Urban studies exam 2

What is blockbusting? Fully describe its dynamics, whom it serves, and what makes it possible.

Blockbusting is when a real estate agent buys a house from a white homeowner- who agrees to sell their home for a lower price than what its worth- to get out a neighborhood that has reached its tipping point- which Gladwell referred to as the nonlinear relationship in a neighborhood that begins to exist when a 80% white community experiences 15-20% African american population move in, and quickly all at once the white population wants out, so they all sell at once and this makes it even harder to sell. So in turn once they sell to black families in that area, they charge the black folks a lot more, they say they're taking a risk selling to them and this could hurt their job, etc. This is the essence of blockbusting. Blockbusting serves real estate agents and loan originators because the white people forfit these low interest rates and black people get charged more and high interest rates, and the real estate agents make profits. This is made possible because it is not de jure, it is de facto housing discrimination and therefore it is harder to police this type of thing.

Discuss the findings of David Arsen and David Plank regarding the effect of Proposal A on various school districts.

David Arsen and David Plank did some research on the outcomes of proposal A on various school districts across Michigan. To begin, they found that rural school districts are better off under proposal a because the foundation allowance has increased per pupil funding dramatically. Next Arsen and Plank say that most suburban public school districts are better off after proposal A because rapidly rising enrollment has compensated for relatively slow growth in the per pupil foundation allowance. Third Arsen and Plank found that most centrl city and low income suburban areas are worse off after proposal A because slow growth in the per pupil foundation allowance is paired with falling enrollments. Lastly Arsen and Plank claim that the real value of every districts foundation allowance has declined in 8 of the last 10 years due to the state using taxable value for collecting taxes- which will never surpass the rate of inflation, however the rate of inflation isnt comparable to the education and administrative costs to run a school.

Fully discuss the various forms of housing discrimination discussed in class.

Housing discrimination is described as "Detroit's time bomb". Black discrimination led to a housing shortage- and the urban renewal and interstate highway act of 1949 limited further housing choices by displacing black communities. Even more problems erupted with the construction of the interstate highway system which splits communities, and problems over placement of public housing was another form of housing discrimination. Landlord racism- is a type of housing discrimination in which very few landlords or slumlords would rent to blacks- in 1951 only 1.15% of new homes on sale were eligible to blacks. Next housing and lending and finance practices are another form of housing discrimination where blacks were offered only high down payments and high rents. The next kind of housing discrimination I will discuss are racial covenants, which was basically a lean the bank puts on a property- and somewhere on the deed it says that the bank will never sell this house to a person of color, etc. These were legal until 1947. Easements are a form of housing discrimination- which is a piece of land on your property that you dont own, the government owns, this makes zonal codes and laws more complicated leading to easier ways to legally discriminate. Land contracts- historically have been discriminating to black people- very strict and basically was a way to help people in failing mortgages but took advantage of it with unfair and impossible standards. Shady appraisal practices are a form of housing discrimination- they under value houses to prevent people of color from obtaining that house, or over value it. Redlining is a form of housing discrimination in which the FHA- legally- de jure discrimination- sections off majority minority areas where they say they will not guarantee people loans. and lastly steering, is a defacto housing segregation, which is steering, where real estate agents withhold information to black homes about whats on the market, or they steer white people out of neighborhoods with selective commentary "this neighborhood has a high turnover rate"

What defenses do minorities have against contemporary discrimination? Describe each fully.

In 2018 there are some defenses available against contemporary discrimination. Contemporary discrmination is structural racism that puts minorities at disadvantages. To begin, today there is not a housing shortage, but rather a shortage of safe affordable housing. De jure racial discrmination actionable under civil rights- allowed a number of important causes to be brought forward and these laws have a discriminatory effect are challenged under civil rights. Another defense includes how racial covenants which prevent the sale to a house of a person of color were outlawed in 1947. Redlining was made illegal in 1977, which is the FHA policy to sanction off zones of majority minority where they refused to guarantee loans. The community reinvestment act is another huge defense against contemporary discrmination- because it offers banks incentives and kickbacks for favorable treatment if they provide detailed documentation of whos getting loans. Steering has become policed by Housing and urban development- HUD which is a defense against contemporary racism because they weed out racist landlords and who won't rent to blacks. Lastly, studies are published like the boston fed study which focus on disparities in housing markets and this is an advantage for blacks because it makes this contemporary racism harder to hide. They found a 24% disparity when controlling for numerous things when whites were compared to blacks.

