23 April 2008

stick a spork in the sparc

click here or link to download fifty-five page .pdf

as we've been watching the dueling crime gangs battle for political and economic dominance such as the TIF legislation by rep. herbert dixon and the alexandria mayor's counter with his s.p.a.r.c. scheme, one thing we've noticed is a new word mayor roy has introduced into the local lexicon - "regionalism." so we decided to see what we could find out about regionalism.

according to harvard university some good examples of regionalism are the north american free trade association (NAFTA) and the european union (EU). another website says that the correct term for our area is "regionalization," which "is an economic process whereby the economies of a region become more closely entwined." while regionalism "is a political process where a group of countries agree to reduce the barriers to trade between each other to lower levels than exist against the rest of the world." ~ source

charlotte iserbyt and others, writing a series of articles for newswithviews.com insists that regionalism is communism.

anyway, first up in the plan to more closely entwine the region's economies, is the rivefront improvement venture and essential recreation (R.I.V.E.R.) act.
Total project cost is estimated at $40 million It requires $32 million from appropriations. $600,000 has already been appropriated. Local contribution is to be $8 million.
what they are talking about here is the red river waterfront development. now dont get the wrong idea, we're all for developing the red river but what doesnt make sense is spending millions of dollars on a full blown marina when they dont even know if it would be needed or successful. what the city should do is start off small -- build a simple inexpensive pier for the old timers and recreational boaters to tie up to and have a small store to sell gas, bait and beer and then over time if they see that a full blown marina is needed and would be successful then let interested businesspeople put up their own money to build it.

while the city is sitting around putting together all these flowery-worded presentations (which you have to have a, what the urban redneck calls a, word book, to refer to about every other word to figure out what they are saying) they could have already built a pier.

another thing that gives us pause is on page 30 "An associated workforce and recreational program for young adults and teenagers known as “Alexandra Corps.” we think they mean "alexandria corps." this sounds like some kind of scheme to recruit and brainwash the youth to love big government and to love serving the new regionalization paradim which is really corporatocracy.

what the alexandria mayor wants to do is set up this "corporation" under La. R.S. 33:9034. we can just imagine how this "corporation's" board of directors would look. so if you dont want to see the same old gang of people like roy o. martin, charlie weems, wayne denley, billy barron, martin johnson, buddy tudor and bridgett brown running the "economic engine" of this "region" and them and their cronies reaping all the benefits from it -- then you need to be against the sparc.

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Posted by wst... at 18:25

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