By Bud Hackett
Bethlehem City Council’s meeting on Tuesday was a four-hour marathon of agenda items that included economic development, affordable housing, a new chicken ordinance and the politics of ArtsQuest.
Fascinating to watch the ArtsQuest’s political elite come out to influence council’s decision to overturn the historic conservation commission’s guidance on the proposed demolition of the Banana Factory Arts Center. The entire discussion revealed just how far from Bethlehem’s core mission our city mayor and council have strayed.
Bethlehem’s economic development program – LERTA – provides incentives for business to create jobs and yield tax revenue if they develop the former Bethlehem Steel brownfield sites. City council and the mayor want to leverage the economic development program to achieve their “affordable housing” and “climate action plan” goals. My, how things have changed. Now, with the feds sprinkling “free money” on cities and voters, resulting in unprecedented inflation and economic ills, our “one party rules” local government -- is working to “leverage” local programs to serve their progressive left-wing agenda. They won, but not everyone agrees.
At a previous meeting on LERTA and similar topic, two city professionals provided an excellent “tutorial” on the land development process. Related to that “tutorial,“ new Director of Community and Economic Development Laura Collins provided great insight to how she and the mayor want to “control” development in the city.
Despite “private property rights,” they want “leverage points” to regulate developers to achieve their progressive goals of using taxpayer money for affordable housing and their Climate Action Plan. Yes, this is confusing – it is because the mayor and some on council have moved very far away from the city’s core mission and are using the resources and power of their office to implement an extreme progressive agenda.
If the city wants to reduce the cost of housing, consider slowing regulations that drive up the cost of housing. Common knowledge suggests solar and green just doesn’t make economic sense without government subsidies – maybe someday.
There are core mission tasks the city should focus on and solve – infrastructure, public safety and working to keep taxes down. That should be the focus. Confusing economic development, affordable housing, climate action and ordinances for backyard chickens dilutes the effort to fulfill the core mission of the city.
Democrats don’t get elected on a platform of doing the boring work. Giveaways get votes. I’d suggest more priority on the core mission. Once fulfilled, the city can help its residents by lowering taxes, not looking for more ways to spend or “leverage” taxpayer money to achieve their progressive goals. Happy to discuss the solutions if the “one party rule” in Bethlehem becomes open to practical views.
Bud Hackett has lived in Bethlehem for 30 years. He is the father of four, grandfather of four and works as an advisor in construction and engineering.