Margaret Hastings asks: Again, Mayor Rybak...do you have a response to this expensive effort to keep pushing people who are homeless away from the only refuge they can sometimes find?
Karen Collier responds: Why should he. This is a state issue and paid with state funds. I'm sure they're doing it on their own without any input from the City, which is the way it should be. Peter Schmitz responds to Karen Collier: One issue Candidate Rybak brought up over and over again in his campaign for mayor was SSB's lack of leadership. Karen, all the four major candidates for mayor acknowledge that in Minneapolis, with most of the power residing with the city council, the mayor can at least use his or her bully pulpit to address issues important to the city. Even though the rods were paid with state funds that doesn't necessarily mean there's been no input from City Hall. And despite how you may feel, there ought to be input about the rods, outrage in fact, from the citizens of Minneapolis. It doesn't matter how you, Karen, or I, myself, feel about those who are homeless. Installing rods underneath bridges isn't going to make the problem of homelessness go away (though I worry that some people who are homeless may get even more discouraged and jump over a bridge, or in their frustration and anger take it out on someone more vulnerable than they are at the moment). A few years ago a homeless person burned a building in the Uptown business district. Trying to keep warm in an alley on a cold winter's night, he made a fire that got out of control. One way or another we'll all pay for ignoring this problem. If homeless people are banished from the bridges, Karen, they'll find other means of securing minimal shelter which may prove more onerous for those of us in Minneapolis who are not homeless. Like many others, I often find those who are homeless annoying, exasperating, frightening and generally unpleasant. Believe me, I'm no saint myself when it comes to the homeless, given a few unpleasant run ins I've had with some of them over the years. Nevertheless, with the widening gap between the rich and the poor that's causing the middle-class to shrink, so many of us are one or two paychecks away from being homeless. If it weren't for all the lucky breaks that I've benefited from in this life, I'd be homeless too, if not dead. If nothing else, the Mayor and City Council have a practical obligation to speak to this issue of installing rods underneath our bridges, the Mayor especially since he's the one with the most visible bully pulpit. Mayor Rybak's silence regarding the treatment of homeless citizens in Minneapolis is tantamount to complicity. And as many AIDS activists have said for the past 20 years, Silence = Death. In this case, the Mayor's silence is killing those who are homeless in Minneapolis.-----Peter Schmitz CARAG 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