Discuss the findings and conclusions of William Julius Wilson in "The Urban Underclass and Advanced Industrial Society." On what basis does Wilson distinguish the two forms of racial prejudice he discusses, historic and contemporary?

In William Julius Wilson's 1980 piece "the urban underclass and advanced industrial society" he makes some interesting points. To begin, his work followed closely of the work of the unpopular Daniel Patrick Moynihan who was a key player in the civil rights legislation passed in 1964 and 1965 to raise a call to action for minorities. He was unpopular because he said the number one problem with black communities was lack of family structure. WJW says in his book that he thinks civil rights were not good for black people, made it worse for some people, and he wants to remove affirmative action and replace it with means tested job programs. He wants the people who were left behind from the declining industrial society starting in the 1950s, to be able to be trained for jobs so that everyone can survive in this advanced industrial society which is very unfair to blacks. WJW in his book argues that the main cause of black impoverishment is lack of economic opportunity in cities- the crisis of opportunity where the good low skill high paying jobs are moving away and now the people left in this area cant find a job, and are stuck. WJW also found numerous disadvantages of the urban minority population in his book: aggravated crime rates, single parent homes and poverty disproportionately affecting blacks. Lastly WJW says that a second kind of racist discrimination has formed- a structural disadvantage of racism which further exacerbates and puts minorities at disadvantages, which is called contemporary racism- which isn't excatly de jure racisim or by law, but it is structural, which makes it harder for blacks to get good jobs get good education and good housing. The other kind of discrimination WJW describes is histroric racisim- which is open, hateful, and and non structural.

According to the assigned reading "Detroit Public Transit: Past, Present, and Future," what transit issue(s) were taken on by Mayor Pingree? What was the outcome of his intervention in Detroit public transit?

In his first term as mayor, pinegree ran on a ticket of lowering streetcar fares for the working man. There was a monoploy of electric streetcars which largely made them ineffective and too expensive. Thus, when the detroit railway company tried to apply for a extension of their franchise for 30 years in 1891 following a strike against 12 hour workdays, Pinegree refused their extension. He became frustrated when another company was able to franchise and began operating again. He said it didnt make sense to try to try to repair a private system for the public, and he thought the city of Detroit should be the ones allowed to operate the steetcar and make money off it., Pinegree said municipal ownership was the best route. So in 1896 when he became the governor of Michigan he ushered through the Mcleod act, which gave Detroit the authority to operate its own street car railway. However the supreme court ruled this unconstitutional and this way delayed until 1913 when it was overturned by constitutional amendment, finally allowing muncipal ownership of the street railway system in Detroit. The routes became more efficient and less expensive. Taxes helped support the costs which made it overall better for repairs and the consumers.

From Chapt. 9 of the Palen text, fully describe first, second, and third-wave immigrants to the United States.

It is very often overlooked that the migration of immigrants to the United States has been the largest migration of people in the history of the world. Chapter 9 says 45 million immigrants arrived to the u.s before immigration laws became more strict in the 1920's. First wave- The first wave of immigrants were heavily of British origin. They were the settlers, and they were often protestant and they had English values policies and customs present in their metro lives. At the time of the revolutionary war in 1775 9 out of 10 of the new nations white population could trace their ancestry back to the british isles: Scotch, English, or Northern Irish There were also black african slaves who were brought here who were the first wave but they were excluded from white society. Second wave- The second wave of immigration took place from 1820-1880, and the first main group of second wave migrants were heavily Irish. Heavy irish immigration began in the u.s in the 1920s and was accelerated by the potato famine in Ireland in the 1940s. Next came the Germans, who were usually protestant and then the Scandinavians followed them. These 3 groups of north and western european ethnicity are collectively called the old immigrants to distinguish them from the new immigrants- of eastern and southern european in the third wave and from the British immigrants. Third wave- The third wave of immigrants was between 1880 and 1920, and these were largely southern and eastern european ethnicity. Around 1880 immigrants would likely to be slavic polish jewish or greek heritage- they formed 52% of all immigrants by 1890s. Due to the farmland being taken these third wave immigrants stayed in the citys and out of necessity worked industrial factory jobs and often lived in the zone in transition in citys.

