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USA Today
5 days ago
- Business
- USA Today
House divided: Who will get Pope Leo's childhood home outside Chicago?
House divided: Who will get Pope Leo's childhood home outside Chicago? There's a growing schism in the first American pope's hometown. At stake is who will take Leo's childhood home and how much it will cost them. An auction for the house closes June 18. Show Caption Hide Caption JD Vance gives Pope Leo a special American gift Pope Leo XIV was given a Bears jersey by Vice President JD Vance at their first official meeting. DOLTON, IL – There's a rift growing in the Chicagoland hometown of America's first pope. Not over what baseball team will get his blessing. Or whether the area's anti-ketchup stance could become canon. But over his childhood home. Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago in 1955 and grew up in a squat brick house just south of the city in the Village of Dolton, a town that boomed in the post-war era but has become blighted like many Rust Belt towns. The fate of the little ranch house at 212 E. 141st Pl. where he played priest, however, is up in the air. Local leaders want it for Dolton. The owner wants to auction it off to the highest bidder. 'This isn't just a local purchase, this is a global purchase, a global opportunity,' Steve Budzik, the owner's real estate broker, told USA TODAY. 'We knew if we put it on the open market that might attract the bidder who would be willing to pay the most.' Paramount Realty, the New York-based company behind the auction, is known for auctioning off the childhood home of President Donald Trump for over $2 million. Other properties it is currently selling include a castle in Pennsylvania appraised at $1.9 million and a Long Island house designed by architect Richard Meier that previously sold for $9.45 million. Dolton officials are threatening to get a judge to force owner Paweł Radzik to sell them the house. They aim to use it for the village, although they haven't said exactly how. The process of government claiming private property for public use is called eminent domain. 'I can think of no better public use than to preserve the house for the public to see and use so we meet the definition,' Village attorney Burt Odelson told USA TODAY. 'It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us in the United States.' The Dolton-raised pontiff's election comes as his hometown has experienced a few rough decades amid a loss of manufacturing jobs and a corrupt mayor who racked up massive debts for the village of about 20,000. People in the village hope Leo's connection to it will spark its resurrection. Dolton's revival would center around the house where then-Robert Francis Prevost learned his faith from his parents and brothers. 'We talk about how he might have been formed by being an Augustinian and a missionary in Peru, but how about as a child of the suburbs,' said Father Stephen Koeke, a University of Notre Dame professor. 'His upbringing looks like that of so many Americans and if he was able to grow up in this context and pursue holiness . . . Well, maybe we too can do it.' Resurrection of Dolton: Can Pope Leo XIV bring glory back to his hometown? The tussle over the leader of the Catholic church's childhood home presents a uniquely American clash, according to legal experts and scholars, over the nation's near sacrosanct beliefs in property rights enshrined by the Constitution. 'Here in the United States, we have very strong feelings about the right to own and possess property and do with it what you want,' said Allison K. Bethel, a clinical law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. 'The power to just come in and take it away runs counter to that. But when you think about it, doing so also goes all the way back to taking property from the Native Americans. This is how we do it here in America.' Auctioneer Paramount Realty opened up the house to bids on May 15, according to Budzik. Bidding closes on June 18, according to the listing. The minimum bid is $250,000. What's a pope's house worth? The first American pope's childhood home had been on the market for about four months at $219,000 when Leo became pope. Budzik took down the listing within days. The future pope's parents bought the house when it was completed in 1949 and held onto it until 1996, according to Cook County property records. Leo lived there until moving away for high school to a seminary school in Michigan. Radzik bought the 1,050 square-foot house for $66,000 in 2024, according to Cook County property records. It looks like countless others that went up across the nation in the postwar era, including a nearly identical squat brick home about a block away that Budzik listed for $175,000. But he remodeled the interior into a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home. The remodeling means the interior looks nothing like it did when Leo lived there, dissauding Radzik from wanting to be responsible for turning it into a museum. 'It sounds great in theory,' said Budzik. 'But I said, 'Paweł, are you going to do the research and find what cabinets were popular in the 1960s?' It would probably cost double what it took him to renovate it to 2025 standards.' Budzik said that he hopes a buyer would honor Leo's legacy. 'A truly one-of-a-kind opportunity—this beautifully updated home isn't just a charming 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom residence…it's the childhood home of Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope in history,' reads the brochure which includes Leo's seal. 'Pope Leo XIV's journey from this humble neighborhood to the Vatican is a testament to faith, perseverance, and purpose. Now, you have the rare chance to own a tangible piece of his inspiring legacy.' Can Dolton claim the house? Dolton's path to claiming eminent domain over the house will be difficult, according to legal experts. The concept of eminent domain dates back to Ancient Rome, according to University of California Irvine professor Alejandro E. Camacho. Crucially, governments have to prove that the private property will serve a public purpose. Typical cases in the U.S. involve situations where government says it needs a particular property to build a road or park. Dolton will have a hard time meeting the standard of public purpose because the village only decided to go after the property in response to the news about its connection to Leo, according to Camacho. A judge granting Dolton eminent domain power would create a 'slippery slope' for future eminent domain cases, Camacho said. 