On Monday, June 23, 2003, at 10:05 PM, Mark Snyder wrote:
There was only one Northsider who mistakenly assumed that I prefer organic
cotton because I was worried about my own exposure to toxic chemicals. List
members can draw their own conclusions.
John, I was making humor of your organic cotton fetish... perhaps you have other more humourous reasons?
At the risk of stating what I should think would be obvious, someone being
diagnosed with an illness does not mean they died of that illness or had to
quit working right away, but if you want my source, here you go:
Being that your cite is 13 years old that means we now have 4 million or so farm workers with said illness?
Funny, that's where I got the recommendation for the washing machine I ended
up buying. I bought it in June of 2001 after reading about the benefits of
front-loading washers. I use about half as much water as I did with the old
top-loader, a lot less electricity and my clothes are subjected to less
abuse, too. Of course, I paid more up front, but I'm figuring between the
water, the electricity and the clothes that last longer, I'm easily going to
recoup that upfront cost and then some.
So you paid through the nose for a washer that maybe saves a little energy and water for the hour or so a week you use it- did you do a cost/benefit analysis? BTW, I have a Whirlpool Washer too- 'cept it doesn't say Whirlpool on it and I paid less than $200 for it new.
Again, the local models everyone likes to
point to are Grand Ave. in St. Paul, Eat Street in south Minneapolis and
more recently, Central Ave. NE. What do those have in common? They don't
have big boxes, but somehow, they're still managing to do quite well at
attracting shoppers and bringing stable jobs and investment to their
respective communities.
And providing lots of low wage part time jobs with no health care or pension.
Anyway, a bakery sounds good, but why not some small retail bakeries like
Nan's NE Bakery or Blackey's Bakery? They seem to be holding up pretty well
against the big chains.
I'm talking about a bakery that can feed a city, not just a few yuppies. We can't afford $3 a loaf bread on the Northside.
Add in some restaurants, some clothing stores, a tax
preparer or accountant, a bookstore, some coffee shops, a card and gift
shop, some hair stylists, a bike shop, an antique or art supply store, a
copy/printing shop, a florist, a hardware or auto parts store, a video
rental store, one or more small (2-3 story) apartment buildings etc.
Only the hair stylist, hardware, and auto parts store fit well the Northside's demographic. We have plenty of empty apartments already, thank you.
Can you back up that statement? Got a report, a web site, interviews with
employees at any of the local ones that you can cite? If coops are such a
crappy place to work, how come there is far less turnover at the coops then
at big box retailers? I've shopped at Mississippi Market for close to two
years now and pretty much all the employees that were there when I started
are still there. How many big box retailers can you say that about?
Especially ones that aren't unionized?
Most of the local co-ops are a perversion of the traditional co-op principles. They employee working class folks at service industry wages to serve upper class customers. BTW, I've had friends who work at the local food co-ops who can't even afford a car.
By the way, MY coop is over on Central Ave. If one opens on West Broadway,
that would be YOUR coop, even if you're not open-minded enough to try
checking it out.
Been there, done that- I was involved in the early days of North County and was a member of Whole Foods Co-op in the 70s. When they went up market they lost me. CUB will pretty much eliminate the need for a real food co-op in the Northside, and I'd have no reason to join a yuppie one.
Lucille's Kitchen may not be on West Broadway, but it's a Northside institution, nonetheless.
Been there, done that...
Caf� Tatta Buna may not sell a 50-cent cup o'
java, but from what I've heard from friends, it's becoming a popular place
to catch a spoken word performance on a Friday night.
Some of us work nights.
As for Homewood
Studios (http://www.homewoodstudios.com/index.html), it's far more than just
a place to buy art. It's a place to MAKE art. It's run by my old creative
writing teacher at Minneapolis North, George Roberts. They have classes on
drawing, writing, tai chi and so on. They offer shows, readings, community
dialogues and opportunities for local students at North and Henry to display
their work. People really need to check this place out.
Being neither an artist nor finacially able to consume art I won't bother them.
I think there's more good stuff going on over on the Northside than people
realize. Unfortunately, it seems like some of the area's own residents have
the hardest time seeing just what some of those good things are.
Depends on what your looking for- we have an army of hookers and a crack house on damn near every block. As I write it's past midnight and the neighborhood gangbangers are sending up another barrage of fireworks.
What kind of vision do you all have for West Broadway and the Northside as a whole?
We have vision- note Kieth's advocacy for BRT and commercial develoment.
If you're struggling, where or with what?
We;re struggling with planners from downtown and yuppies from the southside and Northeast trying to remake us in their image.
How can we help?
Bugger off.
In general, I wish more people participating in this Forum would balance
their complaints with some of the good things they're working on or see
happening. I realize it's human nature to complain, but that doesn't mean we
can't also celebrate success. I would point to Jim Graham as an excellent
example of balancing. He posts a great deal about the problems facing
Ventura Village and Phillips, yet he's also posted a great deal about the
improvements that have been made on Franklin Ave. and how that came about.
I've learned a lot from Jim that I hope to apply to my own community
volunteering.
Sorry Mark, but we haven't had much to celebrate on the Northside except the coming of CUB and the continuing business of our railroads and river.
scaring the yuppies off in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter 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.)
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