Out of the mouths of babes or those who are relatively new to town! > > First of all, no place else I've lived held landlords > accountable for the activities of their residents > unless if there was a clear demonstration of intent to > enable criminal activity.
Thing of Phil Hartman in a guest appearance on the "Simpsons". Welcome to the Mill city. You can't quite place blame where you want to? Can't figure out what's wrong? One party town, got you down? Can't pin the tail on the donkey for politically in-correct reasons? Well come to Mpls. We've a fall guy like you haven't seen since Nixon left office. We blame the landlord. This all encompassing bad guy has worse press then the big bad wolf. He's to male, white, has more money then most of his tenants, might live in the suburbs. Drives a truck or luxury car. He's such an obvious target. It's easier then shooting fish in a barrel. Crime? Garbage in the streets? Drugs? Schools failing? -You name it, we got a program based on landlord hate to assuage your anguish. Or pass the blame. -We've got executive directors of all stripes who are hungry for funding. -We have so many government agencies trying to "solve the housing shortage" it makes other wars on ________ look timid. > Secondly, some other places I've lived it was illegal > to discriminate in housing on the basis of one's > history with the criminal justice or public assistance > systems. This type of discrimination seems to be > encouraged by the system we have here. There appears > to be far less of the opinion that if someone has the > done the time for the crime that they've paid their > debt to society and should not be subjected to further > punishment. Minnesota leads the nation in non-incarceration punishment. Hennipen county and the Minneapple receive the disproportionate share of the criminals. > > There appears to be a noxious classism underlying the > idea that people who rent need to have their > activities monitored by their landlord as if all > rental properties are really minimum security prisons > to contain the power and minorities. Sad but true. Phillips, Hawthorne, Jordan fit that description. Take a look at CCP Safe handouts. A little over one third of the latest brochure shows how you can keep an eye on those renters next door. How to call the police up and make life hell for the tenants and the landlords. > > Note that these issues are unlikely to be a problem > for those who can afford more expensive apartments in > the community. Class cleansing. Not just the housing, but the smelly factory jobs and those ugly looking places where they fix their cars. > Thanks for the rant and the show. Craig Miller Former Mpls Landlord Living in Rogers > David Strand > Loring Park TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