'The reason they seem to be saying is 'The pope's home is valuable and we want in on that action,'' Camacho said. 'Why wouldn't the city just take every piece of property that's valuable and flip it?' Leo's status as pope only complicates the issue in a country where the government is not supposed to endorse a particular religion. 'If it was Abe Lincoln's house maybe you could argue there's federal laws implicated but the historical value is wrapped up so much in an individual religion,' Camacho said. 'I don't know if it runs afoul but it's at least worth saying it raises questions.' What happened with other popes' childhood homes? Other papal childhood homes have sparked the flourishing of unknown small towns, according to a USA TODAY survey of Leo's predecessors. The feeling in Dolton that Leo's childhood home could potentially bring an economic boom to the area is borne out in the hometowns of other popes. Wadowice, the town of around 17,500 in Poland where Pope John Paul II was raised, has benefited massively, according to Piotr Polak, a guide at the museum in John Paul's childhood home. 'There are at least a dozen of Wadowice-like towns in southern Poland,' Polak told USA TODAY from Poland. 'None of them is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the globe.' Polak said the museum in the tenement where then-Karol Wojtyła grew up opened in 1984. Around 200,000 people visit the museum annually, according to Polak. 'Without the figure of JP2 there would be next to no one from outside the local region here,' said the guide. 'One of the biggest blessings the town has is the fact that Karol Wojtyła had spent the first 18 years of his life here.' Pilgrims began arriving at the tenement almost immediately when John Paul became pope in 1978, according to Polak. A local priest helped the family find another place to live. Eventually the town and local church leaders then converted the tenement into a museum and a Polish businessman bought the building and donated it to the church. What Dolton wants Pilgrims from around the country began arriving at Leo's old house in Dolton when the Chicagoland pontiff was announced on May 8. For those in Leo's old neighborhood it came as a complete surprise when they saw the beatific looks on their faces as they regarded the little brick house in the middle of the block. 'This was a house that was not at all peaceful,' said nextdoor neighbor Donna Sagna, recalling days when the area was a hotbed of drug dealing and violence. Sagna, 50, hopes the pope's house can be the start of a completely different outlook for the block and the people of Dolton. The little town has struggled immensely since Leo's exodus. Dolton had a dozen murders in 2023, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. About 20,000 people live in the village, meaning the homicide rate is about 10 times the national average. According to census data, the average income in the area is under $30,000. About a fifth of the population lives in poverty. 'I want to see this as a landmark with programs for the community, for people who are struggling,' said Sagna. 'I'd like to see that kind of change. Then the violence will come down.'
The Hill
6 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
Opportunity Zones have quietly become America's most effective housing program
America is facing a major housing shortage. Experts say we're short about 7 million homes. While many government programs try to help by offering rent subsidies or putting limits on rent increases, the real problem is that we aren't building enough housing to meet demand. Opportunity Zones weren't originally designed to solve this specific problem. They were created in 2017 as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to encourage broad private investment in struggling communities. But over time, they've become one of the most effective ways to add new housing across the country. Here's how the program works: If investors put money from capital gains into projects in low-income areas and keep their investment for ten years, they receive a major tax advantage in return. Now, as Congress decides whether to renew or expand the program, we should look at the results. So far, the results are promising. Opportunity Zones have helped create new housing in places that don't usually get much attention or funding — and they've done it at a much lower cost to taxpayers. Today, 23 percent of all new housing under development is in an Opportunity Zone. These investments are happening in all kinds of places. In fast-growing cities like Austin, Texas, new housing is helping relieve pressure on sky-high rents. In Rust Belt communities like Erie, Pa., more than $100 million in Opportunity Zones investment has helped revive the downtown. In mountain ski towns in Colorado, where workers struggle to afford to live, Opportunity Zone projects have brought enough workforce residents into the area that formerly budget-strapped schools can now afford to keep open for five-day weeks. Of course, not everyone supports the program. In a recent op-ed for The New York Times, Kevin Corinth and Naomi Feldman argued that the money is going to neighborhoods that were already improving. But even they admit that Opportunity Zones have helped speed up housing construction — it just was, in their words, 'the wrong neighborhoods,' or places that 'didn't really need it.' And yes, many Opportunity Zone investments were made in low-income neighborhoods showing signs of growth or revitalization. But it is not a failure to catalyze investment in those places — rather, it is a sign the program is working. It is smart to invest in neighborhoods just as they start to improve, so they don't slip backward. Also, the criticism that this housing 'would have been built anyway' usually isn't true. A 2024 report by the Economic Innovation Group found that Opportunity Zone designations led to 313,000 new homes between 2019 and 2024 — almost half of all new homes built in those neighborhoods during that time. Opportunity Zones also save money. Unlike other government programs that