According to Massey and Denton, what are the primary causes of segregation today? Be sure to describe in detail each, and be explicit as to how they cause segregation.

Massey and Denton offer several primary causes for segregation today. To begin, they explain these causes of segregation can either be de facto segregation- which happens naturally due to racist attitudes and not policy, and de jure segregation- which is government sanctioned policy segregation. One of their primary causes for segregation is disparities in neighborhood tipping points, this occurs when there is a non linear relationship in a neighborhood causes by tipping points- which cause blockbusting. Tipping points is described by Gladwell as being when a 80% white population gets joined by a 15-20% african american population in their neighborhood, and all of the sudden, the everyone leaves at once, this is the tipping point. This causes segregation because it is a defacto segregation, happens naturally and divides communities, prevents them from being racially homogeneous. next banking and lending financial instiutions are discriminaotry to blacks. The next primary cause of segregation described by Massey and Denton are real estate agents, who steer and use selective commentary which have segregation outcomes- this is a form of De-facto segregation- it is policed by testers and auditors however- but this causes segregation because real estate agents withhold information from black ppl in the market for housing in order to make their neighborhoods more appealing to whites, and this causes black people to crowd into the same places, and unable to move into different spaces. Selective commentary causes segregation because it allows white people to learn of neighborhoods with high turnover rates, this allows them to dance around being blatantly racist. The Boston Fed study found a 24% disparity in differences when they tested between white and black housing differences, which shows segregation is still alive and well.

From Chapt. 9 of Palen, what were the prevailing arguments against immigration before the 20th century? According to Palen, how did these arguments evolve over time?

Palen asserts in chapter 9 that the arguments to restrict immigration before the turn of the 20th century was based upon 2 main things: 1) the ethnocentric assumption of american ways 2) the assumption that the american industrial society represented a higher evolutionary form than the backwards regions of Europe. To begin the first settlers believed that the American way was the best way- and new immigrants should abandon their old cultures and traditions and "digest the american way of life". Then around the turn of the century genetic superiority of Americans becomes a popular argument against immigration. The Genetic argument asserted than Anglo saxon americans and the irish british and german scandivian- old immigrant group- were gentically superior to new groups entering the country at this time- basically welcomed northwest Europeans and shunned immigrants from the south and east regions of Europe. The genetic argument led to the restrictive u.s racial based immigration laws of 1921 and 1924- which dramatically reduced the immigrants from southeastern europe from 42% in 1921 to 12% in 1924. Racial quotas were in place where 85% of the quota went to north west Europe. Today all immigration with european background are placed into the same euro american category. during WWII the argument against asians entering our country became popular argument against immigration. Today the argument against immigration revolves around the fact that there are a lot of unregistered people sneaking into the country getting away with not paying taxes and using government benefits.

Describe all of the public policy effects of Proposal A in Michigan, how it altered property tax policy, and the circumstances under which it was placed on Michigan voters' election ballot in 1994.

Proposal A was hurried onto the March ballot in 1994 after severe education funding disparities arose in michigan in the early 90s. Pre proposal A, much of the local education costs for public schools were raised by local property taxes, which wasn't good because this limited funding for schools because often people didnt want to pay more and more taxes. So this led the Kalkaska school district to close its doors in 1992 due to underfunding, people would not raise their propety taxes for the schools. Then in 1993 the state legislature voted away state funding program for schools, so this led to the proposal A being a remedy to these problems and to fix the problem of local property taxes. The policies proposed with proposal A: Establish a state foundation allowance for all public school districts, where they get around $8k for each kid a year. This was created by a state mill state education sales tax, which was .6%. which translated into a 50% increase in sales taxes, which limited local jurisdictions ability to levy taxes for schools. Proposal A would cut property taxes by 40%, and establish two separate tax bases for figuring local property tax. Also set up state equalized value and taxable values to protect the rate of taxes, which will never go past the rate of inflation.

