Of course I am interested in the game of BS, and I concur with your take on the recent "retirements" of council, so with the elected government so weak, is that why the unelected CDC's ( with the money) are running the show?

Please do tell!

best,

jeffb

The federal stimulus distributed to states and then to municipalities, then who decided which CDC and why?

I spent some time on the site last night (yawn).

I see that the CDC got funding for weatherization:

Who recieved the funds, the amount recieved and the projected number of homes to be weatherized.

City of Cleveland $20,796,778, 2,478  (total)

Distribution list of the above amount

 Cleveland Housing Network $5,561,058 , 704    

 Cudell Improvement $3,778,775, 453

Community Housing Solutions $3,997,141, 480

 Mt. Pleasant NOW Development Corporation $2,564,243, 329 

 Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation $2,331,319, 288 

 Detroit Shoreway $1,859,232, 223

That $20M to weather proof homes, the states annual budget last year was $50M.

‘The Home Weatherization Assistance Program, administered by the Ohio Department of Development's Community Development Division and its Office of Community Services, is free for citizens whose annual household income is at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. The funds, which are expected to weatherize more than 32,000 homes, are being allocated based on an existing formula methodology to local community action agencies and other public and non-profit entities that carry out the Home Weatherization Assistance Program.”

(source)

The 2009 federal poverty level.

I would hope that they are using the HEAP recipient lists to work off? Since we are subsidizing those homes heating bills. Every home that is qualified for HEAP is qualified for weatherization.

What they need is DATA, that right all we need to solve all our problems is data!

The annual usage of gas is recorded with Dominion East Ohio, the PUCO, I bet that the president of Dominion plays golf with the director of the PUCO.

Then the State they have the list of who is receiving HEAP by address.

Then if weatherization money is applied the MCF should fall and the HEAP should drop.

What does the CDC charge and what value do they add? Seriously? Do they take a piece of it? Offer names of contractors?

Wow that could be such and more than likely is a huge racket. We are talking about $8,300.00 per home.

That’s 2,478 eligible homes, that is about 14% of the homes in Cleveland. The goal would or should be a 35-40% reduction in heating costs. Reduction in consumption of natural gas and also subsidies to the home energy assistance (HEAP) program.

Dominion it sells gas and they make money on it, so do not expect them to sell weatherization. But they are the only way to tell if what was spent worked, that and HEAP.

Email have to go out to the state, the state reps, asking what and how to measure success? If a CDC exhausts the funds should that show up in the same area as a decrease in HEAP funding. How could it the state does not recognize the CDC district. The funding should be by zip code and to HEAP funded first, actually forced to make the upgrades.

Could the county parcel data be linked to Dominions? Then we could see what the natural gas consumption of that home is. If it was linked to the cities income tax fillings then they could see who is eligible.

I mean based on your income you are or you are not, and if you receive funding you better have a decrease in the gas bill.

Oengus, these are the types of mass data collections/connections which Norm Roulet and Marc Canter and many others were hoping to tie into a Citizen Dashboard  interface for Cuyahoga County.   That's why Mr. Canter was here in NEO as Norm's guest for a week a week ago.

Your suggestion to link the:

1. CDC specific addresses for weatherization programs,

2. Dominion's cubic foot delivered to specific addresses,

3.HEAP data for specific addresses, and

4. income tax filings for specific addresses

is an excellent suggestion.

 But I'll bet there would be resistance from Dominion and the CDC's because their interests are green, as in greenbacks. 

Connecting the data you have suggested is what Norm would call a "killer app".

 Thanks Jeff and I see that, it is relational data.

Address's are not reliable, it has to be a parcel number, has to do with normalization.

Across larger areas (states) it would require parcel and a zip code. That being what is unique, a primary table would be parcel and then contain an address, with all the data linking into other tables on parcel.  That makes the other tables secondary tables. 

So the State legislator(s) could require the use of parcel numbers on utility bills.

