I forward to The List an "open letter" I, among others, received from a
resident of the Lyndale/Lowry area. I do share SOME of the authors concerns.
Disclosure: The author is my long term, and very excellent, tenant. Keith Reitman
NearNorth
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Earth Protector, Inc.
622 Lowry Avenue North
P.O. Box 11688
Minneapolis, MN 55411-1441
612/522-9433
www.EarthProtector.org
August 18, 2003
To: Hennepin County Commissioners
Minneapolis City Council Members
Metropolitan Council, Director of Housing and Livable Communities
Federal Highway Administration, State Director
RE: Opposition to Hennepin Community Works Project for Lowry Avenue Corridor
Dear Sir or Madam:
Hennepin County is requesting a Livable Communities Demonstration Account
Development Grant (LCDA) of $1.2 million for one block along Lowry Avenue to
�acquire some of the properties� between 4th Street and 6th Street and Lowry
Avenue and 31st Avenue.
Earth Protector and numerous community residents affected by the above
referenced Project are in strong opposition to its implementation.
The Project proposers would like the public, various agencies, and the
federal government to think that the purpose of rebuilding Lowry Avenue is to reduce
crime, create jobs, improve transportation with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and
increase development when in reality its purpose is to ethnically cleanse the
community, i.e.: Negroes out and whites in.
Those of us who live and work along Lowry Avenue at Lyndale Avenue believe
that this is a scheme by Hennepin County to bilk money out of the federal
government, the State of Minnesota treasury and the Metropolitan Council for work
along the Lowry Corridor in order to ethnically cleanse the neighborhood and
benefit special interest developers and consultants who are friendly to
officials of Hennepin County.
We have excellent bus service in my community. The #22 bus goes north and
south along Lyndale Avenue and the #32 bus goes east and west along Lowry Avenue.
Both buses provide reliable service to anyone in my community who wants to
get to a job, shopping, or entertainment. Nothing in the Hennepin Works Lowry
Corridor Project will help our community. What it will do however is uproot
families, force them to change schools for their kids, and in general disrupt
the lives of people who need stability; not six foot bicycle lanes.
Commissioner Stenglein and I met in my Lowry Avenue office in April 2000 to
hear the tales of two drug dealers. He and I, his assistant, Pioneer Press
reporter Richard Chin, and two drug dealers fresh in from the street met for more
than an hour. Commissioner Stenglein learned that it would take money to get
the two drug dealers off the street and into training, work and paying taxes.
Isn�t that better than putting them in prison for $30,000 to $50,000 per year?
Commissioner Stenglein said there was no money available for this type of
thing.
How can that be when millions of dollars are available for work on Lowry
Avenue? Work that will not benefit the people living here and who need help the
most. Instead the money will go to line the pockets of well connected special
interest consultants and developers.
My community needs and wants recognition, training, education, employment
opportunities, professional mentoring and equal opportunity. A fair chance.
While it is true that certain changes need to be made to reduce crime and
make life better for my community, that is not what is being proposed. Negroes
out and upper middle class whites in is the plan. Otherwise, who will occupy the
$150 per square foot town houses being proposed on the 4th/6th/Lowry/31st St.
section proposed for demolition? Hardly anyone that the County is planning to
force out of this area will be able to afford to live in the new townhouses.
We are asking you to reexamine and review the Lowry Corridor proposal with an
eye toward Lowry Avenue revitalization in a more immediate and cost effective
way so that it benefits those of us who have lived here for many years and
endured the bad along with the good. Now that we have endured we want ownership
of our own community not relocation.
What�s needed now on Lowry Avenue are a few traffic turn signals here and
there, proper policing, training, education, employment opportunities, and
professional mentoring for many of the people who live here. We do not need entire
blocks demolished, families already under great stress uprooted, and the
construction of townhouses that none of us can afford.
In addition, routing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to Lowry Avenue from Highway 81
to downtown Minneapolis is inappropriate, and misdirected, when BRT is already
proposed to go along West Broadway and into downtown. West Broadway is the
appropriate commuter corridor. If people living near Lowry Avenue need BRT to
get to work in distant northwest areas they can take the existing bus system to
West Broadway or the North Memorial Transit Depot and change there.
Let�s think smart and work together for the future of the Northside. Let�s
not simply use the Lowry Avenue Corridor plan as a Trojan horse to ethnically
and economically cleanse my community.
Sincerely,
Leslie Davis, President
Earth Protector, Inc.
LD/ck
Cc: Ms. Karla Weigold, Community Resident
Mr. Keith Reitman, Property Owner
West Broadway Area Coalition
Minneapolis Property Rights Coalition
Minneapolis Urban League
African American Men�s Project
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Chicago Office
United States Justice Department, Washington, DC
Senator Norm Coleman
Senator Mark Dayton
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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