What does The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) have to say about water and sewer infrastructure needs from 2000-2030? What was your instructor's criticism of their projections?

SEMCOG predicts by 2030 metro detroits seven county region will expand in developed areas by 36%, households by 22% and the population by 12%, which shows things are only getting worse as far as urban sprawl, Mr.Horner says. Next SEMCOG predicts that between 2000-2030 they will need between $14-26 billion dollars, 12% for new CSOs combined sewer overflow systems, 16% for repair and upgrades of the existing system,42% for new construction, and 30% for administrative costs. SEMCOG and other metropolitian planning organizations are voulntary but you have to pay to join. Mr.Horners critisim of their projects mainly centers around his issue with the 42% cost for new construction, Mr.horner says that instead of using that for new construction we should upgrade and repair the exisiting system, because if we dont curb our appetite for more and more development, then this will only exacerbate the problem of urban sprawl and not be beneficial to the people it is intended to serve. Mr.Horner says they should split into maybe 1 or 2 different alliances to better fulfill different communities needs, SEMCOG is trying to serve too many people and communities.

From the assigned reading "The Apprenticeship: Good Government Mayor," describe at least three policy issues taken on by Mayor Pingree, and how they were ultimately resolved.

The first policy issue I will discuss by mayor pingree was the issue he resolved of the poor quality roads in Detroit. When pingree became mayor in 1890 detroits roads was one of the worst paved cities around, but he demanded that the roads be paved with concrete, he also wanted more cleaning and better machines to do this with, he accused the democratic commisoners of taking bribe for low quality products and unskilled workers for the streets, the streets were filled with wooden blocks dirty and had holes. Finally in july of 1893 pingree makes a major advance when the council accepted the principle that concrete roads , when economically feasible, would be a part of Detroits future paving plans, 2 years later Detroits roads were in better condition than any city of comprable size. Second, Mayor Pingree settled the sewer scandal of 1890. He accused of democratic collusion with corrput cement suppliers and contractors. In march of 1890 he ordered an engineering investigation of the sewer system which found recently installed pipes crumbling and breaking apart with a touch, the cement would crumble with your hand. Democratic commisoner James hanley tried to defend his purchases but Mayor pinegree just hired two business like GOP commisoners who put an end to hanleys lax policies. They dropped the cement supplier from their list of suppliers, adopted more strict policies for the kind of product they must buy, and found contractors out of the city putting an end to this localism part of the democratic business and political philosophy in Detroit. Lastly, I will discuss how Pinegree launched a campagn in Detroit to eliminate toll gates in 1892. At the time there was 5 toll gates servicing detroit and this was in 2/3 of the city, it was impossible to get around and added up to be a decent size of money to get around, they were also in poor condition because they failed to do repair and upkeeps, Pinegree offered these toll companies buyouts but they all wanted exoribant compensation. When hendire toll gate refused to close, Pinegree built what is now known as pinegree bypass on Jefferson avenue. When they still wouldnt close pinegree built a 60 ft wall up and around the toll gate, and they were unable to operate and collect fares. The other toll gates learned their lesson and sold out to Detroit on fair terms. By 1896 all toll gates were eliminated in Detroit.

Fully discuss the barriers to inner city housing development.

The major challenges to inner city housing development is being able to build market rate housing- housing without subsidies, which are prevented by various barriers which I will explain in the remainder of this essay. The first barrier is land acquisitions- which is when there are too many parcels to gain legal title to in order to get ahold of that property and build there, this is a barrier which takes a lot of time and money to get past. The next housing development barrier to inner cities is the title problems- including tax reverted properties where legal interests come out of nowhere when interest in buying the property arises, next is environmental remediation costs on inner city land, which were strict laws to help protect the land and ecosystem and environment of city systems, which were strict laws that developed after love canal in 1979. Lastly the long permit approval process is usually longer in big central cities, which adds to barriers which prevent housing from being developed.

