Looks like we don't have to wait long for the vultures to land. NRP was grievously wounded by the Legislature when TIF financing was taken away, then denied a transfusion when the city shied away from the MHRA levy, and now the poor thing staggers from a huge bite taken by folks on the NRP Policy Board who apparently could care less about the low-end housing shortage.
This irresponsible opportunism will be the death of more than just NRP because inadequate housing helps drive underachievement in the schools, pushes more people into the gray/black market looking for housing dollars, and further abandons already terribly weakened public capacities to intervene positively in the legitimate economic life of the 40% poverty zones of the inner city. This casual disenfranchisement of the poor by the County Commissioners is particularly galling - R.T. and Council President Ostrow have been doing their level best to response to the affordable housing needs of their constituencies and one would think that their regional counterparts would show greater restraint given that affordable housing shortfalls don't stop at the city's borders. I suggest that the still surviving core of NRP - the NRP neighborhoods themselves - head for their financial bunkers. The barbarians are at the gates. Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten, in the Lyndale Neighborhood --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.455 / Virus Database: 255 - Release Date: 2/13/2003 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
