By golly Barb, I think you have something there. Concentrating poverty, shelter beds, and special needs housing in poor and minority neighborhoods is segregation and NOT legal? Yes, it definitely is. I can offer an explanation for it though. Developers make a lot of money from affordable multi-unit supportive housing, and shelter beds. Powerful neighborhoods where more affluent white people live do not want affordable housing and especially special needs people of any kind in their midst. They DO have the ability to stop it. Yet politicians still have to make their developer buddies happy and pay for "contributions".
What do you get when politicians need to make both affluent white residents and developer "friends" happy at the same time? You get concentrations of supportive housing and shelter beds in a very few neighborhoods where people are minority and not affluent. You also get institutional patterns of discrimination and racism. Isn't it amazing that a City so dominated by supposedly "Liberal" Democrats would engage in such a thorough exhibition of such discrimination? I guess the key word here is "SUPPOSEDLY"! What would these people be called? Yes In Your Back Yard, (YIYBY's)? Now all of you who think you are "Real" Liberal Democrats need to call your council member and mayor to ask them to please stop discriminating against poor minority people. Please stop attempting to create "containment zones" and concentration camp communities for those with special needs. After all special needs people also come from other parts of Minneapolis and Hennepin County. Isn't it time those "Fortress Neighborhoods" stopped being ashamed of their people and allowed them to live in their own communities? Like an invisible "Steel Curtin" the fortress walls have been erected by hard, cold, affluent hearts to keep the less fortunate contained by discrimination! I, like that hated Republican Regan, say to those Liberal Democrats, " Mayor Rybak and Minneapolis Council break down these walls!" All of you please do needy people a favor this Thanksgiving week. Join me in a phone call plea doing the same. Please? If enough people call maybe it will soften those hard hearts. Thanksgiving sure would be a good time to start. Leave a message if they do not answer the phone. Jim Graham, Ventura Village- Impacted Neighborhood >"It is always an utter folly to underestimate the lure and attraction of a great evil. The whitened bones of their victims litter the highways and byways of mankind's history. Stopped only by the few willing to pay the ultimate price and make a stand." - Toe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Lickness" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 9:52 AM Subject: [Mpls] Re: SW Journal article on Affordable Housing > The article states: > > The new units are: > Heritage Park, Phase II, Aldrich Avenue North and 7th > Street (57 units); > Lydia Apartments, 1920 LaSalle Ave. (40 units); > Franklin Gateway, 613 E. Franklin Ave. (36 units); > Philips Park Initiative, Phase IIc, 2438 Oakland Ave. > S (24 units); > Trinity Gateway, 2805 E. Lake St. (16 units); and > Lofts on Arts Avenue, 1817-29 3rd Ave. S. (seven > units). > > A total of 164 units with all but 16 of them being > built in neighborhoods that are already highly > concentrated with affordable housing. The 16 units not > being built in an impacted area are within a half mile > of an impacted area. > > I think that shows pretty clearly that concentration > of poverty and special needs housing is alive and well > in Minneapolis. I think purposely concentrating > affordable housing projects in certain geographic > areas could be construed as segregation. Anybody care > to give another explanation for it? > > Barb Lickness > Whittier > Impacted neighborhood > 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. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ 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
