After reading the post that suggests tax dollars go to subsidizing renters in more affluent neighborhoods, I'm not sure how this alone solves anything?
As far as I can see, the problems in Jordan or Hawthorne have little to do with the percentage of properties that are rental vs. homeowner alone. While concentrated poverty is a problem, I think the concerns in those neighborhoods have more to do with the fact that there's just a lot of damn poor people who have little opportunity to break out of that situation than it does that they live in rental property. As pointed out, there are plenty of areas in Minneapolis that have high percentages of rental property without the problems of Hawthorne or Jordan. How does taking a poor family and moving them to Kenwood or Loring Park help them? They're still poor. Even with subsidized housing, they're still unable to afford many of life's necessities. Are they supposed to suddenly develop job skills because they're no longer surrounded by drug dealers and trash on the streets? If they're minorities, are they suddenly no longer at risk of racial profiling? If they're disabled, will they suddenly become "abled?" If they don't participate in their communities because they're working two or three jobs to get by, how does moving the a more expensive area of the city help with that? We can't just look at one aspect of an unfortunate person's or family's life and say that's the thing that needs to be fixed for them to get back on track. We need to coordinate efforts instead of continuing the fractured approach that we have now with the state doing some things, the county doing others, the city doing still others and nonprofits doing yet more things, with little communication or coordination taking place. That's one thing I hope to see improved through the African American Men Project. The folks working on that have figured out that there's no one single issue or problem that is the cause of the kinds of problems we see in Jordan or Hawthorne. We need a multi-pronged strategy that focuses not just on housing or jobs, but also education, family structure, health, community involvement and criminal justice. All in one shared effort, not the disparate programs that focus on single issues like we have now. I imagine this will be something of an uphill battle, seeking strategic change in entrenched programs that have already taken or are at risk of huge budget cuts. But I hope people can open their eyes to the larger picture instead of continuing to focus on just one or two trees amid the forest of problems that plague some of our neighborhoods. Mark Snyder Windom 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.) ________________________________ 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
