[Mpls] This Week in The Minneapolis Observer

[craig]

T H E M I N N E A P O L I S O B S E R V E R
A Weekly Digest of All Things Minneapolitan
Vol. 1, No. 11
October 29, 2001

**********************************************************

THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER:
* A Downtown Affordable Housing Tour
* Faint Praise from the Star Tribune
* The City's Safest Neighborhoods
* Islam Uncensored
* Plus: Sharing water with St. Paul, flagging patriotism, rooftop vigil for voting, and sort of a mayoral endorsement.

(This is a preview issue of The Minneapolis Observer. To subscribe to the full-text version, e-mail your request to [EMAIL PROTECTED])

**********************************************************

APARTMENT TOUR HIGHLIGHTS HOUSING CRISIS
Protesters toured three tax-subsidized housing projects in the Warehouse District on Oct. 20 to make a point about city housing priorities.

FAINT PRAISE
Throughout its recent marathon series of local political endorsements, the Star Tribune has done its best to speak nicely of even those candidates that have, in the humble opinion of its editorial board, no business running for office.

RIVERVIEW DEVELOPMENT STIRS CONTROVERSY
Earlier this month, the Minneapolis Planning Commission approved a rezoning request from Tim Baylor, who's proposing a townhouse and condo development on the site of the Riverview Supper Club. The move was expected to clear the way for the controversial project, but has simply turned up the heat.

TWIN CITIES MAY SHARE WATER
The City Council on October 12 voted to seek proposals to study a water connection between St. Paul and Minneapolis. Neither city has a back-up water supply, according to Morgan Holle and Brent Killackey in the Southwest Journal (www.swjournal.com), but "it has taken 10 years to get St. Paul to come to the table" and agree to share the costs of the study, Council Member Dore Mead said.

COUNCIL MAY REQUIRE BARS AND RESTAURANTS TO START CARDING PATRONS
The City Council is considering a proposal that would make it mandatory for restaurants and bars serving alcohol to check patron's identifications and comply with server training requirements.

UP ON THE ROOF
Clarence Hightower, president and CEO of the Minnesota Urban League, will conduct a "vigil for voting" from the roof of the Glover-Sudduth Center beginning Monday, Nov. 5.

IS DOWNTOWN PATRIOTISM FLAGGING?
Downtown Minneapolis is looking a tad bit unpatriotic since we went to war, writes Charlie Cassserly in Skyway News (www.skywaynews.net). "If Downtown is 'everybody's neighborhood,' as politicians are wont to say, why aren't our flags flying from every light pole downtown? I am shocked they aren't. Now is when we need them the most."


SAFE AND SORRY
The top five (actually 12) safest neighborhoods in September, based on the number of reported crimes:
1. Page
2. (tie) Sumner Glenwood, West Calhoun
3. (tie) Kenny, Nicollet Island, Bryn Mawr
4. (tie) Beltrami, East Harriet, Morris Park
5. (tie) Armatage, Fulton, Regina

The five neighborhoods with the most reported crime in September:
1. Downtown West
2. Whittier
3. Longfellow
4. Ventura Village
5. Elliot Park

MORE BANG FOR THE BUCK
The Minnesota Twins will bring no championship home this season, but they do have one claim to fame after this baseball season: They did more with less than anyone else.

ISLAM UNCENSORED
The Islamic Resource Group is sponsoring a day-long conference on Islam on Saturday, Nov. 3 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Mondale Hall on the University of Minnesota's West Bank campus. The conference will feature presentations, food, and a bazaar, and is free and open to the public. Call 651/735-3651 for more information.

BACK IN THE DAY
30 Years Ago This Week
"The chief is absolutely right. The department is too fat. It's more than just a matter of appearance. To be truthful, our work was beginning to suffer. Take the burglary division. Our crime rate figure there, while good, should be even better. Our guys have never been outwitted. But some of them have been badly outrun."
--Anonymous detective on the Police Department's new weight loss campaign
Minneapolis Star
November 2, 1971

IT'S JUST MY OPINION, BUT . . .
This candidate endorsement business is a little bit phony. The daily newspapers make a big show of interviewing candidates, measuring their qualifications and quirks (see "Faint Praise" above), but in the end nobody can predict with any certainty how effective any candidate will be once in office. So, at the risk of appearing capricious and irrational, I will attempt to explain why I'm throwing my vote to R.T. Rybak for mayor.
I have been a longtime supporter of Sharon Sayles Belton. During my tenure as president of the Bryant Neighborhood Organization, I was impressed by her strong connection to the people in the neighborhoods, her commitment to balance the needs of regular folks with the complicated demands of "downtown" power-brokers. I disagreed completely with her appointment of Rebecca Yanisch to head the MCDA and scratched my head over her embrace of CODEFOR, but chalked it all up to City Hall politics and public relations.
In the last four years, though, the mayor has grown increasingly distant from her constituency, ignoring the looming affordable housing crisis, giving the police free rein to abuse civil rights, and throwing hundreds of millions of dollars of subsidies into downtown projects. During the presidential campaign, it appeared she was simply biding her time at City Hall until the new Gore Administration found a high-level job for her in Washington.
She is, as the Star Tribune rightly points out in its editorial endorsing her re-election, far more qualified to lead the city than her opponent. She's been in City Hall for the better part of 20 years, after all. She understands how it all works. And for anyone interested in the economic health of downtown, the mayor has clearly done the job.
But the city has lost a part of its soul during the last eight years, I think. Downtown is bustling, but it increasingly feels fake to me. Maybe it's all the chain restaurants and faux glitz on Hennepin Avenue; maybe it's the disappearance of Jitters and The Times and a dozen other quirky places on Nicollet that fell to the wrecking ball so we could put up another office building and a Target store.
Will Rybak restore the city to whatever it is I'm pining for? Will he save the neighborhoods, build affordable housing, end racial profiling, and neutralize the police state? Who can know? His resume inspires little confidence. Yet, he seems more committed to the city than to a political career. I'm told he has smart, capable people who can implement his vision. And he will certainly navigate the swirling waters of a new City Council much more effectively than the mayor, for whom Jackie Cherryhomes' departure as Council president represents a political sea change.
Rybak comes to this job with few qualifications besides his apparent willingness to tackle any job that looks interesting and challenging. He's often been compared to St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, who also had never held elected office before coming to City Hall. But the more apt comparison may be with Senator Paul Wellstone, whose brashness and audacity somehow bought him a ticket from Carleton College to the U.S. Capital. And Wellstone has become a fairly effective senator.
So, as with any new candidate, it's pretty much a roll of the dice. Some will rise to the occasion, others will wilt under the pressure. I'm not at all sure how Rybak will perform. But I am pretty sure what I'd be getting from a third term with Sayles Belton, and it's not nearly enough.

**********************************************************
The Minneapolis Observer is published 48 times/year by Independent Media, L.L.C. �2001 Independent Media, 4152 Snelling Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55406; www.mplsobserver.com. No part of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Independent Media. Subscriptions: $12/yr. To unsubscribe, send us an e-mail ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and we'll get you off the list and refund the unused portion of your subscription.

Editor: Craig Cox
Associate Editor: Sharon Parker
Contributing writers: Mark Engebretson, Leo Mezzrow.
Research assistance: Martin and Nora Cox