I read with pleasure the post by Wizard Marks about Franklin Avenue. Thank you Wizard. That section of Franklin is indeed showing a glimmer of the potential future that can be. That area's change did not just happen. It came about because of a "Plan" and residents willing to fight for every inch of it and then working for it to happen. It also came because of residents being willing to do the work. While many, many people helped, a very few people gave 50, 60, and sometimes 90 hours a week to changing Franklin. It is because of them, and their willingness to fight for their homes, that Ventura Village is changing. (Very often to fight even City and other government agencies)
It also shows what happens when a few people can take 75,000 dollars of NRP planning dollars and plan and leverage 100 million dollars of development. The dream that the neighborhood residents dreamed would not have happened without the "Empowering" experience of controlling their own dollars and their own plan. That empowering experience of controlling a relative few dollars for planning eventually translated into the power to sell that dream to others. Ventura Village residents became aware that they had the power to not just get a few social service handouts of "Fish". The residents had the power to build their own fishing boat and drive it themselves. This was not an easy sale to even some residents, but threatened the hell out of some at the City. For years I preached that we had the talent and passion to build our own boat. Nay Sayers would always say, "Well we don't have enough expertise to do it ourselves". My answer was always that what we didn't have we could buy; it is what consultants are for. The real experts on what the neighborhoods needed were the residents themselves. Franklin Avenue and Ventura Village is what happens when talented residents are assembled, motivated, and decide to spend a very few dollars for "Consultants". The product of those residents planning has been called the "best application of New Urbanist Planning and Smart Growth that has been applied to an inner-city in the country". Called that by professional planners from other cities. For years well meaning good people fought for the few dollars the City was willing to give us in Phillips. Well-meaning good people were forced to do this because they were forced into one planning district with many "centers of interest" for NRP dollars. Lake Street has wonderful people living around it. Franklin Avenue has wonderful people living around it. And those wonderful people bitterly fought each other for the interests of their neighbors. When the breakup of Phillips occured because of "packing meetings with residents", it freed both groups to pursue the interests of their own neighbors. This in turn lead to an empowering of them and actually created the possibility of those regions collaborating on things that mutually helped each other's "neighbors". There is more collaboration now and more mutual assistance than there ever was in the old "One" Phillips NRP plan. People who were once bitter enemies are now friends and allies who are helping each other. Something for the new NRP planners to keep in mind. Combining neighborhoods into "Districts" alienates people and creates the fertile ground where miss-appropriation and graft can occur. This forced "Fusion" creates a whole lot of heat and destruction, but destroys rather than building. The history of Phillips is a good example of why we need less "regional planning" and more neighborhood control for both planning and NRP. While Ventura Village had those people willing to dedicate four or five years of their lives to such a fight some areas were not so fortunate. For that reason RT Rybak's appointment of Mike Christianson is a very positive thing. Those of us putting in those long hours fighting to save Franklin Avenue always looked with envy at what Mike Christensen was doing around "Honeywell" and the Allina Hospitals. We never received that help from the Phillip Partnership, which Mike was able to lend to that area, but we were very aware of it. (Phillips Partnership help did NOT extend into Ventura Village) Without Mike Christianson the area from Lake Street to 24th Street would still have many of those same problems. The wonderful thing about Mike Christianson is that he was aware of what was happening on Franklin and in Ventura Village and always gave the credit to us who were doing the work. Unlike a host of politicians and social service types who are still taking the credit without doing the work. I know that some, (and some of my friends) will attack Mike because of his association with Smith Parker and the "Excess Project", but how does that have anything to do with Mike's present job. Some of those people, including Antonio, should look at Mike's willingness to be open to "community-planning" as being far more important than his stance on just that one project. Mike Christianson's willingness to be open to new ideas and community based planning is what makes this a great appointment. For some who may have been less than disappointed by some of RT's less than stellar past appointments this is indeed a step in the right direction. RT promised to throw the doors open and sweep City Hall's mediocrity into the street, but there have been very few appointments worth doing back flips over. This might be because of the difficulty with displacing deeply entrenched bureaucrats who had ties to the main appointments that RT did make. However, Mike Christianson is one appointment for whom if not RT then some neighborhoods should be flipping over. By and away the BEST appointment RT has so far made. We can only hope the "Housing" person is equally as good of an appointment. Many of us do not know that person, and have no idea what direction he will take. While Christianson's appointment is great and will no doubt lead to more community based planning, where exactly will the other person take "Housing"? I am amazed that there has been no discussion of that appointment. It could potentially have even more of an impact upon poor neighborhoods than the "Planning" position. Hopefully the Christianson appointment will bring community based planning into the housing decision making process. Without that we are doomed to a City fighting its-self like DR. Strangelove's hand. Recently bad housing policy decisions, that overlook communities and treat neighborhoods as "The Enemy", have threatened to kill the City rather than be the helping hand Minneapolis neighborhoods need. While yesterday was also a day of tragic news in out community, Mike Christianson was good news. That is what keeps us going. Even on dark days we see a little light and promise shinning through the dark clouds. Jim Graham, Ventura Village >""We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be" - A Cherokee Feast of Days >"The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. - Thomas Jefferson TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. 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