Dyna, the cost of the paint for your eves is possibly, just possibly, $50.00. There are neighborhood programs where Val-Spar gives away paint so possibly the cost is nothing. I have some old paint I should throw away, so maybe there is a source. It might not be the exact color you like but mix until you find something you don't dislike. Inspectors can't tell you to have taste, so paint it multicolor and get a good laugh. I will loan you a ladder if I get the promise of it being ALWAYS locked up when not in use. I am also sure one of your Northside neighbors might loan you one; so you do not have to come way over South. So I guess for fifty bucks (or no bucks) you are free of jail. Not quite as melodramatic, but what the hell are neighbors for.
Possibly you are handicapped so you cannot climb a ladder? AHHHHH, now if you look around you will find that there are Church groups who will come and paint your eves for you. If Dyna gets hives from a bunch of Jesus freaks saying God Bless you and such, then she can hire it done inexpensively by other labor. Go down to Pease House at around 11:00 on any day and ask if some one wants to do some paintwork for a few hours. I might ask who is the best painter there first to get a good one, but we are not talking rocket science here so eager is probably better than good for eves. See, all homeownership takes is a little support and a bit of knowledge, and it is easy. But you do have to be willing to make a couple of calls. I know Dyna has a phone, or can borrow one, because this Internet stuff kinda requires it. You also have to be willing to ask for help. I loan ladders, scaffolding, tools, and expertise to other neighbors all the time. I will bet if she hasn't alienated all her neighbors that Dyna knows other neighbors who also have all those same things within a few blocks of her house. A couple of weeks ago I helped a couple neighbor "poor homeowners" do roofs. One a senior handicapped lady and the other a recent Latino emigrant. They had the labor arranged, but not the know-how. I supplied the know-how about valleys, drip edge, where to put ice and water, vents, chimney rigglet, etc. These were people who did not get homeownership grants when they were available and had to have a roof NOW! Have a new roof now or possibly lose their insurance, their mortgage, and then their houses. Dennis Plante and others could have offered the same advice on the Northside. Of course I doubt if that advice and help would have been "free" for someone whom I did not have a neighborhood relationship with. The funny thing is that the people doing the painting and the roofing and handyman carpentry are very often the same people who need affordable housing. They are often much better at keeping a house going than office workers, or computer workers, or old civil servants. But the excuse is used that they are incapable of maintaining a house. Jim Mork's assertions remind me of the racism that once came out of the old South about Black People. Of course it might be the same ugly head unknowingly rising in a different place since the people needing affordable housing, and most prevented from having "homeownership", are American Indians and Black people. I can hear those good pseudo-liberals now: "Those poor people, and those Indians, and those Black people just could not maintain their own home, so we better just keep em in poverty". "Since they can't maintain it we should just take those Indian's land and manage it for them. Heck if they kept it long enough some liberal might come up with 'land trust' and they might think they had one." " What's that you say, will we make some money? Well you have to have the program administered, and administered by someone, don't you? Well yes, white middle class suburban people need those jobs helping to maintain poor people." Poor people in my neighborhood know all kinds of people who KNOW how to "fix" houses; they do not have the skills to GET those houses. They need support in many of the cultural knowledge things that many such as Mr. Mork take for granted. (Mortgages, credit, insurance, taxes.) That is the reason for supportive home ownership. It just takes a little "support" at first rather than a lifetime of support. It takes a whole lot less to support someone owning a home than to "support" keeping them in poverty. It is a whole lot cheaper also. That support might bring the homeownership skills culture to the children also, so the vicious cycle of poverty is broken for more than one generation. Everyone should remember Poverty costs taxpayers a lot. It is a good investment to just end it. The only down side is a bunch of college educated social service types will have to go back to work in the real world at what they are actually qualified to do. But hey, we need good workers, with good English, taking orders at McDonalds and Burger King. The conscientious could possibly move up to Culvers. After the house is acquired what homeownership mainly takes is knowledge that poor people already do have. It is the knowledge of what manual labor is all about. If that were the qualification for homeownership then perhaps Mr. Mork's college educated friends are the ones who are "Unqualified" for homeownership. Those like Mr. Mork who are laboring under miss perceptions about poor people, should open their minds to what it takes to be a homeowner and what it costs all of us to keep people in poverty. But that ability is probably not possible. As Joseph Henry said, "The seeds of great discoveries are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive them." So I wish Mr. Mork and others would not let their prejudices about poverty blind them to who does the real "work" in this community and this country. (Opening eyes to see crime as a problem in our City also) And Dyna cut the crap and paint your eves, or go to jail to make a point in your fight with inspections, but do not become a case study and poster child in why poor people cannot be allowed to own a home. Small minded pseudo-liberals and hardhearted pseudo-conservatives WILL seize upon it to harm poor people. Jim Graham, Ventura Village >""Advances are made by those with at least a touch of irrational confidence in what they can do." 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