require big subsidies and long approval processes, Opportunity Zones rely on private capital. That makes them a faster and cheaper tool to build housing. One study found that Opportunity Zone housing costs taxpayers about $26,000 per unit, compared to up to $1 million per unit government-subsidized affordable housing. A recent Washington Post article highlighted a government-funded housing development that cost $1.2 million per unit and didn't even include in-room washer-dryers. For every dollar the government gives up in tax revenue, nearly $9 of private money is invested in these communities. That's a much better return than other major housing programs, which usually achieve one private dollar for each government dollar at best. Finally, the idea that Opportunity Zone investors is a 'tax giveaway' is not financially true. Investors only get a tax advantage if their project succeeds. Unlike major government programs that spend significant taxpayer money regardless of success or failure, if an Opportunity Zone project fails, taxpayers don't lose money — the investors do. For example, a Ritz-Carlton hotel project in Portland, Ore., was criticized for being too upscale for the Opportunity Zone program's intent. But when the project ran into trouble, the investors lost everything. That's how the system is supposed to work. There's still room to make the program better. Stronger reporting rules and an updated map of eligible areas are two areas of bipartisan consensus, and Congress has been working for years on improvements. The House included an extension in its recent budget bill, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is leading efforts in the Senate to make the program stronger and more transparent. An updated and improved Opportunity Zone program must pass as a part of the final reconciliation bill if we have a shot at addressing America's housing crisis. Leaders from government, business, philanthropy and universities all agree: Poor communities almost never turn around on their own without investment. Opportunity Zones aren't perfect, and they're not the only answer — but they're one of the few tools that are getting real results. As Congress works on the next budget, it should keep what's working — and make it even better. Ross Baird is the CEO of Blueprint Local, a real estate investment firm which has invested over $200 million in distressed communities in the U.S. through the Opportunity Zone program.
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Trump's tariffs threaten to derail US factory revival
President Donald Trump 's tariff policies are posing a threat to the revival of US manufacturing. A push for a 'Made in America' renaissance has been a key priority for the White House , with particular focus on the American Rust Belt. But companies are warning how turmoil and confusion around Trump's trade wars is slowing the progress made in reinvigorating American factories. The latest jobs report revealed that manufacturing jobs declined by 8,000 last month - the most this year so far. Anxiety is high in the Midwest, which remains home to the largest concentration of US manufacturing jobs — despite losing tens of thousands of workers to offshoring in the early 2000s. 'Overall, it is going to be a drag on the US economy ,' Gus Faucher, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh, told Bloomberg . 'In particular, it's going to be a drag on the Midwestern economy.' US factory activity also contracted in May for the third month in a row. The Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin lost almost 2 million manufacturing jobs between 1998 and 2010, Bloomberg reported. This was due to companies looking to cheaper production and labor outside the US - in China in particular. In recent years, a cautious optimism had returned, as supply chain shocks from the pandemic pushed some companies to bring production back to the US. But frequent changes and uncertainty around where Trump's tariff policy is headed has 'got people spooked,' Andrew Anagnost, CEO of Autodesk, told the outlet. The company sells software used by manufacturers to design factories and improve processes. 'The current operating mode is just the death to long-term investment,' he said. While construction projects that were already underway are still going ahead, he added, confusion about the future is stalling new work. Some states are harder hit than others by tariff plans. Illinois, for example, will see a 16 percent increase in effective tariff rate on manufacturing inputs, according to the National Association of Manufacturers . This means that the total cost of importing goods used in production increases, which could lead to reduced profits, supply chain shocks or higher prices for consumers. Minnesota will also see a 16 percent increase, while Missouri is facing a 15 percent hike. The sense of uneasiness is particularly strong in the automotive industry, which is facing 50 percent tariffs on steel imports, a measure Trump announced at an appearance at Irvin Works , a steel plant outside the Pittsburgh city limits in West Mifflin, last month. Kenosha, Wisconsin-based company Snap-on provides tools used by car mechanics. Its CEO told Bloomberg that while the company can manage the impact of tariffs as it mostly serves US customers with domestically-made products, auto shop workers are 'confidence poor.' Nicholas Pinchuk said customers are worried about economic disruption even if they are fans of the President. 'They're still big Trump fans. This is Trump territory. They believe in where we're going, but they're worried that something's going to happen,' he said. Even companies that stand to benefit from tariffs are expressing anxiety about what the future might hold. Ross Widmoyer, CEO of textile manufacturing company Faribuault Mill, told the outlet he has been getting calls from retailers looking for a producer in the US. But he is still concerned that the trade wars could impact economic growth. 'If there's a slowdown in consumer spending, it doesn't matter if you're making products domestically or overseas, and that's not good for anybody,' Widmoyer, who is also chairman of the Minnesota Manufacturers' Council, said. The Trump administration has pointed to announcements from major companies of planned investment in the US as proof the policies are working.
