Thank you Peter Schmitz. You are correct, the City's priorities are far from the "Impacted Neighborhoods". The City's priority seems to be to concentrate problems and crime in these impacted neighborhoods. Not to try and solve crime problems and possibly drive it out where "white" people live. (This is paraphrasing what was actually said by a white suburban resident who opposed policing efforts in the inner-city)
Ventura Village contains less than 1.5% of Minneapolis' population yet 30% of all new supportive housing beds added in the City of Minneapolis between 1990 and 2000 were added in this one neighborhood. The Ventura Village neighborhood's population increased by almost a thousand people during that time period and almost 1/3 of that additional population number was for those in supportive housing. Do I see a pattern here? What I see is an institutional pattern of discrimination. Some REAL suggestions for addressing crime in all of Minneapolis. Not just in front of Target: 1. Since there is worry about more criminals having guns in Minneapolis then make it advantageous for people to turn in the illegal possession of a hand gun. Set up a program to give a $100.00 reward for any person turning in someone with an illegal firearm. Only paid when the illegal firearm is recovered. Set up an anonymous call in where the person is given a code when they call in. After the recovery is made the tipster could go in anonymously and retrieve the reward without giving any information other than the code. 2. Offer a $100.00 reward for anyone turning in anyone in possession of an illegal class A narcotic, (Cocaine, crack, crank, heroin, Meth, etc.). But NOT POT! Same tip line and code as illegal gun program. Give $200.00 if the possessor is convicted and actually does time for the crime. Such "Tip" and "Dialing for Dollars" programs would cost less than present methods, and get more guns and drugs off of the street. Forget buy back programs for old legal guns, give the reward only for ILLEGAL GUNS. They are the ones that cause most of the problems. We might get some corporate donations. Wells Fargo and Allina (Abbott Hospital) could pay for such a program as part of the old HEALS program. Bring in a few more people like Target, 3M, etc. Imagine how many illegal guns could be gotten off the street with a couple of hundred thousand dollars! Two thousand, (2000), guns or illegal drug possesers. Can the readers imagine the hard up drug user turning in the dealer to get money to buy the drugs from some other dealer? I can! It would sure be bad for the neighborhood "Street Corner Pharmaceutical Distribution Business"! We do not have 2000 illegal gun carrying drug dealers, so they would not have to spend all the money. Pat, the Hennepin County Sheriff, says he will take as many criminals as the police can arrest, so lets go for it. ---------------------------------------------- Sour grapes: Reading Michael Atherton's response to my posting on that Nokomis article regarding NRP was like drinking a bad year Cabernet. Do I detect a little sour grapes here? Sour grapes from someone who was not able to control the voting of his fellow neighborhood residents? Talk about hyperbole and misleading to motivate people through irrationality and FEAR. Michael's post sure seems to show how to do it. Michael organize ALL the neighbors who agree with you and take over the darn thing. Like you say, "that's democracy"! If you can not get enough then it probably means the majority of the residents go along with what is happening. Michael says, "The boards of neighborhood associations are not necessarily elected in fair and democratic processes." Well Michael, organize enough fellow residents to take over the Neighborhood Organization also. That is what we did in my neighborhood when they were wasting our NRP. That's what democracy is all about. Fortunately! Oh, by the way. Thank you Michael for your confidence that I could have done a better job on that article. I like to think I am a better "story teller" than Rita and Doug, but I thought their article was great! I am sure I would have put in more inflammatory rhetoric about the oppression of an unfettered political system jealous of an empowered populous who demonstrate greater fiscal accountability than itself! Jim Graham, Ventura Village >"If you would not be forgotten, >as soon as you are dead and rotten, >either write things worth reading, >or do things worth the writing." - Benjamin Franklin TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ 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
