In a message dated 7/22/03 5:57:36 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
<< There is no such thing as a section being set
> aside for the "african-american community" to do so would be against
> numerous federal and state fair housing laws. >>
Jon Sez:
I've posted mentions of my child "hood" here a couple of times and this seems
an opportune moment to digress a bit more.
The Southeast projects ("Glendale" but from here on out refered to as Peasant
Park --P.P) were planted at the foot of what can only be called the
Professors Ghetto of Prospect Park. It claims a swath of land that falls from Tower
Hill towards the river on one end and University Ave. on the other, ending on
27th. I've heard there was much protest from the folks on the Hill (who wouldn't
want a free forest stretching from their back door)? but their liberal
sentiments eventually succumbed to the idea. That or the Government beat them to
death. I've no idea ; I was four years old when I moved in.
There are two points I wish to express with this post: The first is that when
our family moved into P.P. in 1952 the fix was in. There were 176 units of
publicly subsidized family housing (our three bedroom cost $23 a month) but
everyone was white and a surprisingly large number of the dads were involved in
graduate studies
at the U. When you think about it , just the number of dads on site should
encourage suspicion. Years later my old man told me that almost everyone he knew
was paying something under the table. That's what got us out of University
Village; a collection of surplus army Quonsets and barracks that served as
Veteran student housing. Poorly. Now if this had anything to do with the
acquiescence of the Hill Folks towards this development no one will ever know. I do
know
that after the manager of P.P. blew his head off with a shotgun lots of
families moved out quickly and lo and behold---black folks started moving in. Thank
god by the way, but enough of sentiment.
My second point is to take back anything nasty expressed about the Hill
People. All the kids on three of the four blocks that constituted P.P., and man
what a mass we were, went to Pratt along with all the Prospect Park kids. Well
Do'h, of course we became friends and visited each others houses etc. etc. I
liked houses with gardens and many buddies envied me my unshared room. I don't
remember ever thinking at all about any economic advantage that might be
possessed by anyone. Blah la-la and etc. Distinctions weren't dissolved; they were
never known. Mixed housing is not a theory. It works!
Those kids on the one block that didn't go to Pratt? They went to a school
called Motley! I can only assume they're all dead or in the joint. Oh, except
for my friend Dick, he's a shrink. Choose your poison I guess.
Does any of this have anything to do with Heritage Park? Probably.
Jon Gorder
Loring Park
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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