The Rutgers report which is what Pauline Thomas referred to in her opinion piece about NRP in the Spokesman was written in either 1993 or 1994. This report can hardly be used as a barometer about the success of NRP to date. At that time we were only a couple of years into the program and only 1 neighborhood had an approved action plan.
I believe Ms. Thomas is very familiar with the NRP program as it relates to the Central neighborhood. She received NRP funds for her home. However, the experience Central had with NRP is not the experience that other neighborhoods surrounding Central had. I would invite people from other neighborhoods to post regarding their experiences with NRP in their neighborhoods. I engaged in a conversation today with someone complaining about all the funds that were wasted on staff in the Phillips neighborhood during Phase I of NRP. It seems to be common belief that Phillips under the old People of Phillips (POP) poured money down the administrative drain. The FACTS are that of the $18,000,000 dollars Phillips was allocated in Phase I of NRP only 4% (@$700,000) was allocated to Administrative costs over a 10 year period. Of those dollars allocated to administrative purposes, nearly $150,000 or 1% of that has yet to be spent. That roughly translates into about $55,000 per year. The dollar amount that was addressed in the audits that ended up de-certifying POP was a mere fraction of that. I put this out there so people have the facts and not conjecture. If we are now going to engage in a dialogue about the success or failure of NRP, lets make sure we are using current factual data. The NRP data base has collected substantial data from actual contracts and projects. This is all public information. Feel free to call the NRP office and ask for information. Barb Lickness Whittier NRP Staff ===== "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________ 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
