I couldn’t help this morning but to speak a little about AVI while testifying for Councilwoman Sanchez’s bill (120229) which beefs up the blight provisions in the Property Maintenance code. SEIU 32BJ, the building maintenance union for the School District was present in the room, who have been theatenend with an entire dissolution of their union and the loss of all of their jobs to save some quick bucks at the SDP.
A Chestnut Hill developer threatened City Council with pulling the plug on a development project and also possible layoffs of his own workers as a result of what will happen to their tax bill come AVI.
Honestly, this cacophony of angry voices will only grow louder and louder until the explosion in the fall when the OPA assessment notices and the BRT bills come out in the mail.
It boils down to this: If you don’t put the fear of the Living God into property miscreants who fumb their noses at the City and throw the dunning letters in the trash; if you don’t strip their deeds and sell their investment property for a song and kill their profit potential, you won’t get the compliance you seek.
Come on Michael Nutter. $94MM doesn’t even begin to cover the crevasse that’s at the SRC. Do the right thing: withhold funds. Let the SRC default on its pension debt and obligations. This is Harrisburg’s entity, let Corbett save it. Corbett bailed out the City of Harrisburg, he’ll quietly bail out the SDP, too.