I liken this issue to saying that we should exclude (non-student) renters from neighborhood organizations because hey, they are transient populations too....You know...its really easy to visualize your average renter moving every 3 or 4 years...so why not treat them as second class citizens too while were at it.
Im sorry, but this is not just rhetoric. I take this as a stab, and I take it to heart.
Dont get me wrong it IS INDEED a City Council issue. I could tell you that while I am no longer a full time student, when I was I did pay attention to City Issues and what went on in my ward.
I know neal is backing Zerby in this election, but Im really ticked off at his presumption that we need not be spending time discussing this issue. In some ways he may be right, because there arent that many people speaking out on this issue besides me. I also think that he is attempting to take the importance away from the issue by trying to say that it is not something the City Council can control.
In fact...the city council can have a say in any issue addressed to them, if they so choose to listen. I dont think Paul Zerby really cares about student issues...and that is why it seems easy for him to submit an unpopular idea (excluding groups from his elite club) to this list for general consumption. I dont know if Cam Gordon is the answer...but hey...thats the nature of politics these days...if you dont know the guy your voting for...you pick based on a gut feeling of what you like versus what you dont like.
And I havent heard much from Cam that was easy to disagree with. I cannot say the same for Zerby.
Might I remind you that every year when the U of M begins classes...the size of the City of Minneapolis grows by at least (this is a very conservative number i would guess since the total enrollment of the school is closer to 50,000) 10,000 residents. If you do the math, that means that 1 in 40 people in the City at any given time is a U of M student...I dont even know how many other students are in this town, but my point is that we (Youth) are a huge portion of the people in this City, and I want my vote to go to somebody that is not going to shut me out of his loop.
Robb Clarksen
Marcy
In a message dated 11/3/2001 9:44:56 AM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 07:18:46 EST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Mpls] College students in neighborhood associations?
In the Second Ward we seem to need to prioritize campaign topics more effectively. Why is so much time is being spent discussing student membership in
neighborhood associations such as the Prospect Park and East River Road
Improvement Association (PPERRIA)? Is this really an issue that the Minneapolis
City Council can regulate? As a PPERRIA member (not always a "good" one), the only threat that I can envision in having students belonging to PPERRIA would be that they might try to hold a PPERRIA kegger on Tower Hill and get us all busted. (That whole scenario might be kind of fun at that!)
Actually, I think that college students can be energetic, effective agents for change and I believe that Minneapolis City Council Candidate Paul Zerby would agree with me. But I think that whether or not students belong to neighborhood organizations is not a City Council issue. And while Paul Zerby and I don't seem to agree on all of the issues, I believe that his forthright nature supplants any considerations of political expediency.
If the question of student membership in neighborhood associations is the only issue that Cam Gordon supporters can come up with in regard to trying to gain votes on Paul Zerby, we might as well go to the polls tomorrow. I'm personally convinced that Paul Zerby will support students fairly and equitably when he becomes the Second Ward Council Member. But, why are we spending
time discussing issues that are not really relevant to governing this city? I think that City Hall is in pretty bad shape and that we had better become effective in addressing our concerns exclusively in that regard. Otherwise
we will be playing into the hands of the
advocates of tax inclement financing and
others who can't seem to stop trying to get
into our pockets for their own gain and do we
really want that?
Neal E. Simons
Prospect Park
