Barb, You are correct in sensing that RT seems to have the desire to address this problem. In our system RT does not have the power to do much about it. With this said let me also say that he has the very real power to lead others to a solution to the problems. If the city must double the expenditure for public safety, then it must. It is the law that they do so. It is up to RT to supply the leadership to address the problem. Leaders lead, it is as simple as that. RT also has very little power on budget and planning issues, (that power resides with the City Council), yet this has not stopped Mayor Rybak from addressing these issues and demonstrating leadership in them.
The old drug gangs are making a come back. I have seen more violent behavior in the last month and a half than at anytime since Minneapolis was known in the national press as "MURDERAPOLIS". The time to address your house burning down is when it starts, not when the whole house is on fire. We have gone a long way to addressing the blight along Franklin Avenue, without too much help from the City Mothers and Fathers. We have three or four multi-million dollar projects ready to break ground in the next two months, which will offer hundreds of housing units. These developments will drastically alter the nature of Franklin. Isn't it time for the City to help us. At a Ventura Village meeting the "Drug Judge" stated that because of the legislature there was not much he could do. He seemed genuinely perturbed when I said "the ball is always being passed from one to the other in a circle with everyone blaming the others. When is one of you going to stand up and say the problem is MINE, and I will take responsibility to begin to address it". I again issue that challenge. When is one of our elected public officials, (including Judges), going to have the guts to say that simple thing and act on it? That is what leadership is all about, the willingness to emulate Truman and say, "The buck stops here! It's my responsibility!" Too bad Truman isn't still around, sounds like someone I could vote for. The United States Attorney, Hennepin County Attorney, Minnesota Attorney General, Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner, Metro Transit Police Chief, Minneapolis Police Chief, and myself met in a Drug and Crime Task Force to address the crime problem shortly after we previously asked to be declared a "National Disaster Area" because of endemic drug dealing and blight. These meetings were convened and hosted by then US Attorney David Lillehaug. I think it is time for Mayor Rybak to address the same issue and reconvene the people who now hold those same offices to again address the same old problem. The police are undermanned and overworked in this area, but still fighting a valiant battle. We need to re-enforce their ranks and give them the support and resources they need. No matter what the expense it is worth the investment. Here, once again, is a suggestion: Have fifty police officer volunteers assigned to a Drug Task Force, and have their sole duty be to hunt drug dealers each and every day they work, no matter what precinct, until there is a shortage of dealers in Minneapolis. Make business so risky and bad paying that the drug businessperson takes the business to some other city. Safe neighborhoods create an environment that empowers people to become involved and creative in doing real development. The sound of gunshots in the night trouble families with children much more than the sound of airplanes. The family I mentioned in my previous post was willing to take their children to a "Homeless Shelter" rather than risk them. One of the most important "HOUSING ISSUES" is public safety. If it is not addressed housing is not addressed. Barb, your overheard elevator conversation is something that many Chicago and Detroit Drug Dealers talk about. It has been common discussion and knowledge for several years, going back to when Whittier had the "Dealers". I think it is time Minneapolis faced the very real proposition of motivating these same people to move on and tell such stories in a different city. Stories about the "good old days in Minneapolis before Rybak and that City Council cracked down" would be welcome criminal sub-culture for the future. I would hope that the readers and contributors to the MPLS Issues would also feel the moral outrage that I feel when thinking of an innocent family with six children being forced to take those children to a homeless shelter to avoid gun-fire in the middle of the night. We just finished "Memorializing" the men who willingly shed their blood and laid down their lives so our children would not have to endure such. Yet they do, and it is a betrayal of those brave soldiers very memory that we have allowed such to come to pass for even one child. We measure the quality of our community by the way we provide for our children. I am outraged and ashamed, to an immeasurable degree, that in Minneapolis I overheard a six year old child, with fear in his voice say, " Mommy are those people going to come and shoot us tonight?" What does it say about the quality of Minneapolis when even one child has such a very real fear? Jim Graham, Ventura Village, Phillips Community, 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
