Perspective does wonders for elevating discourse. In the 1950s and '60s, urban renewal was a blunt instrument. Highways ate neighborhoods, demolition trumped preservation, people affected were objectified by decision-makers remote from the living realities involved. In the 1970s, post the time of troubles in the late '60s, steps were taken at the federal level to give people affected at least an advisory voice in what was being contemplated for their living situations.
We had quite an abrasive time with that notion in Minneapolis at first and the lessons learned then were applied by new leadership in the 1980s. Remember LUPA in the mid-'80s? The Minnesota Land Use Planning Act? What a toothless wonder that turned out to be. Some suburbs are still dragging their feet on affordable housing issues and we are twenty years beyond that early effort. In our fair city, NRP was born in the 1990s and it caught on in a big way. What had started out as a thin veneer of "professional citizens" in the 1970s - as then City Council Member Dziedzic described the impudent rascals who insisted that Minneapolis toe the marks laid down by federal imperatives - became a force to be reckoned with as neighborhood after neighborhood learned how to take on decision-making previously reserved for the cadre in City Hall. Still advisory, mind you, but multiplied exponentially and exceedingly fine-grained and linked to elective politics. We come to the municipal election cycle in 2005 and the two mayoral candidates are forced by the active participation in NRP by thousands of citizens to wrestle with what to do with all these informed fishermen - No more fish on the municipal blue plate specials - we know how to fish now and are not about to surrender our fishing poles. What's more, learning "how to fish" has become a popular course for our new arrivals and the more seasoned neighborhood activists have had to make room on the fishing docks for these new faces. There has been occasional venality over the years. Clever people have gamed the system and sometimes jostling for a place on crowded fishing docks has been more than a little violent. But I submit there has been a structural change in how the City of Minneapolis conducts its thought processes since my arrival here in 1969 and I really don't think the annoying budget shortfalls we have on our hands compliments of conservative majorities elsewhere are going to put an end to our fishing habits. Fred Markus, Phillips West, Ward 6 --- http://USFamily.Net/dialup.html - $8.25/mo! -- http://www.usfamily.net/dsl.html - $19.99/mo! --- REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
