>From Basim's post: "My concern is that VV bylaws are being violated and that clearly the MN statute 405 (which just passed the Senate and the House) is being violated. Don't get me wrong, I do believe there are a good number of people on the VV board who are honest, open-minded and hardworking. I simply believe that Mr. and Mrs. Graham did not act or conduct the voting process properly, nor were they welcoming to the rest of the community, especially the minorities and immigrants. "I will personally continue my efforts to stop the discrimination and violation of open meeting laws in any neighborhood in the city. I believe there are exclusions of certain members within different neighborhoods in the city without cause and that this type of action needs to change. Coincidentally, it reminds me of Central Neighborhood one year ago." Political turf wars are not new - just highly noticeable in the new information age. I haven't seen the final text of the bill Basim refers to, but I can tell you that well-understood ground rules would have saved us a lot of time and trouble in Whittier years back when race and income battlelines were sharply drawn on occasion. Two terms come to mind: "succession migration" - routine in first arrival neighborhoods in every urban area, not just near-south Minneapolis - and "revolution of rising expectations" - an entirely predictable outcome of several years of increasingly significant "bottom-up" neighborhood planning under NRP. I believe Basim Sabri is right on the money here and I appreciate the gesture he makes in sharing his impressions with us. He is one of us. So is Jim Graham one of us, and I also appreciate Jim's contributions even if I think he's on an unfortunate path at this juncture. Both of these fellows are strong personalities and we listmembers are privileged to be privy to their thinking. The Ventura Village posts signal a robust development in the nature of our social contracts hereabouts, and I'm glad the Legislature has stepped in to mediate the process. Small credit goes to the city's institutions, whose timid referees often fail to level the playing field or, historically, simply side with established players and give the lie to democratic process in fact if not in law. Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
