However, one of the big problems that I’ve been finding in the community development field is that there is a bias against the unknown when it comes to defining “community.” Many of the industry leaders in this part of the nation (who, by the way, should let their younger staff have a larger role in strategic planning) have a biased view against using their scarce resources to help communities in the rural and suburban parts of the state. The idea is that since there is some private money in those areas, then the development projects in those areas can be financed by the local banks which are holding those private dollars. The problem is that this doesn’t happen and since it doesn’t happen, there is a drought of development to provide services to underserved communities in these types of areas.

In other words, if you’re not working on a project that is a multi-unit low-income housing development in extremely urbanized areas like Essex or Camden counties, then your projects probably aren’t going to get favorable rates or terms – if they get any at all. I saw this happen first hand today. My company puts its dollars into projects where underserved communities are provided with vital services. One of these services is education and the school choice movement. A project to provide a substantial loan to a school in northwest New Jersey (think near the Poconos in Pennsylvania) was shot down because one of the decision makers said, “This isn’t in Newark or Irvington or any type of urban market that we know something about. It’s off in a part of the state where we don’t know what’s going on.”

I’m sorry, folks, but that’s crap and it’s not good enough for the community development field. The scarce resources that are allocated to this industry either through private investment or through public funds cannot ALL be funneled to the Newarks and Camdens of the world. There are a variety of underserved communities around this state and this country and not all of them are concrete jungles.

It’s time that the urban bias in community development was addressed head on and eliminated from the industry.

The election is in the hands on the media now, so we’ll likely see a build-up in Obama’s numbers heading into November. The media has anointed Senator Obama as the next President and that’s fine so long as America understands that we have a biased media and unless there are drastic changes (like the increasingly influence of an independent media through online channels), then we’re doomed. A news channel that would simply report factual news or even both sides of the same issues would be a huge success in this country. Oh wait, we already have FOX News and the brainwashed extremists think that it’s biased in favor of Republicans.

Isn’t weird how some Americans will ask for something, get it, and then condemn it?

But his clout was already on the wane even before his last election two years ago. By then, news had broken that he was under investigation for alleged bribery and that federal agents said they found $90,000 hidden in his freezer. He survived, winning re-election in 2006 easily, but he subsequently was stripped of a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Last year, he was indicted on corruption charges by a federal grand jury in Virginia. Other family members also have been caught up in an unrelated scandal. Two siblings face federal corruption charges in New Orleans and a third has pleaded guilty.

And the people in New Orleans sent this man back to Congress?! Are you serious?!! These are likely the same people who heard three days out that there was a massive storm getting ready to hit the city and they should evacuate. Then they heard two days out that the storm was going to be the biggest to hit America in our history and they MUST evacuate. Then they heard the day before that the city was going to flood and if they wanted to survive, they needed to leave immediately. And then they stayed put.

Sorry, but that’s exactly what some people did during Katrina. I HAVE to believe that people who would look the biggest storm in American history in the face and go, “Bah, screw it. I’m staying put,” are the same people who re-elected a criminal to Congress. And those people no longer have room to complain about anything. I’m still a major supporter of reconstruction in Southeast America and I would much prefer that all of our foreign aid be redirected to these types of hurricane recovery efforts (which are now so prevalent in the Southern United States) before we send the dollars overseas. But at this point, I don’t want to hear anyone who voted for Jefferson complaining. You get what you vote for, people, and you voted for a lying, cheating, criminal.