First of all, I have to say that I was COMPLETELY unaware of all this stuff St. Vincent De Paul (hereby referred to as SVDP) does. Reading this was truly inspiring to me. McDonald is a true thinker whose a business genius, but with a philanthropic heart (so it seems). To build a business empire in a relatively short period of time, provide cheap stuff for people out of society’s unwanted material, then injects the profits back into the community is really awesome. Just the fact that SVDP recycles thrown out materials and makes them into useful, valuable products is impressive in itself, for social and environmental reasons. I wonder how many non-profits out there function similarly to SVDP, with a comparable business model.
While reading the article about energy assistance in Louisiana, I found myself thinking about energy conservation. First of all, how cold does it really get in Louisiana? I don’t know the answer, but I was under the impression that the south wasn’t all that cold even in the winter. I’m guessing that low income residents don’t have all that much knowledge and/or education on energy conservation practices. So even though this money is meant to help poor people who are struggling to pay their bills, maybe the money would be better spent on educating the residents on how to cut costs themselves. Just last term, I wrote a recommendation to the city of Salem for energy conservation on a low income housing site that they are building soon (part of the Sustainable Cities Initiative). When researching, I found that some people are really unaware of simple techniques to save on their power bill. So all of this was on my mind when I was reading, and it all comes back to efficiency, similar to what we discussed last week.
The article about the history of housing assistance in Washington DC was pretty confusing to me, even after I went through it a couple times. There seems to be lots of different possible strategies used to create affordable housing. Is there not one that is clearly more effective than the others? Or does it truly depend on the specific location and situation? Furthermore, I don’t understand how inclusionary zoning really works. I understand that there is a requirement for low income housing in a given area, but does that increase the quality of life for those people in any way? Are the developers given incentives to create these places?
(From the Q&A article)
Q: Any regrets?
A: When you dedicate your life for the betterment of your community, the only regret is not being done!
I just found that funny, I hate generic answers.
Greg-
ReplyDeleteI was also completely impressed with SVDP and all of the awesome services they provide. I love how much creativity goes into their business and agree that McDonald is the man..
As for the article on energy assistance in Louisiana, I wouldn't say I disagree with you, I just don't think I even saw the situation from an environmental point of view. To be honest, I have visited Louisiana since the disaster and have seen the atrocious conditions that many low income residents are still faced with, so after reading this and hearing that they are receiving some help and are able to bare the winter made me feel better and thats pretty much the extent of what I took from the article. Also, winters there get colder than most would think! Completely agree that Antonio Pizano is a total cheese ball, but the man's still making efforts so you gotta give him that.
Greg,
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear more about your experience with the Sustainable Cities Initiative. It sounds really hands-on and cool.
That part of the Q & A reading made me laugh.. I couldn't take him seriously after that.
ReplyDeleteI think it is super cool that you worked on the Sustainable Cities Initiative. I think a key point in the Lousiana situation is teaching people how to conserve more energy.. I went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and at that point no one was focusing on building green or thinking about the environment, just re-building as quickly as possible.
Greg,
ReplyDeleteI think it would be nice to teach lower income residence energy efficient lifestyles, but I also think that all the money going to help them pay there bills isn't necessary for that.. Maybe there should be a program that helps them make energy efficient changes in their homes, or provides incentives for landlords to make the changes. Also i think that it is important to keep low income housing in urban areas. Those areas are becoming more and more popular and as the price increases lower income residents are pushed out, this increases costs for driving and maybe day care after school if the kid has to wait for their parents to commute longer. It also creates a pretty intense segregation between communities, which i think we can all agree has happened before and sucks..