At the City Council meeting today it was announced that there were seven (7) on-going lawsuits against the City of Minneapolis. This was thought to be a record by Council-President Ostrow in his comments. Several of these lawsuits arise from the City not listening to neighborhoods and attempting to discriminate against people in inner-city communities. We can expect more and more of such Legal Actions from communities that feel it is their only recourse. The reason there is CDBG funded Citizen Participation Organizations is to "Empower" citizens to have input into the City's decision-making process. The City's failure to accept this input from less politically powerful neighborhoods is going to cause many more such lawsuits in the future.
I think the poorer neighborhoods from the inner city should form a coalition to fight intrusive and non-responsive City bureaucracy. It would empower all, but would also lead to better utilization of the legal help some communities have and certain expertise some neighborhoods may have developed. Such a coalition and partnership would also allow for a sharing of information and intelligence about fighting discrimination from City Hall. We also need Lawyers with class action experience, or the desire to gain such, to be involved with such a coalition. The inner city, discriminated against, neighborhoods need to create a system similar to "Legal Aid", but for communities rather than individuals. Vicki Heller is the perfect person to explain Sherman and Associates. Having dealt with them in the past. Vicki, could you research any project Sherman might have done without large subsidies from the City. See if you can find one. I think if the subsidies are removed the neighborhood will no longer need to fight the fight with City Hall about CUB Food Vicki might also look into the top four trough suckers. (No let me phrase that more in a politically correct manner) Vicki could you investigate the large multi-unit housing providers, utilizing subsidies provided by political cronies to provide housing for huge profits and no risk? I wonder who are the worst, (I mean the top) four. Has any of these "Developers" ever developed a unit of housing without large subsidies? How much subsidy has gone into their developments on a per unit basis? How does this compare to the cost of building such units by independent housing developers without subsidies? Might it be cheaper to have a "for-profit" developer build the housing units as economically as possible and then just give them to the residents, rather than paying someone "Development Fees" and subsidies? Neighborhood ALERT Neighborhoods should look for the Z&P Committee to attempt to remove Commissioner Bradley's language, (from the Holman Decree), into changes to the Minneapolis Comprehensive Plan. This language would prevent the City from using tax payer dollars to concentrate poverty and the discrimination against people of color. Neighborhoods with concerns should make every attempt to attend that meeting on Tuesday of this week. Also: Look for the City/County Shelter Advisory Board with Tom Fulton to attempt to force through new city actions to remove the restrictions that City ordinances presently place on the City concentrating poverty and discriminating against poor people and neighborhoods. Below is an excerpt from the City/County Shelter Advisory Board's February meeting of 2002: >>>> "City/County Shelter Advisory Board City of Minneapolis Zoning Recommendations on Shelter and Supportive Housing 2/7/02 Housing projects that require Conditional Use hearings, neighborhood approval and excessive zoning scrutiny have become fertile ground for litigation and neighborhood opposition, where the City's own codes and processes are used to bring legal action against housing sponsors and the city itself. In essence, neighborhoods are practicing economic profiling, screening people out of their neighborhoods based on their level of income. " <<<<<< Questions for Tom Fulton and Shelter Board: Rather than make Neighborhoods the Enemy, (some of which have fought the fight on creating affordable housing), would it not be better for Fulton and the Shelter Advisory Board to use these Neighborhood Organizations as allies to open other areas of the City for supportive housing? We know it is bad for those needing supportive housing to be concentrated in only a few neighborhoods. Would it not be better to have some neighborhoods as allies rather than all as enemies? Would it not be more constructive to join with these discriminated against communities, rather than fighting them in what will become greater and greater numbers of legal actions? If these impacted neighborhoods can not trust the City about Supportive Housing, why should other non-impacted more affluent neighborhoods allow supportive housing projects to be built? Questions for City Leaders, Neighborhoods, and State Legislators Do we need State Legislation to stop the discrimination against poorer neighborhoods, and those needing supportive housing? The State already has legislation concerning concentrating social services, Federal Courts have ruled against such concentrations. Does the State need to create specific legislation to stop the discrimination and the need for legal actions? With present budget problems, how will the State Legislature look upon funding affordable housing if poor inner city neighborhoods of the City are fighting the City about their placement? Does the City really want such a lobbying effort to go on? Inquiring minds need to know! Jim Graham, Ventura Village _______________________________________ 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
