I'd say the infighting there is for the same reason that infighting occurs in political parties and in neighborhood groups. People personally invest their egoes in views of the world and how policy should be executed. Then they cannot back off without losing face. The "white power structure"? They would be onlookers. About the only influence they would have is to model the bad behavior in their own lives in our society.
Lucilles
Never been there. My impression is that it is more important as a community meeting place than as a food service. So maybe the community ought to rescue it. My guess is that when its importance becomes just food, the economics may no longer favor survival. I know I've seen quite a few eating places change hands in Longfellow without the slightest ripple to the city. Molly Quinn's will shortly close. It was also a meeting place. The community is doing nothing as the restaurant moves to St Paul. Gary Schiff tried to make its survival a condition for supporting the Super America's expansion. But that only delayed the inevitable. The Town Talk Diner was an important community meeting place. It, too, closed down with minimal community outcry. I'm wondering why Lucille's community, the prime beneficiaries, aren't trying as hard to save that place as our community tried to save Molly's.
Suing
I didn't "miss" the existence of lawsuits for compliance (for example, the antitrust suit against Microsoft). But several people threw in the "financial penalties" thing, as if that was someone else's concern. Well, that may be true for the outside forum participants. But when city taxpayers start calling for "financial penalties", I gotta wonder. They are calling for minority advocacy groups to pick their own pockets to "teach the city a lesson". When DID that actually happen? I mean, LOOK at all the payouts the city did over the last 10 or 20 years. I never saw the slightest sign that paying out taxpayer money taught the politicians anything. What WOULD maybe work would be for the court to start dictating housing decisions in detail so that the city didn't "accidentally" fail to comply as agreed. But socking the taxpayers? That's fantasy stuff. Dangerous fantasy stuff. And it gives the false impression to the minority communities that "something is being done". But its an illusion. The REAL function of financial penalties is to have a pool from which the lawyers can drink their fill. I say they can drink from someone else's pool. I'm being told "police for yourself, we had to cut back". If government can't police, what is really left of it? It doesnt exist to eliminate housing segregation. That was a function added late in the attempt to undo racist behavior. The racists have never become less racist. And, in fact, rather than the government changing the racists, the racists have changed the government. Let's shoot for means that are more original.
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Jim Mork
Cooper Neighborhood
"The most abject slave is allowed to wave the imperial flag and cry "Hail Caesar" as the tyrant passes by." Anonyous
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