Mr. Jacobsen and I seem to have opposing views of the success of the NRP in Whittier.
When I moved to Whittier in 1991, I had five crack houses actively operating on my block. The block where the Whittier school sits now was a crack haven and the park building was the number one drug dealing depot in Minneapolis according to the Minneapolis police. My house was worth $55,000. The average length of time it took to sell a house in this neighborhood was over two years. The CARE (Communities and Resource Exchange) program came in to the neighborhood. That was the precursor to the NRP back then. We would meet monthly and sometimes weekly or daily with just about anyone we thought might care. We tracked our problem properties by pages. When I was the chair of community safety there were at least 8 pages of problem properties. And yes, I too hated so many meetings. But I hated the thought of being robbed or shot worse so I kept going. The neighborhood did it's NRP plan. Things started to happen. Before we knew it, crack houses were being rehabbed, the school was built, the park was renovated and the crack dealers left, Nicollet Ave. got a facelift, businesses got fix-up money, rental properties were rehabbed, new affordable family housing cooperatives were built. 11 years later my block has no crack houses, there is no list of problem properties and my house is worth $190,000 and just turned 100 years old. Houses are selling now in this neighborhood in less than a month. For all this effort the Whittier Alliance spent less than 7% of the neighborhoods total NRP allocation on administration over an 11 year period. I would be the first to admit that there was tension among the volunteers and between volunteers and staff at times. In a neighborhood with our diversity and the many challenges that faced us, we did not always hold hands and sing when the meeting was over. I think the meeting thing can be a real drag, but, we neighborhood folk haven't yet found the technology to funnel the information through your T.V. so you can use your remote to participate. Until then, we will continue to hold meetings, focus groups, festivals, block club meetings, McGruff parades, art fairs, plantings, bike rides, garbage clean-ups, grafitti cleans, litter pick-ups and other social and educational events. We will flyer, mail, put adds in newspapers, print newsletters, do surveys, make phone calls, send e-mails and knock on the door in attempts to get you information and get your opinion. If you have a better way of doing all this work, I for one would like to hear it. In the meantime, the 5,000+ FREE workers the NRP program has mobilized on behalf of this city will just keep moving forward. Barb Lickness Whittier ===== "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! http://greetings.yahoo.com _______________________________________ 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
