Heard in the Hall

Sweet. Hopefully the circle of life will make it's way to last minute appointee on the ZBA Sharif Street, and a few others put on the PHA and other at risk, low integrity agencies.

Street appointed HIMSELF to the PHA Board as one of his last agenda items. Could it be job distribution aka old school politics are in his plans? Of course.

Any way to question or change the legitimacy of self-appointment of outgoing pols and make the PHA more open and transparent in its numbers, hirings, and in having the community that lives next to PHA housing choose who runs the place?

I live too close to scattered sit PHA housing that is druggy, unkempt completely, unmaintained, and lived in by people who appear to not be low income anymore. How can criminal family members or now successful people living on good salaries be prohibited from living in PHA houses? How can ordinary citizens complain online about the problems?

I guarantee that improving ethics and good management requirements in PHA will grow it from self-serving to self-solving.

Pittsburgh just has senior and disabled only housing done by it's authority. Seems like a fine plan in Philly, which has plenty of empty housing waiting for someone to move in.

We need to put in fair market value reassessments asap, but with the warning to people that the tax reduction is to be voted on by Council. In other words, pay your old tax, but here is your new amount.

Why is the BRT dragging its feet on this? Don't they realize how much they are cheating schools, services, police, mechanical street cleaning that is regular like other cities?

People pay WAY too little in most parts of Philly in property taxes and can afford to pay the regional going rate just fine, or rent. Or do a reverse mortgage.

There is no need to do anything but put in a flier on reverse mortgages with the new assessments. People can live in their houses until they so choose, even getting a monthly payment from the future owner.

The city can't be the "bank" for every person who wants to pay less than a thousand a year in property taxes. No county anywhere on the east coast could sustain such a base.

Let's go, BRT. Get 'er done. We need the "circle of life" on the BRT, apparently. Look at Fumo's faux reassessments. Endemic across the city. Market values have to be average real market values to be fair.

The city has low property taxes because the old timey politicians like Street needed low income voters who owned. But Street and the whole city paid with lousy, criminal-factory schools, filthy streets, and corrupt government.

The circle of life has to be allowed to happen to bring Philly kicking and screaming into the 21st century. We can't continue to be the low income resident destination city. No one can afford to subsidize this property tax system. We've driven out all the small business humanly possible, except the liquor stores and funeral homes, in the neighborhoods, because of high wage taxes, BPTs, and high small business taxes and costs.

Keeping property tax low by having job-killing business taxes is a recipe for a political policy created ghetto that will guarantee that no new Dem can get back in the White House. Is that what we, as good Dems, want? To make us the right wing talk show radio example of what a Democrat is?

ah - the cirle of life...the Auditor General (AG) should see who works at the BRT and cross-reference that with how much those people pay in property taxes...you will see their properties are assessed WAY below other people on their block...money will be found there

PHA has $969,000,000 in land, building, and equipment. I have a feeling that Street is not going to allow the city to pare down it's contribution when the PHA owes so much land it can't afford to develop because it's too old, or the parcels are too small and dispersed.

The circle of life has to catch up to PHA. I'm sick of the empty lots and uninhabitable structures owned by PHA on Carpenter St. that have been that way since I moved here 8 years ago.

PHA shouldn't be landbanking when it has plenty of land to work with to meet its goals of growth and income.

($969,000,000 from the 2006 PHA annual report). But when is the press ever going to look at the spreadsheet and analyze the numbers for themselves?