Then require them to open that consumption data with parcel numbers. Then augment the county display of parcel data to link to it or display it.  That could be a hyper link to another table, or the data could be linked to display in the actual view. Just a data link, it could or should be on all utilities. Taxes are not the only cost of ownership or residency. We as individuals could have additional links, as a resident or as an owner. Then in those tables social security would be primary and then parcel would be secondary as it changes, secondary fields can change primary cannot.  (rules of normalization)

Then the agencies that run HEAP or Weatherization should have the ability to query that data and send out information.

Think about it there is one home that is the biggest consumer, should they be first to get a letter? Offered an incentive? Only if their income qualifies, the state could cross reference. Where the parcel income (household) is less then and not more than. SQL?

That leads to one submissions for taxes, why three?  If we had primary checking and required direct deposit taxes could be calculated automatically. Separating the transactions from traditional banking. All you would get from an employer would be wages, a title and job code and description. All the employer compensations and contributions would transfer through your individual account. You would have options to select and also some pricing could be regulated based on your income.

The parcel could have a tag or flag, as weatherized and the date, even the service provider. Then a historic log of consumption should show a decline in consumption if not then it would or could be a flag to investigate? A gas leak? A crook? 

The structure needs to change, transactions separated from lending and saving. It could be combined with payroll and benefit management as well as what is now called credit reporting. This would make all private and government services ala cart selections we would make through a personal account. The object would be fully independent and self sustaining individuals.

I think the fed sees this, but will never attempt to break the banking model up. I believe they should, I see many conflicting interests in the current models. I also see anomalies, things that should not be happening, actually happening in propensity.

Data links to the gas consumption on the parcel field, two separate tables in two separate places. When viewing information about a parcel it would link to consumption historically based on a parcel number.

ASAP EMAIL ME

  In Cleveland, all over the town, residents are finding out that buildings are being condemned and demolished using federal funds (your money) to benefit developers.  I have written ad nauseum about Neighborhood Revitalization Partners.    Some of the players are championed as crusaders and responders to the foreclosure crisis, when, in reality, they are the ones driving the devaluation process.  And so it goes.  I am too tired to expound tonight.

The evitable product of blight, the funding is not only going into demolishing. The restorations are happening as well.

They have to choose battles, unfortunately I think there efforts are to dispersed under the guise of fairness.

You have saved homes that are not selling!

Define your area of interest, geographically then charter your self to take the properties and repurpose them. Sounds like part of the charter of the CDC doesn’t it? It could also be others that work in tangent with them.

Each of these CDC should have a list, what is abandoned, what is at risk…then based on funding and criteria what they have to work with. They cannot loose money, if they buy and over invest it all stops.

Then you have all the opportunist whores and that nobody trust anyone. I am looking away to the demolishing, if they begin filling again they better raise the bar, because what they fill in is often crap. If those that cannot see that are kept in charge then it only gets worse.

What does low cost infill look like?

http://www.makeitrightnola.org/

Defining what will be saved and were, historic districts and areas. It all about intelligent and comprehensive planning.

All the homes at risk should be in a database that everyone can see, it should not be kept a secret or seen as an opportunity for a few within a special group. However who does what and when has to be to higher standards.

You have median household incomes of $25,000.00 and all these homes. They seem to think they can bring in higher incomes and integrate, that will not work. The lower market has to be satisfied first, the breakeven defined, the lowest cost at a defined standard.

Again it all about data, it all about the incomes and the costs. We have people living in 2000 sq ft century homes that are falling apart, that cannot afford them at anything close to restored or even renovated. They have no thoughts of details, painting the home, replacing the roof? Its not an option.

Oh they need to get outside of the box, it all needs to change.

They we need low cost housing, an it needs to be open to everyone, with creative restrictions as to who get first option. It needs to be sustainable and fully independent of subsidy. You have free homes that are not free, they are huge money pits that come with no security that any investment will ever be recoverable. The $300,000.00 home built in the city get guaranteed tax abatement and also a guarantee of 30-40% depreciation.