Breaking news about the problems relocating the NO residents from “Edwards Village”:
The challenge for state officials and volunteers helping those who want to stay in Massachusetts is coordinating housing with employment opportunities and transportation.
Gee, when did those geniuses figure THAT out?
We are told that Massachusetts is the only state in the US with a declining population. Could it be (duuuuhhh) because of cost of housing coupled with minimal good-paying jobs?
As for transportation: as I’ve said before, the $15 million spent on 236 evacuees from out of state could have bought decent used cars (at $7,000 apiece) for over 2,100 people.
It could also have been used to hire 300 teachers with full benefits.
It could have been used to provide low or no-interest housing loans (at $150,000 each) to 100 people.
You get the point.
If the goal was to increase the state’s population, then it was (as with most everything else involving Katrina) ill thought out and just plain stupid.
On the other hand, if the goal of “Edwards Village” was to make Mitt Romney looks like an organizing genius, then I submit that ANY competent Administrative Assistant on Cape Cod could have done a better job with the $15 million.
If nothing else, these Admins are used to pulling rabbits out of a hat on their $16 and $17 an hour salaries. THEY have a better grip on the realities of living here than ill-informed, millionaire Mitt in his house of glass “near the top of the 60-floor John Hancock Tower”.