Barbara Nelson challenges us to come with some good news. Dean Carlson responds by saying that Heritage Park on Olson Highly (also known as the Hollman Project) now has 40 families, that Phase II will close this summer, and that the part of the project South of Olsen Highway will begin infrastructure work this Spring, and thus despite all of the naysaying, this is good news, a feat other PHAs in the country have not been able to accomplish.
I'm confused. My response is: is this really true? If 770 are to be completed by October, with 330 of those in the suburbs, that means only 440 of the 900 that are to be done at Heritage Park would be completed. But is even this true? When I stopped by the project in January, there were only 20 families, and I was told here would be few government subsidized families (the original purpose of the project, which promised homes for 300 public-housing residents and 100 for the elderly poor). I saw a few buildings, most not completed, and acres and acres of dirt mounds. There are several reports that also add to my confusion. The first is the June 2002 McKinsey Report, The McKinsey report: what it means for Downtown and the city (http://www.skywaynews.net/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2002/June/21-2 720-news01.txt). , that says that the MCDA, the NRP, and the City Planning Department spent just under $1 Billion on housing resulting in a net gain of only 52 housing units (that's $19 million per unit), that the city is 8,300 units short of its immediate affordable housing needs and that there is no more money available to complete projects like Heritage Park/Hollman. The Journal of The American Planning Association in July 2000 reported that of 258 different projects around the country such cost overruns have been the norm. So, if the money has been spent, and at the site of Heritage Park there is mostly dirt mounts, how can this be good news? One is called "The Fight Against Urban Cleansing and Gentrification in Minneapolis," which discusses how the poor and Blacks are being replaced by upper scale Whites, and is at http://educationright.tripod.com/id41.htm. City Pages ran a feature on this in their August 14, 2002 issue also. All of this about Heritage Park (Hollman) is taken from the new book available at book stores, The Ron Edwards Story, Through My Eyes, by Ron Edwards as told to Peter Jessen. You can see the cruel joke chiseled into the wall of the little bridge, "Fair Housing." Ron's chapter on Housing is Chapter 8, with the subtitle "Housing: Hollman as example of razing Black homes to raise White homes." Ron explains this housing dynamic to us very well, very sadly, with chapter and verse, citing his evidence as he goes. Get the book, read the chapter, and then comment. Ron's understanding of what Heritage Park is supposed to be is the same as expressed by W. Harry Davis in his new book Overcoming. Peter Jessen, Beacon on the Hill Press, publisher of The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, by Ron Edwards 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 TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ 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
