FLASHBACK: Baltimore Sun Said 'Trump's Right', City Should Be Declared Federal Disaster The op/ed was written by Sean Kennedy at the Maryland Public Policy Institute in Nov. 2016, shortly after Trump was elected to the White House, admitting the problems with Baltimore that Trump brought up were in fact legitimate. “Donald J. Trump is known for his hyperbole, but not all of his ideas are a stretch. Our inner cities are a “disaster,” as he said in the final presidential debate — and they should be officially declared so,” Kennedy wrote. Because of failed Democratic leadership, Kennedy urged for a “federal disaster declaration for our most impoverished neighborhoods hard hit by crime, urban blight and economic malaise.” He mentioned a precedent that has already been set that could be expanded by Trump to immediately improve these beleaguered cities. “Under the model established after the I-35W bridge collapse over the Mississippi River, federal authorities can streamline infrastructure and other projects that often take a decade from start to finish. The Minnesota bridge was rebuilt better than ever in 437 days by cutting out the red tape that typically mires such projects,” Kennedy wrote. Kennedy also called for more availability of capital for individuals within these cities, perhaps through the Small Business Administration or through home improvement and personal loans, as a way to empower the people to improve their own lives away from the stifling bureaucracy that has been put into place over decades of liberal rule. “In Baltimore, the fall in income and wealth has been especially dramatic, according to Loyola-Maryland economics professor Stephen Walters. Property and income taxes have risen dramatically while real income, especially for minorities in the inner-city, has fallen precipitously since 1950,” Kennedy wrote. “As the tax base shrank in the city, the wealth gap grew dramatically — with the poorest 20 percent in the area worth equal to 1/12th of the richest 20 percent,” he added. Kennedy also proposed “microloans in lieu of social assistance payments,” another bold Trump proposal, as the means to help Baltimore regain its lost prosperity. “Micro-lending models like this have been fabulously successful in the third world and in limited experiments in the United States. For taxpayers, the dollars are a sunk cost — recipients will get them either way from the government, but the upside is huge if they help to spur new business formation, job creation and most of all hope in these distressed communities,” Kennedy wrote. “Declaring our most beleaguered neighborhoods to be “disaster zones” and encouraging entrepreneurial activities through access to capital and microloans would inject capital, expedite much needed infrastructure and give our inner cities hope again,” he concluded. ( LINK BELOW ) https://bigleaguepolitics.com/flashback-baltimore-sun-said-trumps-right-city-should-be-declared-federal-disaster/