Summarize the movie "Waiting for Superman." Be sure to provide enough detail so that your instructor is convinced you watched it. What is your instructor's general opinion of it?

The movie waiting for superman tells the sad tale of how the american public school system is in serious trouble and is failing. It highlights how americans have some of the worst reading and math scores out of any country in the world, yet we are supposed to be the most successful. The film centers around 5 children, Daisy, Anthony, Bianaca, Emily and Francsio who are all dying to get into a successsful charter school in their area- but due to charter schools being a choice- they are wildy popular because successful charters have higher h.s graduation rates and better test scores and get into good 4 year colleges. They are all entered into a lottery for a spot in this charter school. The charter schools are funded with public state tax dollars but are a privatized- so they do not have the same oversight as public schools, and they can pick and choose who enters the school. Michelle Rhee is featured as a trailblazer superintendent of the washington D.C school district when she proposed ways to improve the failing public school system but offering a policy where teachers exchange tenure for a significant pay raise and she closed failing schools and fired principals and others failing to do their jobs. It is a fact that teachers lose their jobs the least out of almost any profession due to the teacher union- which is bad because basically teachers can get away with not teaching our kids and get paid. They also featured a rubber room in the film- where teachers go who are accused of misconduct to go sit in a room and literally do nothing but collect their pay- costs 65 million anually. Geoffry Canada is a superstar in the film as his 97-block harlem charter school is amazingly successful at getting children to graduate hs and go to college, he has many interesting methods he uses to get his children to succeed. At the end of the film the raffles all take place, and it is very sad when only 1 out of 5 children the film followed get accepted into the charter school. Emily- from silicion valley- was accepted. Our instructors opinion is he really likes this film, and thinks its awful that every kid doesnt get the same opportunity, they should all have the opportunity to get a quality education at the charter of their choice, and since they are publicly funded they shouldn't be able to pick who can come to the schools. He says that we should fix public schools and offer teachers more training and incentives to improve the school system.

From Chapt. 10 of Palen, who are the "new-wave" immigrants to the North America? What are their demographics and settlement patterns in North America? Why do you suppose they are called "new-wave?"

The new wave immigrants to north america are the extremely large group of asian and latin american immigrants who are entering the united states at large numbers. Hispancs or latinos- as the census uses these terms intermittently dominate 51% of all legal immigration population and Asian count for over 30%. 60% of asian growth is due to immigration and 75% of latino growth is due to natural increases- higher number of births minus deaths. To begin, I will first explain the demographics and settlement patterns of hispanic new wave immigrants. In the 1980s hispancs counted for about half of the total african american population, and by 2003 they became the largest minority in the united states. They are growing at a rate of about 1.4 million per year, with a median age of 27 years, and hold a 17% stake in the overall u.s population. It is projected by 2050 1 out of every 4 americans will be of hispanic background. Half the hispanic population is concentrated in two states: california, and Texas. 84% of hispancs live in metro areas 2010 census- half of all latinos live in suburbs Non gateway states have been gaining latino popularity: Arkansas, north carolina, south carolina and minnesota. Hispancs are the least likely to have a college degree and the most likely to drop out of highschool Next, I will explain asian new wave population. The asian americans are the nations highest income, best educated and the fastest growing population- account for 6% of the overall population in the u.s . 6 in 10 asian americans who immigrant to the u.s have 1 college degree- highest educated immigrants in u.s history. 94% of asian americans live in metropolitan areas Asians are highly concentrated in the west coat- 54% of their pop lives there, and the most live in california. Asian american immigrants provide much of americans cutting edge technology- silicion valley is heavily asian and asian indian. The reason they are called new wave is because the immigrants are very different from the once traditional view of immigrants- being white, blue collar workers and stuck in cities. As described above, these new wave immigrants shatter these old expectations and mostly live in metros and bypass the city entirely. They are also all minorities, the previous immigrants have been mostly white, so this is a huge change. Due to these changes, it is expected that whites will be a minority in the next 50 or so years. The name new wave also might be because asian immigrants especially, provide the cutting edge technology. they are called new wave because by 2043 half of the u.s will be minority, the older generation is dying off.

