Barb wrote: "Tom, are you saying R.T. supports repealing the quarter mile spacing requirement? I attended a meeting with Nicollet Avenue businesses last fall when R.T. was campaigning. I specifically asked the Mayor if he supported the quarter mile spacing requirement. He gave a very strong and emphatic "yes" to that question."
I was at the same meeting Barb and can't explain the Mayor's apparent reversal. But, here's the proof from the Shelter Advisory Board's minutes of their meeting with Rybak aid Erik Takeshita (6-21-02): "Discussed the removal of Supportive Housing as a category..." "Erik stressed the importance of getting our recommendations included in the consolidated plan work currently underway in the City" "Erik offered to get us on Schiff's calendar soon and he will attend if we'd like." So apparently the Mayor, without input from the public, let alone the high-impact neighborhoods, has endorsed, and is pushing the SAB's re-writing of the parts of the zoning code that regulate their own projects, particularly chapter 536.20 that deals with spacing of supportive housing. Erik Takeshita is a professional. He wouldn't be doing this on his own. If this interpretation is all wrong, I'd be thrilled to be corrected. What is the Mayor's position on concentration of supportive housing? And where is the opportunity for public discourse on this most important public policy issue? If the City workings don't allow for public input, I'd again urge the foundation community or the city churches to sponsor a forum to air this specific issue. It does us little good to get all pumped up about 'doing something about affordable or supportive housing," if we're not willing to face up to the hard political choices involved in the placement of the sites. Further concentration surely can't be the only solution to our housing challenges. Wealthy neighborhoods may prefer to continue to shift their civic responsibilities to poor ones, but they shouldn't be able to do it in the dark. This needs real public discussion. In fairness, given the fact that our City's leadership seems to be unwilling to challenge the fortress neighborhoods to do their part, and prefers instead to load up the few heroic ones, I can understand the SAB's frustration with getting their important work done. They must figure that there is no other option but to keep going back to the same struggling neighborhoods like Phillips, Whittier, Stevens Square, Central, Elliot Park, Harrison. I disagree with this truly tragic strategy, but it has a certain heartbreaking logic to it. This can't be their preferred solution either. Tom Berthiaume Whittier, Stevens Square, Loring Park, Navarre _______________________________________ 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
