Wednesday, February 14, 2007

State pledges $1M toward redevelopment of Nabisco site

Corporate welfare looks like this. I hate these deals.
Pop City - State pledges $1M toward redevelopment of Nabisco site State pledges $1M toward redevelopment of Nabisco site Bakery Square, a major brownfield redevelopment in East Liberty, has received a $1M grant from the state. Gov. Rendell released the Growing Greener II funds on Feb. 9 to pay for cleanup of the 495,000 square-foot former Nabisco plant. The Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania will use the grant, along with $335,000 of its own funds, to remove asbestos, PCBs, lead-based paint and other hazardous materials from the site. Development plans for the 6.5-acre area call for 223,000 square feet of office space, 165,000 square feet of retail and a 120-room hotel.

“This project stands head and shoulder above many others,” says Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty. “The Governor is making a particularly substantial investment in a beautiful structure that will come back into productive use as a community asset.”
Note, this is a building, not a brownfield. The building was in production just a couple of years ago.

Kathleen McGinty said that this is a beautiful structure. It is. And it is a way for the beautiful to get more beauty -- and richer from taxpayers elsewhere in East Liberty. Beautiful structures should pull their own weight.

The state funds are not just cleaning up something from the past. Right. That's a brownfield endeavor.

A million dollar grant is NOT going to swing a structure from "lifeless" to "dripping with life and activity." Give us a break.

The state funds are needed to help move this project forward and stop all other deals from advancing on their own merits. Nothing moves without state aid when you subsidize over and over again.

Lie: This will create 1,600 new jobs. They must be moving the jobs not created from another boondoggle, such as Deer Creek Crossing or Pittsburgh Mills, into this lie.

I'd be happy to see 16 new jobs. The total of 1,600 is such a joke.

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