Jeanne Massey: I think you are correct in your points about the suburbs not having affordable housing and other services that Minneapolis has, but is reducing, at the same time that property taxes are going up. I am an architect and know a bit about this issue too. The question I would pose is that if affordable housing is being eliminated in the city, and property taxes are going up which is forcing people to leave, where are the people going? If people are leaving Minneapolis, they aren't vanishing into thin air. What impact is this going to have on suburbs and our fair city?
A. Tax, and property value escalation is pushing blue collar people, immigrants and the poor out of the city. Their neighborhoods are slowly being taken over and renovated, forcing out renters and people on fixed incomes. This is unfortunate because the vast majority of these people work hard and contribute to our society, they have a respected place in their community, and now finally after their hard work at cleaning up their neighborhood is paying off, they are being priced out of their nieghborhood. It is a shame to see us lose residents who have lived here all of their lives, and are the backbone of our neighborhoods. The roots these people have in the community are important, they are our cultural fundation, they give our city its character and flavor and a sense of history.
B. There is potentially an extremely high cost to these changes. I used to live in St. Louis, MO. The problem they had there was that the city had reached a bottom and had made some small gains. Much affordable housing had been destroyed or was being bought up and renovated at market rates. Affordable housing was no longer a priority of the city, state,and federal government, and public housing was being demolished. As prices went up, people began to get priced out of the market. Remaining areas of affordable housing became crowded with poverty and neglect, and when given a chance, people from these areas moved to the first ring suburbs bringing their problems with them until whole city blocks of housing were all but empty, dillapidated and falling apart. The suburbs were unable to cope with the influx, didn't have the tax base to deal with the problems and rapidly collapsed. The problem of a lack of affordable housing was pushed into the single family housing market in the suburbs by default with disastrous results. It was the only market segment available in the suburbs and could not support the complex needs being placed on it.
C. I fear we are doing a similar thing to our neighboring communities, although I doubt the end result will be as severe because our poverty problems are more manageable than in St. Louis. In Brooklyn Park and Bloominton and other places, lower income and immigrant communities are congregating after being forced out, or opting out of living in Minneapolis, and they have brought their problems with them. Those problems now belong to those suburbs. As a region, we are better off keeping an available stock of affordable home ownership and apartments in the city, letting people have the choice to put down and keep their roots in our community where they can have a long term future. Our suburbs don't have the tax base, or the economies of scale to take in the bulk of the poor, Minneapolis does. If poor people are leaving the City, we can be sure they are going to the Suburbs. The suburbs may not like this phenomena, but it is happening. That is our loss, they are a great asset to our city. If suburbs fail to realize this is taking place, they may end up seeing some tragic results for their community, as has happened in around St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and elsewhere.
D. Some people may say that what goes around, comes around and that these suburbs are just getting theirs for what they did to us over the past 40-50 years. That isn't how it works, we are a regional economy and our quality of life is linked to each other, if they suffer, we suffer and vice a versa. This isn't to say that suburbs shouldn't have affordable housing, they should. But we shouldn't be forcing people to leave Minneapolis, we should be placing more value on our current residents. This should be a local, state and federal priority, to provide a decent housing structure for all people, and giving people a choice about how and where they want to live, whether that be a city, suburb or rural area. Right now there is only one real option for the working poor, they have to move to the suburbs, this limitis both employers and employees in their economic options, it limits our ability to make creative and vibrant communites of varied cultures. If we ignore the issue of poverty and development, and restrict their economic and lifestyle choices, we will pay for it in broken nieghborhoods and urban blight and the generic sameness of mini-storage and cheap strip malls. We are the richest nation on earth, we are in one of the richer cities in a richer state in the richest nation. Lack of resources is a poor excuse for this situation. I believe this is a problem because the poor, minorities and immigrants aren't a priority. Everyone is focused on tax base, and generic economic development and they don't think much about supporting our basic culture and our fundamental values with our tax dollars. I believe our culture and values are what make our tax base possible in the first place, it is what makes living in a city and our country worthwhile.
Peter Vevang NE Mpls.
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