After the publication yesterday in the Star Tribune of Jim Graham's letter to the editor claiming that "Kallenbach worked with the City Council to create thousands of affordable housing units in Minneapolis, without the cost of new infrastructure," people have raised the question on and off this list, what was Graham talking about? An obvious reaction was that Graham was making it up becuase there have not been thousands of affordable housing units created in Minneapolis within the past decade.
After speaking with a few reliable sources, however, i think i have the answer: Kallenbach has supported, or Graham has good reason to expect that Kallenbach will support Graham's carriage house proposal. I will reporting the information that i obtained, and hopefully some people more familiar with the goings on in Ventura Village can shed more light. It is my understanding that at Graham's urging, the city council changed the zoning regulations to allow the creation or use of carriage houses for housing. It is also my understanding that there are currently more than $600,000 in NRP funds set aside for carriage houses, and that there is a pending request to the Met Council for more funds. I was told that Jim Graham has a company called National Housing Authority Corporation which is set up to build carriage houses. This business is indeed listed with the secretary of state with Jim Graham as the registered agent: http://da.sos.state.mn.us/minnesota/corp_inquiry/corp_inquiry-entity.asp?:nf iling_number=11M-373&entity_type_id=DC&:Nsession_id=&:Ndocument_number=0&fil ename=-891671025.txt&pgcurrent=6&:Norder_item_type_id=10&:Ssearch_Parm=natio nal+housing+authority In other words, Jim Graham hopes that his own carriage house proposal will lead to "thousands of units" (by his own description. He apparently hopes to make hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars - just from public money. Graham has apparently determined that Kallenbach is his most reliable government conduit to make sure that Graham financially benefits. The merits of the carriage house proposal are not intended to be addressed in this post. The process by which a candidate for elected office might be used for a particular person's enrichment raises questions that i hope others can help address. Jordan Kushner Neighbor toWard 6 _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
