New Haven Independent

posted by: We need Wyatt Earp on April 20, 2010  7:43am

Reopen the Q House, use public money to force companies to hire people who have no desire to work.  At what point do these Alders wake up.

Out of one side of their mouth they want to cut the budget.  Out of another side they want to raise the rates for City Contracts thus increasing the value of those contracts which will be passed back to the City and the taxpayer.  How many successful businesses or organizations have any of these Alders ever run? They should stop trying to help the economy they do more harm than good.

They should outlaw guns within City limits.  It worked for Wyatt Earp at least in the movie version.  They should stand in unison at the Office of the State’s Attorney and demand that illegal gun charges not be dropped as part of package case closures putting these thugs back on the street to continue their mayhem.  They should demand status as a victim in every violent crime or gun crime committed in New Haven and demand that every plea deal include specific conditions on probation or parole that more violence = jail, more crime = jail, no school = jail.  The victim is not simply the other thug laying on the ground it is also the neighborhood, the children watching, the city residents who do not feel safe.

Why don’t the Alders focus on those people.  The ones that follow the rules and try to get by the honest way and stop trying to rig the game to hook up the dishonest.

posted by: RG on April 20, 2010  9:08am

So while we wait ....and wait…and wait for the government to make us all better. Why don’t we get a couple thousand people working. How? Wait in line a couple extra minutes. That’s it! Just don’t go through the automated checkout line at the store. Your store is asking YOU to do a job for free that they used to pay a full time wage for. Do you really think the money saved by letting 5 or 10 full time checker go has some how made it back to your pocket? SUCKER Get those people back there job. NO CHECKER NO SALE. P.S. I’m a truck driver, and no one in my family is a checker this idea helps me in no we. It’s just better then sitting around waiting for Washington to save us.

posted by: Threefifths on April 20, 2010  9:32am

We need a up dated program like this.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was instituted by presidential executive order under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of April 1935, to generate public jobs for the unemployed. The WPA was restructured in 1939 when it was reassigned to the Federal Works Agency.

By 1936 over 3.4 million people were employed on various WPA programs. Administered by Harry Hopkins and furnished with an original congressional allocation of $4.8 billion, the WPA made work accessible to the unemployed on an unparalleled scale by disbursing funds for an extensive array of programs. Hopkins argued that although the work relief program was more costly than direct relief payments, it was worth it. He averred, “Give a man a dole, and you save his body and destroy his spirit. Give him a job and you save both body and spirit.”

While responsibility for such unemployable people as children, the elderly, and the handicapped was remanded to the states, the WPA provided literally millions of jobs to employable people, enrolling on average about two million a year during its eight-year stint. Far fewer women were enrolled than men. Just 13.5 percent of WPA employees were women in 1938, its top enrollment year.

The WPA was charged with selecting projects that would make a real and lasting contribution — but would not vie with private firms. As it turned out, the “pump-priming” effect of federal projects actually stimulated private business during the Depression years. The WPA focused on tangible improvements: During its tenure, workers constructed 651,087 miles of roads, streets and highways; and built, repaired or refurbished 124,031 bridges, 125,110 public buildings, 8,192 parks, and 853 landing fields. In addition, workers cleaned slums, revived forests, and extended electrical power to rural locations.

Work was provided for nearly a million students through the WPA National Youth Administration (NYA). The Federal One projects employed 40,000 artists and other cultural workers to produce music and theater, sculptures, murals and paintings, state and regional travel guides, and surveys of national archives. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a program designed to address the problem of jobless young men aged between 18 and 25 years old. CCC camps were set up all around the country.

The WPA’s positive results for the public good and its popularity helped Franklin D. Roosevelt to garner a thumping electoral victory in 1936, even though the agency employed no more than about 25 percent of the nation’s jobless.

Meanwhile, New Deal critics in Congress accused the program of waste, political maneuvering, and even subversive activity; they took their chance to prune the program when unemployment figures dipped a little in 1937. When unemployment rose again the following year, funding was brought back to previous levels. However, 1939 saw more cutbacks. The Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of June 30 eliminated the Federal Theater Project, cut back WPA pay and limited enrollment to 18 months. Reacting to charges of politicking by WPA employees during the 1938 congressional races, the Hatch Act of August 1939 prevented federal workers from participating in a broad array of political activities.