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Panic in Trump heartland as tariffs choke investment
President Donald Trump's tariff policies are posing a threat to the revival of US manufacturing. A push for a 'Made in America' renaissance has been a key priority for the White House, with particular focus on the American Rust Belt. But companies are warning how turmoil and confusion around Trump's trade wars is slowing the progress made in reinvigorating American factories. The latest jobs report revealed that manufacturing jobs declined by 8,000 last month - the most this year so far. Anxiety is high in the Midwest, which remains home to the largest concentration of US manufacturing jobs — despite losing tens of thousands of workers to offshoring in the early 2000s. 'Overall, it is going to be a drag on the US economy,' Gus Faucher, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh, told Bloomberg. 'In particular, it's going to be a drag on the Midwestern economy.' US factory activity also contracted in May for the third month in a row. The Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin lost almost 2 million manufacturing jobs between 1998 and 2010, Bloomberg reported. This was due to companies looking to cheaper production and labor outside the US - in China in particular. In recent years, a cautious optimism had returned, as supply chain shocks from the pandemic pushed some companies to bring production back to the US. But frequent changes and uncertainty around where Trump's tariff policy is headed has 'got people spooked,' Andrew Anagnost, CEO of Autodesk, told the outlet. The company sells software used by manufacturers to design factories and improve processes. 'The current operating mode is just the death to long-term investment,' he said. While construction projects that were already underway are still going ahead, he added, confusion about the future is stalling new work. Some states are harder hit than others by tariff plans. Illinois, for example, will see a 16 percent increase in effective tariff rate on manufacturing inputs, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. This means that the total cost of importing goods used in production increases, which could lead to reduced profits, supply chain shocks or higher prices for consumers. Minnesota will also see a 16 percent increase, while Missouri is facing a 15 percent hike. The sense of uneasiness is particularly strong in the automotive industry, which is facing 50 percent tariffs on steel imports, a measure Trump announced at an appearance at Irvin Works, a steel plant outside the Pittsburgh city limits in West Mifflin, last month. Kenosha, Wisconsin-based company Snap-on provides tools used by car mechanics. Its CEO told Bloomberg that while the company can manage the impact of tariffs as it mostly serves US customers with domestically-made products, auto shop workers are 'confidence poor.' Nicholas Pinchuk said customers are worried about economic disruption even if they are fans of the President. 'They're still big Trump fans. This is Trump territory. They believe in where we're going, but they're worried that something's going to happen,' he said. Even companies that stand to benefit from tariffs are expressing anxiety about what the future might hold. Ross Widmoyer, CEO of textile manufacturing company Faribuault Mill, told the outlet he has been getting calls from retailers looking for a producer in the US. But he is still concerned that the trade wars could impact economic growth. 'If there's a slowdown in consumer spending, it doesn't matter if you're making products domestically or overseas, and that's not good for anybody,' Widmoyer, who is also chairman of the Minnesota Manufacturers' Council, said. The Trump administration has pointed to announcements from major companies of planned investment in the US as proof the policies are working. For example, Volkswagen's CEO confirmed last month that the company is looking to make a 'massive' US investment. Oliver Blume, VW's top boss, said he has been in contact with members of the Trump administration, including US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. His strategy to shield VW from steep tariff costs appears two-fold: maintain open communication with US officials and continue ramping up investment in American businesses.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Sun Belt Cities Are Becoming More Like Boston and San Francisco
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. For the past 50 years, Forsyth County, Georgia, has been one of the fastest-growing places in the United States. Today, the population of this Atlanta exurb, 45 miles northwest of the city, is 280,000—more than 10 times as many people as lived there just 40 years ago. It's emblematic of the Sun Belt boom that has shifted the nation's population geography south, into a string of fast-growing cities from Orlando to Phoenix. Forsyth County may be emblematic of the Sun Belt in another way: It has soured on growth. In the last election, one commissioner ran as 'big corporate developers' worst nightmare'; another trumpeted 'zero apartments approved.' This spring, county commissioners voted to establish a 180-day moratorium to freeze rezoning for residential development. 