I agree with the idea that no city problem should be solved on the back of a poor neighborhood. Cooper or Kenwood could be a location as easily as any other. Two PRACTICAL problems I'd like seen addressed, though. Problem 1: Nice neighborhoods generally contain well-maintained properties. That fact TENDS to make it pretty expensive to acquire property for any kind of social institution. Contrast that with a poor neighborhood which probably has high densities uninhabitable properties. Poor people generally can't shoulder the expense nor have the energy for the kind of maintenance activities that keep property expensive. So, what is a practical choice. Spend MORE taxpayer dollars to acquire property that doesnt need a change of use? Or get rid of something that is unfit for use and build something new? Because I'm sorry but it is sounding to me like some of the residents of these poor neighborhoods have some real RESISTANCE about being neighbors to people who have problems. I guess I understand that, but to make a different "crusade" about shoving the people into Kenwood or somewhere else sounds like prejudice. OK, fine, prejudice is nobody's exclusive property. But it is aggravating to have the people who feel that way tee off on OTHERS about it seems a bit hypocritical. It sounds like these people are saying "OK, you made the effort to keep your property up. Here's your rewardd, the people WE don't want to live next to! Gotta love the justice of statements like that.
Issue: Affordable Housing
Since we have talked about this SO much, I'd just like to mention a site called "Cost of War"(www.costofwar.com) At the moment I checked it, it said for what we've wasted in Iraq, over one million affordable homes could have been built. When you wonder why we (and others) lack affordable houses, remember that we have, ahem, "other priorities" underway. The taxpayers simply CANNOT do everything needed to do. The taxpayers, through their various governments, are choosing every moment what they value the most. I guess affordable houses are not what they value most at this moment.
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Jim Mork
Cooper Neighborhood
Longfellow Community
Minneapolis, MN
We think. You'll like it here.
And we're more fun than a barrel of Norwegians
Is
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