[Mpls] Basim Sabri

[James Graham]

On the surface Basim Sabri sounds reasonable and genuinely sincere in his wish that Ventura Village continue its good work.  I would be thanking him if he had not bragged that he had already taken over two other neighborhoods and Ventura Village would be the third. He also stated that he was a fighter and had never failed when he decided to take over a neighborhood.  This confidence might be questioned if three other neighborhoods had not made contact with us the next day to inquire how we had managed to temporarily stave off such an attempt, and to ask advice on how they might handle a similar situation. I must admit that I personally was not aware that Basim posed such a threat.  I am aware that he believes he was responsible for the Central takeover but I am not sure of the identity of the second neighborhood. Could someone help me out with identifying the other neighborhood he referred to?  I am sure Mr. Sabri "noticed that there was some racial tension while at the meeting".  Mr. Sabri and his partners had been successful in their attempts to create it.  The disrespect shown by Mr. Sabri's friends to some of the black residents of Ventura Village who were opposed to his plans is deplorable. Fortunately the Ventura Village membership made up of Native Americans, African Americans, and European Americans and yes, even Arab Americans were united in their awareness of what Sabri and friends were attempting.  Mr. Sabri is to be commended in this regard; he certainly was able to bring a bunch of different ethnic "Americans" together in opposition to him.  Ventura Village is proud of all the diverse individuals that make up our community family and proud of all who work and fight together to make our community a better place to live and raise all of our families.  Outsiders may become confused when viewing our many colors and try to seek advantage, but in their shortsightedness they fail to realize that the many seperate colors they see are in reality united to form a quilt of community that keeps us all warm  Mr. Sabri may be ignorant of the fact that in Ventura Village we believe our residents should decide what our needs are.  After Mr. Sabri and his friends left the meeting Ventura Village continued its "good work" by passing a motion to have the appropriate committee work with PPL to design a project for the Franklin-Chicago site that would meet the needs of the community and is in keeping with Ventura Village's ongoing comprehensive plan to create affordable housing in the neighborhood.  Ventura Village has a history of taking the development plans of area developers and reshaping them to better fit the needs of our community.  Ventura Village is very proud of the way responsible developers have included neighborhood input into the developments within our neighborhood.  Eagles Wings, a project of Overcomers Ministry, was opened this past year. This Monday Alliance Housing will break ground on Portland-Village.  In the fall American Indian Housing Community Development Corporation will start work on Many Rivers, and Pokagama. Next year a consortium oh CCHT, Hope, Bobby Williams and the Tharp family will start the Franklin Portland Gateway Project.  These projects represent more than 400 units of affordable housing approved and worked on by Ventura Village, and in which the developers included the neighborhood into the design and planning of.  Ventura Village has fought a solitary fight to create the Zoning changes that would allow for thousands of additional affordable units of accessory housing on empty lots, and in the form of Carriage Houses behind existing houses. These changes would benefit all the inner city of Minneapolis and make affordable housing, and affordable home ownership more available for all people. Not a select few.  In conclusion a quote from the "Words of Wisdom": It is wise to look in the basket before putting ones hand into it.  Ventura means Good Luck and Happiness, so good luck and happiness to you. Jim Graham