DL Open Thread: Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Wilmington City Council ‘Compromises’ On Housing Funds.  ‘Democrat’ James Spadola shows his true colors:

After weeks of debate over how Wilmington should spend its money to address affordable housing, the City Council passed a compromise budget that largely preserved Mayor John Carney’s plan to incentivize development over short-term rental assistance.

The budget included an $8.4 million appropriation to subsidize developers who build affordable housing. It also included $2 million to help smaller developers acquire vacant lots in the city, and $1.5 million dedicated for grants to housing nonprofits to provide immediate assistance for renters.

The City Council agreed on those final figures after a tense back-and forth during a Thursday meeting. While council members appeared to agree on the goals of fewer evictions, more affordable homes and less housing instability, many disagreed on how to get there.

Also during the meeting’s public comment period, more than 30 residents spoke, with most urging the body to support Councilwoman Christian Willauer’s plan to appropriate additional dollars for rental assistance and support for homelessness.

“Its almost depressing that we don’t have the will to do some of the things that were talked about during public comment,” Council President Trippi Congo said during the meeting.

No ‘almost’ about it.

At the core of the debate Thursday were competing housing proposals brought forth by Willauer and Carney.

Proposed earlier this month, Willauer’s would have redirected city money to programs like rental assistance, eviction settlement support and a housing trust.

The proposal came in response to Carney’s initial plan to use $20 million from the city’s tax stabilization fund for affordable housing, with most of the dollars targeted for developer subsidies to help build about 200 affordable homes.

But during negotiations with the City Council prior to Thursday’s meeting, the mayor revised his proposal down to a $11.8 million package, reducing the developer subsidy pool to just over $8 million.

The new plan would create about 100 units of affordable housing, Carney’s spokeswoman Caroline Klinger said. It also would appropriate $250,000 for a housing block grant aimed at immediate services.

Still, council members Willauer, Congo, Shane Darby and Coby Owens urged their colleagues to consider that their initiative struck a balance between immediate assistance and long-term housing. They also argued the amount Carney’s plan would allocate to a housing block grant would not be enough to fund every program.

“If the city goes and spends all our money on something that doesn’t involve helping people right now. We’re not going to have the money available to help people,” Willauer said.

On the other side of the debate, council members James Spadola, Latitia Bracy, Yolanda McCoy and Zanthia Oliver argued that it didn’t make sense to allocate money to programs that the council hadn’t yet passed.

“It seems inappropriate to put this forward until these ordinances are actually passed and signed into law,” Spadola said.

Council ultimately struck down Willauer’s amendment in a narrow 6 to 7 vote.

The body instead passed a counter floor amendment, introduced by Owens to add about $1.5 million to the housing block grant to increase funding going toward immediate services.

The amendment narrowly made it through by a 7-6 vote.

 

“Peace Is Bustin’ Out All O-o-ver”. (Hammerstein was as ‘corny as Kansas in August’. But, I digress.)  From the NYTimes:

American military forces conducted what U.S. Central Command said were “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran on Monday “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.”

The targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats trying to place mines, Capt. Tim Hawkins, a Central Command spokesman, said in a statement.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated U.S. warnings that the Strait of Hormuz must be reopened “one way or the other” when asked by a reporter about the U.S. strikes on Iran. “The straits have to be open, they’re going to be open,” he said during a trip to India. “What’s happening there is unlawful, it’s illegal, it’s unsustainable for the world, it’s unacceptable.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said on Tuesday that Iran’s war with the United States, in which Tehran repeatedly struck at American bases in the Gulf, meant U.S. military sites were no longer safe in the region. “The hands of time do not turn backward, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases,” he wrote in a statement released to commemorate the start of Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. “America, in addition to no longer having a safe place for aggression and military bases in the region, is moving further away from its former status day by day.”

The Israeli military on Tuesday ordered people in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, one of the largest urban centers in the area, to evacuate and signaled that airstrikes were imminent. The warning was issued as Israel has intensified its bombardement of targets in Lebanon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he had ordered the military to “increase the blows” against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group. Nabatieh was home to tens of thousands of people before the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in Lebanon, though many have fled the city since the fighting started.

Israel has stepped up strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the country’s military to “increase the blows” against Hezbollah, citing the group’s drone attacks against Israeli targets. An Israeli strike overnight in the eastern Lebanese town of Mashghara killed 12 people, according to Lebanon’s state-run news agency. The country’s health ministry has not yet confirmed the toll.

One thing is certain: Trump manipulated his stock trading in order to take advantage of the latest developments.  His war strategy might as well be described as ‘pump and dump’.

ICE Fascism In New Jersey:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Monday used pepper-spray balls on a crowd of protesters outside Delaney Hall, a privately-run immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, apparently injuring Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.).

“What we saw here is unfortunately just what we see all over the country,” Kim told NJ.com.

The Democratic lawmaker was reportedly attempting to reach an agreement with the officers on Monday to scale down their presence and have immigration advocates, rather than armed ICE agents, inspect any vehicles leaving the facility to check if detainees were inside.

“I ran up and put myself between the ICE officers and the crowd, and that’s when they started to shoot at us with the pepper balls — as well as using the pepper spray — and were tackling people,” Kim told the outlet, noting that his hand “hurts a lot” but that this is “not about me.”

The senator added, “I just wanted to try to keep people safe.”

Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs Lauren Bis on Monday told CNN there is “NO hunger strike” and “NO subprime conditions” inside Delaney Hall, adding “sanctuary politicians” like Kim “should be thanking ICE” for keeping “rapists, murderers, pedophiles and drug traffickers” detained.

What do you want to talk about?