Jim Mork's post is that strange mix of things you might agree with and things you shake your head about.
1. Shooting. I doubt very much if the shooting involved a "legal" gun. The reason for my doubt is that the news did talk about some past problems with the St Paul Courts, so it is very doubtful that the woman had a "permit to carry". But it would have been nice for the Strib to point out that this WAS an illegal gun and had nothing to do with the new law. So coming from a different direction I agree with Mork that the reporting was not as complete as it should have been. 2. Impacted. I believe the word "Impact" was in the English language (and with its understood meaning) for sometime before Jim Mork worked at the Government Center. The word use is proper in this circumstance. Not just because it is what the word is understood to mean, but also because it has some legal understanding. "Impacted areas" are defined as those areas having too great a concentration of poverty or too great a concentration of minority residents. Court and Federal Policy have defined certain areas of Minneapolis as being "Impacted Areas". When crime statistics are looked at, when concentrations of supportive housing is looked at, when residences for level three sex offenders is looked at, when housing for those on supervised probation are looked at, (and almost any other factor that most people would consider negative is looked at) then you will find them concentrated in those same "Impacted Areas" and "Impacted Neighborhoods". Those statistics are so overwhelming that one would have to be "crazy" not to see the implications. 3. Crazy. As crazy as it seems we in Phillips and Ventura Village are looking forward to a little gentrification. Our Master Planning even envisions it. The difference is we have attempted to plan ways for OUR poor to become "gentrified" rather importing the "gents". Affordable homeownership is one of the ways we have planned, with higher density, compact use and economic development tied to proximity to downtown and mass transit. We have never envisioned KEEPING people poor. That is what has put City "Planners" and Officials at odds with us. The "Officials" and "Planners" plan on ways to maintain the neighborhood as a containment zone for poverty and crime. While we prefer to find ways to empower and advantage our present residents. The City's "Plan" was to concentrate the problems until the property became worthless and then displace the people and bulldoze for big developer and non-profiteer buddies. If "Downtown" wants to bulldoze near downtown perhaps the Kenwood area might be available? No, they probably have different "plans". We defiantly DO have different plans! 4. Racism. Other than that Swedes being "Super Caucasian" comment I would have to agree with Jim Mork. The "Cultural Differences" probably are more problematic for many people than the "race" of the person. After the fact the person adds race to the explanation. Recently Robert Cook, my neighbor, and I had a heated and enjoyable debate on the Oscar-Shane fight. Both of us being from Arkansas cotton fields and boxers make for a heated, and somewhat loud, friendly conversation. It also means a lot of gesturing with fists, mock boxing to make a point, and ending the conversations several times with comments that bring the other party heatedly back to the conversation again. After this very enjoyable moment we noticed that many of our "White" and Latino neighbors were cautiously watching us and clearly thinking they were watching a fight about to break out. Rather than two good friends having fun about a boxing match and the bet they made. A police officer from the suburbs who might have been driving by could have mistakenly thought an altercation was happening, and if he or she had stopped to discourage it, probably would have had a couple of laughingly belligerent people to deal with. This is one of the reasons we need to recruit police officers from our own City. It does not have to be just one minority or another, but they should defiantly be residents from our neighborhoods. Our own young people do have an "advanced degree" in our own inner-city people's culture. That is a valuable skill set that should be recruited for and given advantage when hiring officers. Jim Graham, Ventura Village >"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ 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
