Editorial: Cleveland suburb use corporate, homeowner welfare to offset urban planning

The Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights plans to revolutionize urban planning, corporate welfare and housing subsidies. The city has $190,000 to give people to get them to buy slow-moving condominiums, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported.Residents are being asked to take the long view. The city has to protect its tax base, after all. Put another way, if the city spends millions of taxpayer dollars on a revamped shopping center, it’s perfectly sensible to officials there to dump another couple hundred grand to entice people to live nearby. And, apparently, enticement is needed.Plans called for two-thirds of the units to have sold by now. But, since construction began in November 2005, the builders have sold only about a quarter of the first 51. Shaker Heights will give cash payments  based on the particular condo someone buys, but they will be in the thousands. The recipient of the housing bonus — for units ranging from $195,000 to $435,000 — would have to stay two years.“We’re not doing this to help the developer or help the prospective purchasers,” Mayor Earl Leiken told The Plain Dealer. “We’re doing this to help the city.”Shaker Heights actually is using taxpayer money for three things government shouldn’t: corporate welfare, housing welfare and putting extra public dollars into correcting the mistakes of its “urban planning.” Maybe, in a city like Lima, such a plan would lure back the better off and help add population. It would be a win-win for everyone — except the taxpayers covering the cost with no return for themselves.