You know that street repair project that should be done by local government, but languishes for years waiting for a chunk of Federal grant money? Grant blight.
You know that weird out-of-the-way park for which some politician grubbed up grant funding, just so he could cut the ribbon and show up in the local paper? You know, the park nobody uses now, has fallen into disrepair (what, maintenance funding? pshaw), and now has become both an eyesore and an attractive nuisance? Grant blight.
You know those municipal piers that are the centerpieces of local waterfront parks? The ones that get roughed up every few years by hurricanes? Cities and counties used to take care of them, and they got fixed pdq, usually in the winter following hurricane season. Now they often sit for years, waiting for FEMA money to roll in. Yep, grant blight.
Yes, I know well the reality of funding small projects these days: the Federal government vacuums up dollars from citizens by the truckload and then oh so graciously passes some back to local governments by the handful. What, should local governments refuse these returned crumbs? Probably not. Still, the situation stinks. Leaving the money local would get these projects completed faster, and at a tenth the cost. But I present no solutions here, and seek only to define a new phrase.
Grant blight. It's a shorthand way to describe what we see all over America these days.
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