Earlier this month the Town of Pulaski held a public meeting where the NRV Regional Commission and a design firm presented a proposal for a Virginia Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). The CDBG program is administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, and funded by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)‘s CDBG program. The particular grant Pulaski applied for is targeted at revitalizing and eliminating blight in low and medium income communities. The grant would award $700,000, which when combined with matching funds and in-kind donations of time and labor, would exceed $1 million. If awarded, the proposed project would focus on the Main Street area of Pulaski and would include development of a ’creek walk’ between the main street buildings and Peak Creek, bridge enhancements for Washington and Jefferson Aves, Main Street building facade improvements, streetscape repairs, and a pocket park in the currently vacant lot across from the Court House. While these projects would not necessarily address all of the deep seated issues leading to poverty and economic stagnation in our area, they would build on the invaluable resources that our town has at our disposal (e.g. our main street), and help to make Pulaski a destination for visitors and their business.
The CDBG program provides a mechanism to jump start capitalization on [Pulaski’s] resource[s]
All of this was important and exciting for Pulaski, and should have made it’s way into a blog post earlier. But this week, the Trump administration released their budget proposal for 2018, which among a number of devastating cuts to vital programs will de-fund the HUD CDBG program, removing the funding for the Virginia grant program. Presumably the 2017 program is already funded with 2017 dollars and Pulaski will still be able to compete and potentially be awarded funding, but this cut would be devastating for small rural towns struggling to revitalize.
Small towns like Pulaski do not lack for potential, but rather for resources to convert it into growth and prosperity. If nothing else, recent investments in the town (e.g. David Hagan’s purchase of Calfee Park and the Jackson Park Inn), prove that with sufficient capital, Pulaski’s resources can be turned into a draw for tourism, entertainment, and dining. Pulaski has a rare gem of a walkable and historic Main Street, which other small towns (and even bigger towns like Blacksburg) would kill for. The CDBG program provides a mechanism to jump start capitalization on that resource.
A relatively small influx of Federal money multiplies locally.
A relatively small influx of Federal money multiplies locally. As mentioned before, the $700,000 grant would be matched with over $300,000 of local matching and in-kind contributions. The availability of these resources catalyzed around the promise of grant money and likely would have laid untapped otherwise. Also, whether Pulaski wins or loses the grant, the planning process (also funded by a CDBG Planning Grant) has led to the development of an up-to-date Master Plan which the town was previously lacking and which is a requirement for businesses to get low interest rate loans. So, even the small investment of the planning grant if making a real impact on making Pulaski more attractive to prospective businesses.
Support for these block grants is not a partisan issue. Just this week, HUD Secretary Ben Carson was in Detroit touting the success of a program funded by a CDBG, and in other arenas, Conservatives seem to love block grants. The GOP Health care plan proposes to Block Grant Medicaid, providing a fixed lump of money per capita for each state to administer regardless of each state’s specific and varied needs. I would argue this is terrible policy for health care, but an OK way to handle development grants, where every small investment helps and peoples lives and life savings are not on the line in the same way.
Towns like Pulaski are undergoing a slow revival, fueled by persistence and grit and pride … We just need a little spark to get going.
The President’s proposed budget will hurt Americans across the board with slashes to perennial Republican targets such as the National Endowment For the Arts and Corporation for Public Broadcasting and to Rural support systems like CDBGs and the Appalachian Resource Commission. Hopefully we will discuss some of these other impacts further on this blog, but this one hits particularly close to home. Towns like Pulaski are undergoing a slow revival, fueled by persistence and grit and pride. We have the human resources, the history, and the natural resources. We just need a little spark to get going. That spark can come from moneyed interests, seeing a cheap and untapped opportunity and having their own agendas, good or bad, or it can come from we the people, putting our tax money to work. Whether Pulaski makes it through the CDBG process this year or not, it would be a travesty to see this type of Federal investment in local development shut down for similar towns across the region and country.
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