If you want to do everyone a favor, including the impoverished, lower-class, maybe mobilizing to pass a city ordinance that caps the number of rental properties by neighborhood?
If it is truly society's goal (in the U.S.), to afford equal oppotunity, WHY NOT force every neighborhood to accept at least some of the down-trodden?
North MPLS is infamous in its reputation as a place full of crime, and it is so primarily not because of the homeowners, or the police, but because the housing stock values allowed numerous, speculative absentee landlords to come-in, buy-up property and rent-it out to anyone that could qualify for government aid. You can debate the "finer points" all you want, but in essence, this is what has happened.
By lumping impoverished minorities together into small areas like the west bank and the northside, we, as a society, regardless of all our other "well-intended" actions are continuing the cycle.
So go ahead and harp about the police, the lack of responsivness from City Hall, or anything else you want to. Until everyone decides that "keeping" impoverished people contained isn't in their long-term, best interests, nothing will change.
Personally, I have nothing but contempt for individuals that live in nice, middle-class neighborhoods that are working as "crusaders" against issues such as police brutality. Drive by my house 24/7 and see what I have to contend with, then drive into one of the more affluent neighborhoods, such as Bryn Mawr, or Kenwood and see what they have to contend with. As I write this, at the end of my block, there are 5-6 individuals (standing on the corner) selling drugs, and another 6-8 indivduals on the front porch of an abandoned house gambling. I make roughly 12-15 calls/week to 911 on this activity. It still occurs 24/7. Who's being brutalized?
Dennis Plante
Jordan
Dennis Plante
Jordan
>From: "basia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [Mpls] Fw: Gentrification? Indeed!
>Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 17:34:24 -0500
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "basia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 4:05 PM
>Subject: Gentrification? Indeed!
>
>
> > Megan, Megan, Megan..........
> >
> > You live in Bryn Mawr, that explains your idealism. Did you know the West
> > Bank has a 46% poverty rate and only 10% of our housing is owner occupied
>?
> > Give me a break! The crimes are not being reported because the police are
> > afraid of being sued for identifying the "immigrants" that are beating,
>and
> > robbing people weekly, stealing and breaking into cars at lightning speed.
> > We had 7 auto break ins on 1 block over one weekend this month! Are you
> > aware of the riot about 6 weeks ago with about 40 nice little immigrant
>boys
> > in front of Palmers' bar? They were armed with tire irons and 2 x 4's.
> > They scattered to the high rises before the police arrived, but not before
> > an employee of Palmers was hospitalized with head injuries. You can bet
>if
> > it had happened in Bryn Mawr it would have been on television! My
>neighbors
> > are too PC to report many of the crimes. The rest of the neighhood
>doesn't
> > speak English and don't trust the police, and/or don't want to offend
>their
> > neighbors who are committing the crimes!
> > I wish we were just a little bit gentrified, nothing like a few long time
> > homeowners to help keep crime down. You should spend a month in my "hood"
> > instead of judging our crime rate as racist/anti-immigrant from your nice,
> > little, low crime, mostly homestead, mostly white "in the city suburb"!
> > Sending thousands of non-English speaking poor people to my little
> > neighborhood was not a good idea. A concentration of poverty, combined
>with
> > major cultural and languages differences was a foolish and perhaps
>criminal
> > thing to do, remember the Hollman Decree? Some of us are thinking a
>Federal
> > suit may be a solution to our problem.
> >
> > Barbara Murray
> > Riverside Park
> > section 8 property manager
> > SAFE block leader for 10 years
> > & my neighborhood has gone to hell in the last 5 years!
> >
>
>
>TEMPORARY REMINDER:
>1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
>2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
>
>________________________________
>
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