Someone who attended the short-notice Smith Parker-sponsored Access Project meeting this past Monday brought something important to my attention (I was out of town).
Tom Johnson reported to the group of residents that he had gone door to door to speak with the residents of the 2900 block of 2nd Ave, and they were all "OK with losing their homes". After the meeting, a lady asked Mr. Johnson how he handled the language barrier with the residents of the 2900 block....he fumbled a little, and the person who posed the question followed up with the information that all but one of the households in question are Latino, and very little English is spoken or understood (confirmed by the one native English-speaking resident). Tom then claimed to have attended "cookouts" with block residents, where they had interpreters on hand. I'd like a little more information about this, as I have my doubts. If Tom did go door to door talking to folks who will have their homes demolished for the Access Project, then clearly there was a language issue given the lack of interpreters. I think this is of tremendous importance, because Latino and African-American families are disproportionately impacted by the Access Project - what has REALLY been done in terms of addressing their issues??? There has also been a practice of mis-representing people's resignation to the inevitability of the project as being "ok with the project". Johnson said Clarissa Walker was OK with the project, and after speaking with her I found that not to be the case. Johnson said Ms. Miller from the 2900 block was "OK with the project", as of yesterday she is not! Johnson also reported that Edna Realty was OK with the project - they are not! David Piehl Central __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