With wartime prosperity rising in the 1940s, the WPA became more difficult to justify, and on June 30, 1943 the agency was terminated by presidential proclamation. All told, the WPA had employed more than 8,500,000 individuals on 1,410,000 projects with an average salary of $41.57 a month, and had spent about $11 billion.

posted by: Morris Cove on April 20, 2010  12:45pm

Threefiths

So what you asking for essentially is yet another form of welfare, in these tough economic times where this city is choking from the debt incurred these alders like Antunes don’t have the fore-site to buckle down and stand up for conservative economics, they would rather throw money at the problem.

Oh yeah this makes sense why don’t we revive a plan that didn’t work in the first place and burden the tax payers even more, you know Three, while your surfing the net, look up all the failed liberal plans and post them as well.

posted by: Paul on April 20, 2010  2:04pm

So let me get this straight-

New Haven taxpayers who are already employed will have to pay more to hire people who aren’t looking for work, can’t be fired once they’re hired, and who will only be minorities?

Is it even legal to create a public program that’s limited to blacks and hispanics?

Darnell’s the best thing that’s happened for people in this town who want to spend their lives on the dole.

posted by: Threefifths on April 20, 2010  5:27pm

Morris Cove on April 20, 2010 12:45pm
Threefiths

So what you asking for essentially is yet another form of welfare, in these tough economic times where this city is choking from the debt incurred these alders like Antunes don’t have the fore-site to buckle down and stand up for conservative economics, they would rather throw money at the problem.

Oh yeah this makes sense why don’t we revive a plan that didn’t work in the first place and burden the tax payers even more, you know Three, while your surfing the net, look up all the failed liberal plans and post them as well.

I took up you offer and found this on the net.

Market Myths: The failings of conservative economics
A review of: Selling the Free Market by J. Aune; One Market Under God by T. Frank; and After Progress by N. Birnbaum

By James K. Galbraith

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0103.galbraith.html

posted by: anonymous on April 20, 2010  6:37pm

To anyone interested: $20k of my money to invest in your business

Requirements:

1. You must be under 20 years of age.
2. Business knowledge or work experience is not recommended.
3. Those with prior success in school / work should not apply.
4. Those with drug problems, history of criminal behavior, and with a background of failure are encouraged to apply.

Come on aldermen, if there was ever a program to throw away good money, this is it. Why are you rewarding “hard to place youths” who have no business experience with a MILLION dollars, management responsibility, and jobs that “stimulate the mind.”

Maybe you should kick off this program by investing your own money instead of throwing away public funds.

posted by: anvil adams on April 20, 2010  7:23pm

maybe they could be employed with taxpayer money to chisel obama’s image into the side of east rock.

posted by: V on April 20, 2010  9:42pm

As long as the money is raised in the private sector, this is a good idea, leading young people to entrepreneurship.  Antunes deserves kudos for the initiative. But I agree, if they’re gonna try to tap taxpayer coffers for it, it is likely to get pissed away and corruptly used.  There should be a businesses-run board to oversee the funds.

posted by: Josiah Brown on April 21, 2010  12:29am

This raises many important issues, including employment and entrepreneurship opportunities; preparation for those opportunities; and seizing of those opportunities.

Related are Youth at Work, K-12 and adult education (especially math, literacy, and technology), after-school and summer Open Schools, the NHPS Foundation and its business partnerships, Job Corps, green jobs, the regional Workforce Alliance, community-based youth organizations, etc.

Some other resources, local and national:

http://www.nfte.com

http://www.ja.org

http://www.eachchildlearns.org

http://www.oicofamerica.org

http://www.citizenschools.org

http://www.streetwisepartners.org

http://www.mydtp.org

http://www.kauffman.org

Particularly in the current severe economy—with youth unemployment even more of a problem than unemployment and underemployment generally—best wishes to all those working to address jobs for young people.  All sectors have a role.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on April 21, 2010  12:22pm

A career is great for one’s self-esteem and sense of worth; it can uplift individuals as well as entire communities. Careers must also produce something of value to society, which, in this case, would repay whatever cost to tax payers incurs through providing goods and services that are needed and that generate wealth.
It would be great to see a program that trained and helped individuals to become grocers, florists, butchers, etc so that The food needs of the city (perhaps Whalley most urgently) can be met with a sustaining network of local shops deployed at walkable intervals along neighborhood thoroughfares.

posted by: JB on April 23, 2010  8:04am

I lived in Antunes’ ward; it’s called the “silent ghetto.” When people who LIVED ON HIS STREET wanted to start a block watch, he was silent on the issue and didn’t attend the meetings. Now he wants to throw money at those who stole from me, mugged me at knifepoint in the Wal*Mart parking lot, harassed my family members and threw rocks at my children? Absolutely not.