imposing black structures at 8 Mile and Hoover Street, and you’ll encounter a more hopeful vision of Detroit’s future. Once an exclusive supplier to the auto industry, this machine tool and parts company is rolling in new business."
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