After finding the Sperling site for comparing cities, I first started comparing against well-known non-Minnesota cities. But then I thought it would be more interesting to compare Minneapolis to St Paul as well as some suburbs. My comparison to Fridley is at:
http://www.bestplaces.net/html/cceduc.asp?lstat=MN&lcity=2743000&rstat=MN&rcity=2722814
Anyway, the interesting thing about Fridley is not ONLY are the crime rates lower in everything but larceny (possibly due to shoplifting in Fridley stores), but living there is CHEAPER than in Minneapolis. I would expect often to find the opposite. But then if you look at the job statistics you find the rub: 86 percent of Minneapolis residents work somewhere in Hennepin County. Only 16 percent of Fridley residents work in the same county as they live. You can LIVE cheaply (and safely) there. You simply can't WORK there except in a small number of cases. In short, an oasis of safety and economy like Fridley only can survive due to higher-cost neighbors. That is, I think they benefit from the higher costs their neighbors pay without sharing the cost. If user fees paid for everything, Fridley residents would pay more and Minneapolis residents would pay less. At least, that's my inference from the data.
"Activistas"
I think it would be truer to say that policy is a matter of balancing the wants of the outsiders vs. the wants of the neighborhood residents. The realities of politics dictate you cannot just ignore the power of the outsider. But no politician is going to kowtow to them because, after all, democracy doesn't put people in elected office to do that. Now, some would say that no one should establish residence on a busy city street and then complain that it is busy. But when you have a speeding problem, it had to start at some point, and the people who moved in before have no choice but to fight it. It seems to me that people who object to traffic calming should look at the source of the problem which is NOT the "activistas". If streets were made deadend to discourage those who drop trash, isn't it the trash-dropping that is the cause? Same here.
Tickets
I guess there's some obvious logic in tickets and jail for minor offenses. But tickets CAN be fought if the recipient thinks the evidence is weak. And jail DOES cost money with the perennial choice of "who do I give a cell, the rape suspect or the dog-feces leaver?" If one thinks his way through to the consequences of a policy, it may not look so attractive anymore. I still say the atmosphere of respect for the law comes from the top. We live in a country where the attorney general flouts laws. It is vain to expect the hormone-stricken brain of the adolescent to think law is holy when presented with such examples.
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Jim Mork
Cooper Neighborhood
Try lighting a few candles. The world is all stocked up with cursers of the darkness.
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