MessageMICAH issuing an "Affordable Housing Alert" is much like the Klan issuing an alert to racism. It just is not believable coming from an organization that has made such unethical charges in the past. Remember this is the organization whose representatives have labeled Neighborhoods and Neighborhood residents as the "Problem" and the "Enemy". It is also an organization that has seemed to have advocated for concentrating poverty and crime in "Containment zones". Concentration areas that also just happen to be Impacted minority neighborhoods.
What was probably an admirable mission for MICAH to start with has turned into an organization not unlike the old missionaries who took Native Children off of reservations and concentrated them in boarding schools and orphanages "for their own good". These people do not seem to be real about affordable housing, they seem more interested in attacking neighborhood residents. If they were in fact concerned about affordable housing they would be attempting to cooperate with neighborhood residents to build affordable housing that is acceptable. That tactic has certainly worked well in my neighborhood. With ethical organizations like American Indian Housing, GMMHC, and CCHT cooperating with the neighborhood residents to build several hundred affordable housing units that the residents actually wanted. It sure works better than the practices of the unethical ones such as PPL that the neighborhood has to go to Federal Court to stop from discriminating. MICAH and many other organizations are not seemingly truly interested in workable solutions. They seem more interested in forcing THEIR solution on others, rather than being a partner in building affordable housing. The old saying goes you can get more with honey than vinegar. Or "Smart Growth is being SMART enough to ask people what they need". Anyone remember MICAH reps coming to your neighborhood and asking "What do you and the people here need?". No, they are possibly too busy telling people what they need to bother with asking! Where exactly was MICAH when the Neighborhoods and their good friends Peter McLaughlin and Mark Stengline were attempting to create a means for poor people to own their own homes and control their own destiny? Unlike neighborhood people MICAH seems to be more interested in maintaining and "Keeping" people in poverty rather than empowering them to rise out of it. More interested in improving the bank accounts of large developers rather than improving the lives of poor people. There are thousands of new multi-unit affordable rental units already in the construction pipeline. Why not spend precious City dollars on a spectrum of affordable housing, rather than the one that is already in over abundance. Of course like the Missionaries, MICAH is likely to be more interested in their imposed solutions than any solutions that might actually meet real human needs. MICAH's support for large developers such as Sherman is an example of such. Charges of racism are not new in an attempt to line someone's pockets. I wonder if Sherman is willing to build the same project without public money? Any project that has neighborhood opposition should be required to supply its own funding. Perhaps the rich white church members of MICAH could finance the project in their neighborhoods? If they are truly serious about their Christianity and gave enough they should not require public dollars to build a project that the public seems to not want. That is the answer: If the project does not need zoning changes then the Council should allow them to build it, but with the strict stipulation that NO public tax dollars be invested in it. Convince the neighborhoods they are worthwhile then they might get some money. NO NEIGHBORHOOD SUPPORT = NO TAX DOLLARS! Of course it will be interesting to see if MICAH is successful in forcing this project into a Non-Impacted Neighborhood and non "Impacted Area". We will probably get to see the relative power of neighborhoods. Sure makes one wish Samuels was over in my neighborhood. This could be a real test of both Samuels" fortitude" and political power. If I did not have to work tomorrow I would go down and watch the fireworks. Heck, I might any way. Now you neighborhood people do not forget to call your Council Member like MICAH has requested. And some advice for MICAH, start talking to neighborhoods instead of calling them "problems" and spitting at them as if they were an enemy. Sure makes more friends. Friends who might think you actually cared about people. It's the Christian thing to do. Jim Graham, Ventura Village >"Why is it the Mongols of this world always tell us they're defending us against the Mongols?" 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
