The following was a posting to the MN Pol Discussion list. I thought it would be appropriate to this list. Dyna has given permission for the cross post.
Duke Powell Burnsville ____________ My apologies for forgetting to list my current residence, the Hawthorne neighborhood of Minneapolis, in my last post. I spent last week on vacation, travelling to rural Virginia and back. I slept in a tent most nights, yet I always fell asleep by midnight and slept undisturbed through the night. I've slept 2 nights back in Hawthorne neighborhood again, and I'm getting back into the usual sleep, or lack of it, schedule. For the last few months I've been kept up until 2, 3, even 4 in the morning by the drug dealing, prostitution, and general lawlessness in the neighborhood. I get home from work, hoping the local criminals will move aside so I can enter my house. My scanner is usually already on MPD channel 2, so I know what's going down in my neighborhood. To enter my house I have to go through 2 layers of locks, and anything of value is protected by a third. With the lights off so I can see what's going on outside I turn on the TV and fire up my laptop. The drug house up the street and the cheap hookers create plenty of noise, and every loud noise must be checked lest it be a break in or assault. At times the activity at the drug house et al creates a near traffic jam on what should be a quiet residential street. Minneapolis police have made several large and small busts, but the perps usually predictably reappear 3 days later. While I was on vacation the drug house up the block got busted, and the dealers and hookers are already busy reestablishing operations. A vacant house down the block was broken into twice in the same week and the perps caught both times. None the less I don't feel any safer and spent the first 2 days of my vacation fortifying my house and garage before I dared leave town. There is some progress being made in the neighborhood- there actually building some rather nice new homes right next to the drug houses. Sadly, one buyer after another will quickly dump them when the find out what they moved into, in a crescendo of dropping property values. I'm not about to continue investing great amounts in a neighborhood and city that is quickly being overtaken by crime. I have a small home improvement deferred loan/grant with a 1/1 match, but even on those terms it's hard to justify anything more than security improvements. So the first use of that loan/grant was for improved door locks, and instead of high efficency windows and insulation I will be installing plexiglass storm windows and security fencing. I don't like having to do it, but instead of investing in Minneapolis I will be buying an RV- why sleep in fear when I can sleep anywhere in the country? I still have to show up for work on weekdays, so fear not city hall, I will keep my taxes paid up and try to mow the lawn when the drug dealers aren't around. I make no promises on painting the trim though. I will continue to vote here, but I'll probably spend my days off in the peaceful splendor of greater Minnesota. In the small towns of Minnesota one can buy a house for half of the Minneapolis and the metro areas inflated prices- surely a much better investment that I may ultimately make. So, I sign... Dyna Sluyter, Currently confined to north Minneapolis and increasingly a citizen of greater Minnesota. _______________________________________ 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
