KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Sunday March 20 Housing and Economic stories

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Anger brews over government workers' benefits - (www.finance.yahoo.com) When Erin McFarlane looks at public workers, she sees lucrative pension benefits she doesn't ever expect to get. And it makes her mad. "I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well," said the Slinger, Wis., woman. She's been working a couple of bartending jobs since January, when she was laid off from her job at a Harley Davidson plant after almost a decade. She's not alone in seeing public servants as public enemies in some ways. It's a case of pension envy. For McFarlane, 36, it's part of a ubiquitous discussion, at the bars where she works and on Facebook. And it's the center of some of the biggest political battles playing out in state capitals across the country as governors say their states can no longer afford the benefits that public employees have been promised. Government workers in McFarlane's state have rallied for weeks against Gov. Scott Walker's efforts to take away many collective bargaining rights, saying that would amount to killing the middle class. A USA Today/Gallup poll last month found show that Americans largely side with the employees, though about two in five that want government pay and benefits reined in.

Bankrupt Vallejo becomes magnet for hookers - (www.sfgate.com) Vallejo has been hit hard by red-ink budgets and police cutbacks. That doesn't make it unique in the Bay Area - other cities that historically have battled prostitution, such as Oakland and Hayward, are suffering from similar problems. Those cities, however, still have the resources to take on prostitution. FBI agents joined Oakland, Hayward and other cities' police recently to break up child and Asian prostitution rings. Oakland's city attorney went to court in December to shut down three motels where hookers allegedly ply their trade. But Vallejo has not been as lucky. It is so broke that in 2008 it became the first California city to declare bankruptcy over entrenched budgetary problems. City officials have had to trim the police force from 155 to 90, leaving the remaining officers with little time to haul in hookers and johns - and word of this traveled fast in the street trade. As a result, streetwalkers and pimps have come from as far away as Oregon and Mexico to work Vallejo. Turning tricks in Vallejo pays anything from a $2 crack rock, for the most desperate, to $500 a day for the most organized who take Internet bookings or have good pimp connections. The full range of streetwalkers is on display in tight dresses or pants and high heels 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the northwestern part of town just a few blocks from City Hall.

High-profile real estate agent's office in foreclosure - (www.ocregister.com) Lenders have filed a default notice against the Newport Beach headquarters of luxury-home agent John McMonigle. McMonigle confirmed that the default notice was filed and said his firm also has been sued as part of an ongoing dispute with a bank that cut off construction funding to McMonigle's signature Villa del Lago development in Newport Coast. "We're intent on restructuring the debt here, and letting it work its way through the courts," McMonigle said late Tuesday. "We're on it, and I don't think (our building) is at risk." McMonigle maintains that the dispute, not financial difficulties, are the reason for lenders moving against his 20,000-square-foot building at 1000 Newport Center Dr., near the Fashion Island mall. Circle Family Trust, which provided McMonigle Group with a $1 million second loan on the building, filed a notice of default against McMonigle Residential Group Inc., CountyRecordsResearch.com shows.

Obama plan would accelerate sale of unneeded federal real estate - (www.cnn.com) A vacant federal warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, is one of 14,000 properties targeted under a new proposal by President Barack Obama to accelerate the sale of federal real estate the government no longer needs. Jeff Zients, the federal chief performing officer, said Wednesday the administration wants to create a panel that will recommend how the federal government can sell off excess real estate to bring in or save $15 billion over three years. The proposed legislation, which requires congressional approval, would set up an independent board comprising public and private sector members to develop a plan for matching the government's real estate holdings with its core missions and programs, Zients told reporters at the White House.

Tea Party: Don't Let Renters Vote - (www.moneywatch.bnet.com) Gawker reported that Judson Phillips, president of prominent Tea Party group Tea Party Nation, has a terrific idea: “The Founding Fathers… put certain restrictions on… the right to vote… you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense.” Here’s the full quote, from Tea Party Nation Radio: “The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.”