Greg Luce says, "...just a few blocks from Eat Street, renovation on an older Victorian building will ultimately displace four tenants of color (out of the five occupied units)."
Dave says: I'm trying to figure out what your philosophy regarding home and building improvement is. On the one hand you bring rent escrow actions for a living, and on the other you are critical of people like me who buy houses in the inner city and improve them. When are improvements to the city's housing stock a good thing and when are they a bad thing? Is it "gentrification" (i.e. BAD) any time a a middle class person of norwegian descent like me moves into a run down house in the 'hood and fixes it up? Is it simply "home improvement" (i.e. GOOD) anytime low income minorities get the their rental property improved? Is that your philosophy? I'm also trying to figure out your beliefs on how Minneapolis should look demographically. If I've heard you correctly through your post over the last few months, your goal is to preserve the post war demographic patterns of having high concentrations of poor and minorities in inner city neighborhoods like the one you work in. Related to that, you apparently believe the current mix of rental and owner occupied housing in the inner city should be preserved. I disagree. First, I don't think cities, including Minneapolis, should demographically look like donoughts (i.e. wealth on the outside and a "hole" of poverty in the middle). Second, I think that the best way to END poverty is to provide home ownership opportunties, particularly in the inner city. For example, some in the non-profit world decry developments like Portland Place because they didn't "perserve affordablity." But on the other hand, the first purchasers of those homes built wealth which will allow them to start businesses, send their kids to college, etc. That's the American dream. That's a few less poor people, right? That's what we want, right? The point is, the person who fixes up that Victorian off of Eat Street is also likely bootstrapping him or her self to the middle class. And that's a good thing. Dave Harstad Whittier __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Sports - live college hoops coverage http://sports.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
