Steven Greenhut at Orange Punch, one of the Orange County Register‘s blogs, reports on the CA Redevelopment Agency’s partnership with well-known local PBS program host, Huell Howser. Howser has agreed to host a 14-episode series on the glories of California redevelopment. Greenhut describes why this partnership is so outrageous:
According to a CRA statement, “The series presents an opportunity for us to tell the redevelopment story in a compelling and intimate way. Huell and his crew will be visiting redevelopment projects in cities and counties throughout California that demonstrate inspiring, positive elements of redevelopment efforts.”
How outrageous, especially since this will be on taxpayer-funded TV and the program is funded by a group that gets its funds from government agencies.
CRA is the state’s biggest proponent of eminent-domain abuse and regulatory takings, and its agencies actively drive people off their property so that the land can be handed over for pennies on the dollar to big developers. Howser will be shilling for these corporate-welfare projects but will ignore the people whose lives have been disrupted or even destroyed by them.
Howser will be doing PR for those who drive poor, minorities, small business owners and others out of their homes and businesses at the behest of government bureaucracies working in tandem with Armani-suit-wearing developers who like the freebies.