'Our roads are gridlocked, and our schools are full,' said a third commissioner, Mendy Moore. Similar growing pains are playing out in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, as residents grow irate over the loss of farmland, overworked sewer systems, crowded schools, and traffic. They are responding with impact fees, traffic studies, minimum lot sizes, and moratoriums, among other urban-planning tactics to slow down subdivision builders. 'Anti-Growth Fervor Grips US South,' Bloomberg wrote last year. The belt isn't buckling anymore. In a new working paper, economists Edward Glaeser and Joe Gyourko put some data behind the anecdata. They show that the rate of new home construction is collapsing in big metro areas like Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas, Las Vegas, Orlando, and Raleigh that have long been synonymous with sprawl and cheap housing—especially on the urban frontier. They are building housing at a pace much closer to those of Rust Belt cities like Detroit and coastal cities like Los Angeles these days. 'What we show is there is a sharp decline in the intensity of building in high-price, low-density housing tracts. What's that? That's the best suburbs,' Gyourko, a professor at Penn's Wharton School, told me. As sprawl dries up, prices are soaring: The paper notes that home prices in Miami, Tampa, and Phoenix have grown faster than those in metro New York City since 2000. Increasingly, housing affordability is a national problem, inspiring policy action in once cheap cities like Dallas and states like Montana. But problem solvers in those places may be up against a vicious cycle, in which rising prices attract well-heeled buyers who support policies that stop development—and cause prices to rise further. 'Sun Belt residents are starting to behave and stop development the way Bostonians did in the '80s and '90s,' Gyourko hypothesized. 'It's similar behavior but just starting much later. They're not [exactly like] coastal cities yet, but if this keeps going for another 20 years they will be, and housing will be very expensive.' From the 1970s to the 2000s, Sun Belt cities built on a massive scale—hundreds of thousands of new homes each decade. The sweet spot for those new homes, Glaeser and Gyourko show, was in 'high price, low density' tracts—places that were in high demand, relative to the metropolitan average, and very suburban in character. In the 1970s, for example, Atlanta built 88 percent of its new homes in such areas—areas like Forsyth County. Miami built 65 percent of homes in those parts of the region in the 1980s. Dallas and Phoenix peaked in the 1990s. Since then, the share of new homes getting built in those areas has fallen in all of those cities and others—evidence, the authors suggest, of a rising tide of not-in-my-backyard sentiment. And that's a smaller share of a much smaller pie: Overall, the housing stock in these cities is growing by less than 1 percent a year, a fraction of the pace of decades past. Of course there are other possibilities. Nationally, construction has not recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. The accompanying mortgage finance crackdown boxed lower-income buyers out of the market. There may be geographical and temporal limits to desire in sprawl, points so far from the metropolitan center of gravity that nobody wants to live there. And then there is the shift toward demand for more housing in closer-in, denser neighborhoods, which command high per-square-foot prices and have long been starved for development. But the data suggest that the sprawl decline began before the financial crisis. And while a comb of tall apartment buildings on Miami's Biscayne Bay waterfront in Brickell might reflect increased demand for urban living, there may be a push factor there—development is going where development can go. In some quarters, this will be taken as good news. In addition to its environmental costs, sprawl's reputation for affordability is undermined by the enormous transportation expenses that come along with living miles from schools, shops, and jobs. If you include the obligation that every adult in the household own, fuel, maintain, and insure a car, supposedly affordable cities like Houston can wind up being more expensive than cities like New York, by some measures. Still, what construction has shifted to higher-density areas hasn't been enough to offset sprawl's decline, and rising home prices reflect that. In April, Conor Dougherty wrote a story for the New York Times Magazine questioning the conventional wisdom of anti-sprawl, arguing that exurban development has been a vital escape valve for the nation's failure to build enough infill housing. His focus was on Princeton, Texas, 43 miles from Dallas, where the population has more than doubled since the pandemic, to 37,000 last year. In May, the Census Bureau dubbed Princeton the fastest-growing city in the country. But it is also a poster child for the limits of sprawl. Last year, Princeton passed a moratorium on new residential development. The city staff said: 'The city's water, wastewater and roadway infrastructure is operating at, near, or beyond capacity.' Princeton, Texas, is full. Keep moving.
