Marty Bell Author Archives

Hello again. I’ve been invited to drop in for a visit, like the retired old baseball player asked to throw out the first pitch and then turn the mound over to a younger, stronger arm. 

Working with this organization for 11 years, I have devoted a good deal of my time addressing the needs of older adults along with many of you.

The future seems to have arrived on our doorstep. Robots have been employed to construct multifamily homes. If you’re a SciFi fan, you no longer have to go to the movies, you can visit a prefab housing factory instead.

Madi Ford is listening. As you will read in this month’s Talking Heads interview (p. 6), her team at MidCity Financial includes a director of community engagement, as well as additional staff committed to listening to the residents and to neighbors.

In these darkest of times, this month’s Tax Credit Advisor devotes our pages to hope.

Our original game plan for May was to highlight case studies of the variety of options available in Private Activity Bonds. But this issue, like all of our lives, has been disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis. Private activity might also be the best description of our daily routines now as so many of us are restricted to our homes.

As our staff prepares this issue to go to press, we are not working side by side in our downtown DC offices as we usually do but rather each teleworking from our own homes.

It’s spring training time, when everyone is optimistic and hopes they can win the World Series.

Am I missing something or is the current campaign-driven conversation about healthcare totally focused on costs? Limiting the healthcare debate to dollars and cents makes no sense.

There is a lot of noise both in the air and on the air. A lot of loud and fast talking and a fear of listening. I like to view our magazine as a thoughtful sanctuary from the fracas, a rest stop where you can quietly and patiently mull over ideas, innovations and transactions.

Today, just as we finish editing this issue, a letter with signatures representing 1,000 organizations and companies has been delivered to the chairs of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee urging for extension of the New Markets Tax Credit program, which is due to expire at the end of this year.

A recent article on the Bisnow East Coast website reported that, according to a survey by the Associated General Contractors of America, “Across the U.S., 43 percent of construction firms reported that their costs had been higher than anticipated due to labor shortages, while 44 percent reported having to lengthen project timelines because of the issue.”