The Urban Ventures folks have prevailed and gotten the Colin Powell Youth Center in the bonding bill. This is one project that many in the Central Neighborhood do not want. Urban Ventures portrays Central as:
"Urban Ventures serves the Central and Phillips neighborhoods of south central Minneapolis. The area has the highest crime rates in the metropolitan area, and is plagued with prostitution, drugs and alcohol dependency, father absence and violence." Urban Ventures is very good at portraying Central as a crime ridden ghetto. I have lived in Central for more than 10 years. In my opinion, having Art Erickson and Urban Ventures portray the neighborhood in this manner is exploiting the fears and misperceptions of suburbanites about the city in the worst ways to make money for Urban Ventures. It does not help the Central Neighborhood to be portrayed in this way. Instead, what would be good is to portray the neighborhood as a place where suburbanites who are sick of long commutes into the city, might want to move to, rather than a place to give money to Urban Ventures to assuage their white guilt. There have not been line item vetos coming out of the governor's office yet. This Colin Powell Youth Center is prime veto bait. Please help the people who live in Central, and call Ventura's office (651-266-3391) and tell him to Veto the Colin Powell Youth Center. We do not need an organization that promotes this type of "Leadership Development": The goal of Leadership Development is to develop students who by their senior year in high school are so committed to Jesus Christ that they can survive and thrive in any environment. Democrats, such as County Commissioner, Peter McLaughlin who have been major boosters of this boondoggle should also be called to let them know in no uncertain terms that this is not the type of thing the taxpayers should be required to support. I've talked with Lou at Senator Berglin's office. Lou told me that the problems and issues with Urban Ventures were brought to Berglin's attention after the Bonding bill included funding for this boondoggle. I told Lou that people in the neighborhood were not aware that the state was planning on funding this boondoggle. Lou also mentioned as fact that Urban Ventures has an openly gay board member, and an openly gay employee. Those people ought to be out at the legislature testifying on the bills behalf. If that's the case, then why did UV refuse to return calls from Lavender asking them to comment? When I asked UV President Art Erickson about these issues, the silence was telling. He would not answer the question. Recall that Basim Sabri has been one of the funders of Urban Ventures. Sabri was thanked in their latest newsletter (see post by David Piehl on Minneapolis Issues for more). Also, recall that Urban Ventures (specifically Art Erickson and Ralph Bruins) were the ones who got Basim Sabri interested in the Divisive Motel scheme on 2nd Avenue. Recall that this Motel scheme -- and the attempted bribery of Brian Herron from that were what has gotten Council Member Herron to plead guilty to extortion and now serve hard time in prison. Basim Sabri is still at large -- and his case is currently in the courts (the Federal Prosecutors are appealing a ruling that through the case out of the Federal Courts). With Urban Ventures, the dots need to be connected and the money needs to be followed. Eva Young Eva Eva Young Central Neighborhood Minneapolis _______________________________________ 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
