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From: As I see it
Category: General Discussion
Date: 01 Feb 2003
Time: 11:21:25 -0500
Remote Name: 64.12.107.157
Ivan, I know you are a business man and have a business to run, but do you have data or can you point me in the direction of where I can find the data to support your claim that new housing offsets the cost of maintaining older infrastructures in this area? Secondly, you spoke of the district wasting money on what I believe you see as being superflous items or programs. Do you have any examples?
One of the first signs of death in a community is the degredation of its school system. Your point is well made,that as a developer, you could be expected to support anything that improves the school system because it increases the value of homes in the area. And so I take your observations and opinions very seriously, but from my perspective, as a relatively new person to this area, it seems to me that we (DeKalb and Sycamore) lack affordable housing, and reasonable incomes.
Now, if you were a major company and were thinking of building in this area and saw what the housing costs-to-mean income ratio is or you saw that the area is opposed to funding its schools (just on the face, without the benefit of reasons), would you want to relocate your business to this area?
Perhaps it is just my ignorance on the subject, but I would like to know what synergy is being built on the total DeKalb/Sycamore area (as Deming said, "management by positive cooperation" [cooperation win:win] as opposed to "management by conflict" [conflict win:lose]). What programs are in place or being developed with the University to bring research facilities to the area, and to bring high technology manufacturing to the area. Both of these increase the demand for support companies and increase the demand for labor, which in turns, ups the ante for existing manufacturers.