Dorie Rae Gallagher writes, "Of course there are other funding possibilities for a library. Bake Sales! We have NRP monies that have helped us out for 17 weeks. There might have been more if our NRP money was not allocated to hire police at time and a half for the Phillips neighborhood. Just how much taxpayer's money was given to Ventura Village? How about all the money that dissappeared! That could have kept our library open for about 15 years. Sounds like a solid little group that might be a little self serving!"
I'm sorry that Dorie Rae Gallagher seemed to become angry at my suggestion of other sources of funding and my giving as an example the gallant efforts of many residents of our area to keep the Franklin Library open during reconstruction. Faith, but I was only attempting to be helpful and encouraging. There was a great deal more effort put forward by the Franklin area residents than just a bake sale. For such a poor area to raise $250,000.00 is much like the wealthier Hennepin Lake-Lake of the Isles area raising 2.5 million. My point was to encourage people to look for alternative funding to leverage other recourses. Dorie Ray is sadly mistaken about her "our" NRP dollars going to pay for time and a half police buy back for the Phillips Neighborhood. None of "her" neighborhood's dollars were used to my knowledge. But perhaps they should be! Until the Phillips Neighborhood enjoys the same degree of public safety as she and her neighborhood enjoys. Until that happens it is a bit selfish for some one to resent the poorer police protection that a neighborhood like Phillips gets than a place like Uptown. I am sure places like Jordan and Phillips would trade Uptown some of "their" NRP dollars for the same level of public safety as the Uptown area residents enjoy. Some folks from these "Better" neighborhoods might ask themselves exactly what they would pay to not have their children offered drugs as they wait for the school bus, or for their children not to get their sex education from watching hookers turn tricks in the driveways behind their houses. While there was indeed wholesale plundering of the Phillips NRP several years ago, and a lot of money in fact did seem to disappear from the old POP organization, this was before the inception of Ventura Village. In fact it was a part of the reason for the formation of the Ventura Village Neighborhood. Approximately 90% to 95% of all the dollars allocated to Ventura Village have gone into housing. Also, just for Dorie, and some other's information, NO dollars have disappeared from Ventura Village. Mary Watson does an excellent job of bean counting for Ventura Village and the books have been audited at least twice that I know of in Ventura Village's short life. Those audits show that Ventura Village's funds are ALL well accounted for. (Thanks to you Mary Watson) Sure some of Ventura Village's funds have been allocated for public safety. Mainly because the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County has not lived up to their obligation to provide a safe, relatively crime free environment for our residents. We in Ventura Village are not ashamed that we do care about the safety of our residents, even though some elected officials are not that concerned enough to do their sworn duty. Remember, this was the area that requested "National Disaster" designation because of crime and related blight in as short a time ago as 1997. Though the Neighborhood did not receive FEMA status it did bring national and international attention to the failings of Minneapolis. That fight empowered the residents to learn a valuable lesson. The residents could not count on public officials to address their problems; they had to give themselves "Disaster Relief". It was clear that without that effort their neighborhood was going to remain what the news media labeled the "Crime ridden Phillips", or the "Troubled Phillips Neighborhood". Dorie Rae and others should perhaps take a look at what Ventura Village has accomplished with its NRP dollars. Compare what Ventura Village started with compared with your neighborhoods and compare where it has gone with that of your own neighborhood. Approximately $70,000 of NRP economic development dollars went into a Master Land Use Plan that has already stimulated approximately $130 million dollars of committed development along Franklin Avenue. I dare say Ventura Village could teach most neighborhoods and even Cities something about leveraging funds and development. The Ventura Village portion of NRP dollars has leveraged over a hundred to one in return (and is still going and leveraging). It has changed the face of one of the most troubled commercial corridors and troubled neighborhoods in Minneapolis. It is a model of what "Empowerment" of its residents can do for a community. Dorie says, "Sounds like a solid little group that might be a little self serving!", and I say well thank you for your observation and compliment! Ventura Village is a solid little neighborhood that has in fact learned to be self serving, because we learned to not wait for someone else to "serve us". It would have been a very long wait. The term "Cold day in Hell" comes to mind. "Empowerment" means learning to serve and help yourself. So take a little advice from the shoe ad and "Just Do It". Good luck Jim Graham, Ventura Village (Not Phillips Neighborhood), of the Phillips Community Planning District, in the 6th Ward of the Metropolis 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
