I listened to an interesting and informative speech on KNOW's Midday program.
Fundamentally, the speaker(Mr. Moss of Cleveland, I did not get his first name) talked of living in an Age of Abandonment. I cannot do Mr. Moss justice. I would recommend that if folks are interested they listen to the Midday repeat at 9pm. It dovetails with thoughts I have on the five year financial plan, Martin Luther King's birthday, Dave Harstad's recent post and, the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department tomorrow. In the five year financial workout of the Civil Rights Department the average annual increase for the department in the next five years is 1.8%. The only departments with smaller increases are the Planning Dept. at 1.2% and Health and Human Services which will be totally eliminated. To get even a clearer picture lets use actual dollar figures for increases. The Civil Rights Department budget willl increase by $200k over five years or $40k/yr. This comes at a time when Civilian Review of Police is being folded into Civil Rights and the City is about to start on a course of Federal Mediation largely due to the perception in minority communities that they are mistreated and profiled by police. I want to be optimistic but do we really think this increase will be enough to address the racial problems that still affect our City? Like Mr. Moss would suggest I am almost certain, this is part of a much larger abandonment of the progress of the mid to late 60's. Tim Connolly Downtown West So far most of the discussion on this forum has been talk of the future of NRP. Let me bring to the attention of list members one cut item I find unconprehensible. Tomorrow is the 35 year anniversary of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission. ===== __________________________________________________ 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
