Currently, the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) operates under the 'trickle-down' methodology. Residents have been told that building projects like the recently completed students housing in the Gaines Street area, on the fringe of the Greater Frenchtown/Southside CRA district, will benefit the residents of Frenchtown and the Southside. Or the CRA does a land swap with Florida State University so that the University can proceed in developing the Civic Center Area--now referred to as 'the arena district.'
How will these projects benefit those actually living in the areas designated as 'slum and blight?' Because these projects will generate tax revenues back into the CRA district fund (thought tax increment financing). "Then," the Mayor said more than once, "then, we'll have sufficient funding to do projects to improve the core areas in Frenchtown/Southside.
The purpose of the Tallahassee CRA is to eliminate blight in the CRA designated areas of Tallahassee - Frenchtown/Southside and downtown.
Yet, poverty continues to increase in Tallahassee:
- Percentage of persons living below the poverty level in Tallahassee in 2011 was 29.4%, about twice the rate of poverty in both Florida and the U.S.
- Poverty rate in Tallahassee increased by over 19% from 2000 to 2011.
- Latest census estimates put the poverty rate for Tallahassee at 31.1%. [2014]
- Leon County poverty estimate is 23.3% [2014] [census.gov]
