During 1998 you could have purchased at least two, and probably three duplexes, in Jordan for $175,000. You still can purchase one quality buildings there for that price.
At that time, (1998), it was common practice for MCDA to use exactly the method described by Steve Meldahl to not allow a legitimate buyer to purchase a building MCDA wished to tear down. MCDA's estimates for rehabs were an absolute joke. The amounts that they quoted for rehabs were outrageous for anyone but non-profits who spent money as if it had no value. (Since it was not the money of the non-profits, and their profit margin was on a percentage of how expensive they could make the rehab, money indeed had no value) In fact I believe there was a conspiracy to keep regular people from being able to get the buildings and rehab them. As a General Contractor, Dennis must know the actual cost of rehabbing to the person doing that rehabbing and the profit margins involved. The amounts that MCDA used as base costs were outrageous lies at best and criminal deception at worst. How many fine houses did Yannish and Sales-Belton tear down? Does anyone know the true number? Also does anyone have a dollar figure for the collateral damage done by this attempt to empty the inner city of Minneapolis? The affordable housing shortage that this City experienced from 1998 until today is due to Sales-Belton and Yannish tearing it all down. That shortage meant that only those with more money could compete for the remaining "affordable" housing, thereby making it not affordable. I also sat on neighborhood committees and reviewed proposals where MCDA gave the preposterous amounts that they estimated rehabs would cost. Honest contractors and residents wanting to rehab the houses and giving honest estimates were summarily dismissed. Unfortunately the neighborhoods, through ignorance, often believed this and allowed houses to be torn down because the house may have been a problem in the past. Sometimes the house was torn down because someone living on either side wanted the lot as a side yard or garden. In Ventura Village we fought the rest of Phillips to not allow houses to be torn down. We were successful to a small extent for our area. South of us where there was created a culture of viewing houses as enemies, and the source of problems, whole blocks were almost denuded of housing. MCDA played a major role in creating that culture. MCDA also snuck into our neighborhood and tore down buildings without going through a review process. When challenged on this they said, "Oh, we made a mistake". Ventura Village was fighting to prevent MCDA from tearing down housing as little as 1 1/2year ago. Housing that developers were bickering and fighting to get possession of. With Real Estate values rising, and the new Mayor's involvement with the "Affordable" housing issue, that trend has fortunately stopped. MCDA will not ever have the opportunity to replace that housing. There just is not enough City Money available. With State agencies about to dry up money for the Non-Profit sector it will not come from that source either. It will take private developers and individuals building one unit at a time while using their own money and private financing. Sorry Dennis but Barb Lickness is correct, the Plans and the people willing to invest "their own money" are there on Franklin Avenue and in the surrounding neighborhood. Sure we have to fight an uphill battle with the City of Minneapolis and their Non-Profit friends who want to keep the neighborhood down. Sure they get mad when we attempt to stop their concentration of poverty and crime. With our responsible Non-profits and our responsible business people we will win the fight, (Along with the help of a truly great Litigation Firm). You only have to look at where we were five years ago to realize we have already won. In five years Franklin Avenue and Ventura Village will be an upbeat portion of Minneapolis similar to Grand Avenue in St. Paul. Our real estate already costs more than similar property to the south of us. We have no problem getting the business people to come; we have a problem getting the City out of the way so they can do legitimate business. ------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Mork writes: "Crime on Franklin Ave********************* In response to Jim Graham's gratituitous shot, I never denied that crimes happen in Philips. I denied they are blatant and ignored by the police. The police are very aware of all this stuff that has gone on, they have it in their CODEFOR system, and they try to approach it with a strategic method, not just running after calls. The results of that approach are clear in the continuing decline in serious crime at a time when such crime is climbing elsewhere, as reported in the links provided here (Jim should read them to modulate his cynicism just a little bit)." Unlike Mr. Mork I do not have to take a gratuitous shot. I just point out a mistake he might make and he will supply the shot all by himself. I would suggest Mr. Mork talk to Don Samuels and residents over in Jordan or people living a block off of Franklin, or the folks at 25th and Bloomington before he makes such baseless statements. I supplied off line to Mr. Mork the crime stats for all neighborhoods for 2001. Ventura Village had 25 rapes and open drug dealing on Franklin Avenue. There were 20 rapes in Jordan and open drug dealing on the streets. For Mr. Mork to repeatedly deny that fact is to be totally insensitive to those forty-five women who were raped and those communities that were also figuratively raped by the drug dealers. Mr. Mork's seeming insensitivity and denial are however typical of residents who live in communities without that victimization. They are happy crime is down in their neighborhoods, and show statistics to a rape victim to prove the crime was imagined and really never happened. I do not think I am cynical in my approach to these problems, just as I do not think Don Samuels is cynical when he reacts in much the same way to the same problems in the Jordan Neighborhood. Just the opposite is true, we are the romantic idealists who stand and fight and believe we will eventually win. Because of that stand and that faith, people join us, and together with them "we" WILL win! Lying to people, who are the everyday victims experiencing the crime, about the existence of the problem does not help to solve it. They know better! No, Don Samuels and I seem to identify the problem and have the optimism and courage to convince others to join us in that solution. (That was the message that so impressed me about Don Samuels when I heard him on WCCO radio. Not, "I will solve the problem", but, "I will have the faith to make a stand and others will join me so that WE will solve the problem".) Denial by "good" liberal Minneapolitans, from "good" neighborhoods, is the major problem we have to address. It is even more of a problem than the criminals. That denial is the ally that makes such gang activity possible. Jim Graham, Ventura Village _______________________________________ 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
