Barbara Lickness wrote:
I wouldn't wish what Central isWM: It's always so much fun to be used as the horrible example--and for all the wrong reasons! The issues that burst the bubble in Central were, and remain, racism, classism, and health. It has been on the boil for a long time. The coming of NRP only tightened the screws and provided an arena in which to duke it out.
going through on any neighborhood.
I was told by an employee of NRP, shortly after the palace coup, that I was "used" by the now infamous blue crew. Not accurate, but it is an influential NRP viewpoint and it colors the discussions held in NRP, MCDA, and City Hall offices.
Maybe, for the first time, Central is now in a position of relying on itself alone to hash out the issues. We, many of us that is, knew that the explosion was going to happen, we did not know when, precisely, but the coming of the NRP and all it's money was going to precipitate the explosion. It was inevitable and Earl Craig, first leader of the NRP, knew it the day the mayor pulled the first six eggs out of the bucket to choose the first neighborhoods to go through the NRP process. He said as much to me and I agreed with him.
Funders tend to stay away from neighborhoods that haveWM: Funders, bless their hearts, do not have any mechanism to cope with the nature of the beast which precipitated the crisis. They can do programming, once the programs are in place or once they are well-defined enough so that everyone can see a positive cause and effect relationship/outcome.
a high degree of infighting.
Central itself knew the crisis was coming and had given some support, through Weed & Seed, for Health Realization (a.k.a. PEACE Project). Urban Ventures, the great bugbear, had given some support by organizing the Center for Fathering. Turning Point had given some support by helping James Walker to organize Aftercare, Inc. VJ Smith was organizing MADDADS. Titi Bidiako was organizing a massive Kwanza celebration and a school. Everyone was participating in putting the Hosmer Library together, the principal at Green School was supporting kids getting educated. What was laid open in Central was the massive pain we were in because we could only haltingly reach across the barriers of race and class to be with each other.
We have been made stronger and more whole by having to rely on ourselves. We are reaching across those terrible, deadening barriers. We're getting healthier minute by minute, day by day.
WM: "some people were trying to get hold of the NRP funds" does not really characterize the issues fairly. It's important here to separate the issues which are very real, from the clumsy way in which the palace coup was accomplished. The anger was very real and there were, and remain, some serious issues around how the money was parceled out. They are not about any legalities or any accusations of misappropriated money. They are about how decisions were made on where to focus attention.in the case of Central because some people were trying to get ahold of the NRP funds.
It is also true that the fallout from the mess left us in a position to have to re-invent ourselves on paper. Whether we'll be CNIA or Heritage Homes or some other appellation we haven't come up with yet, we don't know. It is probably a good thing. I remember a Whittier staff person telling me that when their office was involved in an all consuming fire it was the best thing that could have happened because it forced them to work together to reinvent themselves and they were, at that point, on the brink of collapse.
WizardMarks, Central _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
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