From Section III, chapt. 2 of the Horner text, describe the social conditions for blacks leading up to the Detroit Rebellion of 1967.

There were unfair social conditions for blacks that lead up to the Detroit rebellion of 1967 in Horners book. To begin, the chapter starts with the Kerner commision report- which came out actually a few days after order was restored in Detroit- it was a data report on 24 incidents in 23 cities that occurred in the 1960s. The Kerener commission report found causes of civil insurrection in black urban communities throughout the u.s and rated these causes in a list from most severe to less severe. According to the kerner report the most direct social inequity was the unfair treatment of african americans by local police forces. The other factors listed include unemployment, inadequate housing/housing shortage, poor education and recreation, political structure, etc. Well, most of these things that were listed in the Kerner report took place in Detroit following up to the rebellion. To begin, there was severe housing shortage in Detroit. Due to the urban renewal and interstate highway act in the late 1950s, many populous black districts including paradise valley were designated as blighted and razed, and evicted black people moved mainly to Virginia Park and 12th street district. 12th street was described as being over crowded and dangerous around that time. Redlining was also taking place- where the FHA would line off areas in Detroit which were mostly minority or black- and would not guarantee them loans. In 1941 a 6ft concrete wall was built adjacent to a historically black neighborhood, and the FHA guaranteed loans to white people on the other side of the wall, while housing opportunities were literally walled off to blacks. The Detroit police were unfair to blacks, and often ignored white people brutally beating blacks in the street. They would overwhelm white neighborhoods and leave black neighborhoods to fend for themselves. The detroit arsenal of democracy brought some hope back to the motor city- and there was a good economy going for a while, a lot of jobs and some housing became available, but this was short lived and after the war there was another housing shortage. It was no secret the Detroit school board worked to achieve racial harmony in the 1930s- when they passed a liberal policy allowing students to transfer to districts of their choice and they had not widely adopted the plessy v fergueson law yet in the north yet either. There was only one black councilman on the detroit common council in 1967, which also meant black problems were largely ignored. Opening housing laws in the 40s led albert cobo to run for mayor on a ticket of- "stopping the negro invasion" in Detroit which led angry blacks to elect radical union leaders and political leaders in the city of Detroit like Coleman A young. Also, recreation facilities in the city were racist towards blacks, the bob-lo-excursion vs michigan case, where it was ruled unconstitutional that the ferry wouldn't serve blacks. All of these factors, inadequate housing and housing discrimination, job opportunities, police brutality and poverty, etc. led to the Detroit 1967 rebellion when the police violently broke up a peaceful gathering of friends on 12 and Clairmount at the blind pig. The death, destruction, looting, and rioting that would ensue would change the path of Detroit's history forever.

Fully describe all of the factors complicating central city school performance.

To begin, school related variables only account for no more than 1/3 of the variation in school achievement- this means in order for students to be successful there needs to be help outside the classroom, but central city kids are often in foster care, have busy parents, or theyre lacking adequate after school programs to help them. Next, the ideal school classroom size is 20, and in central cities it is very common for classrooms to be 35 or more students. Charter schools further complicate things, because often the best students leave for charter schools, so this negatively affects the central city school performance, vouchers- which are help to parents to offer private school to those who wouldnt be able to pay for it otherwise add to the problem of complicating central city school peformance, the enrollment is down in central cities. School of choice also is bad for central city school performance because it also adds to the problem of enrollment going down, due to this students are leaving the central city in masses. Intransgience- which is a one size fits all policy is common in central cities- often children get placed on "tracks" and this can hurt central city school performance as well. Lastly, the no child left behind act of 2002 further excarbates the problem of central city school performance, because the act stresses improved test scores for federal kickbacks and incentives for schools, and due to these factors just described in this essay, this has been a very difficult task for central cities to achieve.

