Brandon Lacy says: >"As a matter of fact, the Governor who sent those troops in is the same > governor that is a co-conspirator for any increase in crime that happens in > Minneapolis because he is the governor responsible for pulling safety nets > out from under the citizens of Minneapolis, and when one is desperate and > trying to feed ones family or when one feels there are no real options left > crime becomes a way to provide for oneself."
Brandon possibly does not realize that gangs and drugs were going wild in Minneapolis during the middle of the Clinton years. They real start in Minneapolis came during the Perpich years. The best economic times that this country has EVER enjoyed. No, it is not just the economy. It is more insidious than that; it is a pattern of institutional discrimination against the poorest neighborhoods. You concentrate poverty and look at it as a resource for the poverty industry and a way to concentrate problems away from the good people who vote. More than just the stock market went wild and was incredibly lucrative in the Nineties. The drug market also went wild in Minneapolis. So much so that people from hardcore areas like Chicago, Detroit, LA, Memphis, KC, St Louis and Gary were willing to come to Minneapolis and rage an open armed warfare for a share of "the most lucrative market" in the United States. A market where the rewards were incredible and the chance for real jail time minimum for a "smart operator". During those days there was a real shortage of workers in Minneapolis. It is the reason for many of the "new immigrants" coming to Minneapolis. There simply were jobs for the taking for anyone who actually wanted to work. Brandon also says: "What is even more 'ducky' is the absolute lack of any type of investment in > Jordan, or any other low-income community of color in Minneapolis, that will > address the root causes of why folks turn to the streets and crime. It isn't > for the thrill and joy of it. It's because there is a lack of any real > opportunity. There is lack of livable wage jobs, affordable housing, and all > the other issues that have come up on this list." Brandon, this is the reason for all the development activity on Franklin Avenue. We were by far the most vocal, in your face, community in the Crime war in the late nineties. PNBC was the strongest Block Club Organization this City has seen. We also got creative about fighting crime with the "Drug& Crime Task Force", the incredible alliance we had with all the different law enforcement officials in the State of Minnesota and with then US Attorney David Lillehaug. Even so it became clear to us that we were losing the War. The reason was that Franklin Avenue just bred criminals. It was depressed and most of the "Good" business was driven out, and it was simply too lucrative for the drug trade. Drug dealers would rent a run down apartment near Franklin for thousands of dollars a month and think it was a deal. The drug business was that good. The only way to solve the problem was to redevelop the street. We started Ventura Village and got busy with a new "Plan". Our Ventura Village Neighborhood did a Master Planning process and began to recruit and help interested developers to change Franklin. We still have the area between Chicago and Portland infested with criminals, but we are working on it. We DO now have over 100 million dollars of development that is committed between I-35 and the new LRT Line. Come down and see what we have going on, and notice the change between Chicago and the LRT. It is the first law of plumbing. Crap runs down hill, either by gravity or by political pressure. We knew we were at the bottom of the hill, and the ONLY way we would ever change it was to jack our valley up a few notches (so it would run somewhere else). Our Franklin "Valley" is still getting some of the run off. But gradually the stink of the unfairness is even beginning to bring the politicians around to giving us a little justice. There IS light at the end of that long, long tunnel! It is working; recently in a conversation with an old high school friend an executive from the Welch Company said our area was one of the "Hottest" areas in Minneapolis. I guess our valley just keeps getting higher and higher. Before long we will be valuable enough to deserve "Equal Protection Under The Law". We have had to drag the City along like a ball and chain (they do not give up their favorite dumping and concentration area without a fight), but we seem to be getting there. RT Rybak's actions this week gives us all hope. The passion of Don Samuels is also refreshing and perhaps surprising. Unless you realize he was first a resident "fighter" then became a CM. Wizard is correct, just doing it in Jordan will not solve the problem. It will simply go somewhere else to do business until the heat goes off, then they will return to Jordan. Unless Jordan also brings up its valley. We have had a huge influx of the boys in white T-shirts and white baseball caps this last week. We assume these drug dealers are coming from the Northside. Many of them say they live over North. Even Brooklyn, the 5-9 300-pond drug dealer, is back on the corner of Chicago and Franklin. How in the hell can someone that conspicuous (I have seen less white cloth in a sloop's sail than his white T-shirt) and that blatant get away with thumbing his nose at cops? He has openly bragged that the police efforts just get the dumb street competition, that the cops are not smart enough to take him down. So the "Word" is out and the smart rats are already bailing. Coming to new opportunities. Heck, Chicago-Franklin is "Known" across the nation as the "honey Pot" for drug profits. What we need is that "Drug&Crime Task Force" that would follow it wherever it goes, until it leaves Minneapolis all together. We need a comprehensive, coherent plan that simply does not topically treat the symptom, but that systemically removes the entire disease. And does not stop until it does! RT has made a start in the right direction. Lets all expect it and him to continue. Continue even when the "better" neighborhoods scream about occasionally seeing one of "Our" drug dealers outside the City's designated "War Zones". Hopefully RT will not make the mistake Sharon did. Of course Sharon never thought it was a serious enough problem to overcome her embarrassment and ask for outside help. So already RT is showing he takes it a great deal more serious. Thanks again RT. Jim Graham, Ventura Village >" Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs." - Henry Ford PS: By the way List Manager, you do not have to worry about "feeding the troll". Trolls live under bridges, and Minneapolis does not even allow people to sleep under its bridges! 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, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