How do secondary mortgage markets work? What is their long history? Why were they started in the first place?

To begin, secondary mortgage markets were a government program created to perform a duty of buying mortgages from loan originators (banks) and in hopes of leveling out interest rates and bringing liquidity to the mortgage market to stimulate the economy and make it easier for more people to get approved for loans. Secondary mortgage markets buy a mortgage from a originator, a bank, and lets them take the origination fee for performing that loan, and buys the asset, the rest of the mortgage, off the banks hands so they can write more mortgages and this will add competition, and they knew interest rates would go down because of it in turn also making it easier to get a mortgage. The federal national mortgage association- Fannie Mae, and Federal national home loan management corporation were created in 1938 with tax payer money. They became wildly popular and successful, and in 1968 secondary mortgage markets became a quasi-public government sponsored enterprise, which means that the organizations became corportized- so this mean they are now able to buy and sell bundles of stock- bundles of mortgages. They would bundle these mortgages- with good approval rates and they have good default rates- to other corporations to raise more money to fund more mortgages. This was the origination of combined government and private sector. Problems with this began to arise as early as 2003/4 when Alan Greenspan warned that these secondary mortgage markets needs more oversight of the assets backed by GSEs This lead to a collapse of the secondary mortgage market as early as 2006/7, this was mainly because these affordable mortgages they were selling were anything but, and then there was the problem of stock brokers incorrectly assessing the stock or mortgage bundles, on purpose, which really was devastating to the mortgage market. Also Wallstreet began investing and sell mortgage stock and they had no government oversight at all and other private organizations Even more fallout began starting around 2012 of the mortgage market, when there was the largest housing decline in housing valuations since the great depression. Currently the U.S taxpayers again own Freddie mac and fannie mae, due to conforming mortgage standards not being strict enough and the incitement of too much upfront incentive to originate loans, and also lobbyist worked to shoo away regulators which led to this crisis.

What was the fallout from the secondary mortgage market meltdown beginning in 2012?

To begin, secondary mortgage markets were created with taxpayer money to help get people out of the depression and into housing and to sustain the housing market. they became a government sponsored enterprise and this lead to a lack of regulations and oversight. Due to this, in 2012, there occurred the largest housing decline valuation since the great depression. In 2012 an estimated 30% of all home ownership is under water, and an estimated 5-10% of all homes purchased since 2000 are headed into foreclosure. The home affordable modification program- HAMP was set up around this time to try to help pull the secondary mortgage market out of the meltdown but it was largely unsuccessful- only 10% of its intended use was used, because it was easier for banks to not train new employees for these procedures and it started to be known that homeowners who failed to pay their mortgages- were a lot better off simply walking away from their mortgage and filing bankruptcy. We are currently exiting a foreclosure crisis, where there was a stalling of foreclosures when there really shouldn't of been because loan origination were unable to produce loan origination paperwork since it was sold off.

Summarize the initiatives underway regarding public transportation in the Greater Traverse City area, as described by Tyler Bevier.

Tyler Beviers main initative underway in the greater Traverse city area is his main project- BATA, the bay area transportation authority. BATA has over 11 routes with 12 on demand routes for seniors who can call and be taken everywhere, they have a fleet of over 66 busses which serve over 12 million rides a year, and fares start at .75 cents. They have interesting ways which they have kept up with transportation competiton- their bike-n-rides, when weather permits it they have these repurposed school busses fitted with bike racks available to transport people which MDOT estimated has over a 300,000 economic impact annually. They also have ski-n-ride during the winter months, and in Janurary they have a car free program to encourage bus rides. Due to a 40% increase in local funding voted in 2017 they haved the following projections for BATA after they surveyed and asked the people what they wanted: they want real time bus tracking, free wifi on busses, first high frequency bus routes served every 12-15 minutes and east and west connections in the city. Also they have early and late hours of service available for the routes. Tyler and his team have transformed the Traverse city area transportation system. They also had used adaptive reuse of an insane aslyum in the area and they have established a wildlife conservancy in the traverse city area.