For me, it is enough that a candidate for mayor would say that they are 100% committed to accomplishing more appropriate staffing levels (for public safety) within a specific period of time, to offer myself and my neighbors the same level of protection that my fellow residents in more affluent neighbors enjoy and expect.
We speak in wonderment of the "silent majority" that exists on the northside. The overwhelming majority that WON'T come forward and report crime when they see it happening. They WON"T get involoved when they witness an injustice occurring. Lately, I have come to hold this "silent majority" in a higher regard than I do the even larger "silent majority" that exists everywhere else in our fine city.
It simply amazes me that we've had 8 fellow citizens murdered in a 2 square-mile area in the first two-months of this year. And for every one of these 8 murders, there's been probably 50 near misses where shots were fired, as even the police will tell you that these thugs don't shoot very straight. Think about that for a moment. Would that be tolerated in Kenwood or Kingfield? Yet an issue like Dutch-Elm disease that is killing our trees receives ten-fold the attention AND immediate attention from both our city administration AND the larger "silent-majority". It appears that we, as a collective group do in fact value life and safety. It is simply a matter of which lives and what safety we hold in the highest regard.
In the late 80's and early 90's, we collectively "buried our heads in the sand" and denied that a gang problem existed amongst us. We now collectively choose to deny that there is a very real and very significant public safety issue in one of our neighborhoods. I have lately come to believe that the larger silent majority silently believes that everything is okay on the northside. The unwritten belief is that given a choice this is how "they" want to live. Have we really progressed that far frm the way things were done in the not-to-distant past. The time when collectively, communties in our country allowed segregated minority to "plice themselves" and only intervened when something that could not be ignored, happened. Like a homicide. Then we'd send our police to the "other side of the railroad tracks" and impart social justice.
I sat and talked for about 1/2 hour with an officer on 26th Avenue and Knox Ave N on Friday evening shortly after the most recent tradegy. According to this officer, the feeling of many of his co-workers (in the 4th) is frustration and poor morale. Imagine showing-up to work one day and having your boss tell you that the company you worked for could no longer afford to staff itself at the same level it had in the past. Yet, he expected you to do 20% more work (for the same pay) and produce the very same results as you had in the past. Currently, from my perspective anyway, we are getting more from less with our officers in the 4th. It is NOT enough.
As a city, maybe we should take the same approach with the construction of the new public library downtown. Let's approach the General Contractor for the project and tell him revenues are 20% lower than they were when he agreed to construct this fine building for us. Therefore, he needs to build the same product for 20% less. Or, let's approach the tree services that will be removing the diseased trees and ask them to remove 25% more trees for the same money.
Somehow, I just think it's easier for everyone to cut basic services to the smaller "silent majorities" living throughout our city.
Maybe a more relevent question at this point in time would be for someone to ask - In light of the bedget crisis, have we cut non-essential services over-all by a percentage that is significantly higher than that which we have cut essential services. Of course, it is highly likely that the data could be "massaged" to support any conclusion you'd like to portray. However, we've decided to spend more funds immediately to "fight the war on dutch-elm disease" in our city, yet I have not heard a comparable movement on the part of the city to "fight the on basic public livability" on the northside.
I do believe that this list represents a fair and accurate portrayal of the "pulse" of out fine city. I have witnessed numerous very impassioned and very heated debates on everything from leaf-blower ordinances, to the dysfunction of our Park Board, to whether or not we are taxing businesses fairly. While these are all very important issues that need to be addressed, I wonder what it says about our priorities when we feel the need to question "how we are going to pay for more police officers", when we so easily and quickly find the funds to combat the "war on dutch-elm disease". Yes, the benefit to this decision is that we will all continue to be able to drive the boulevards in more affluent neighborhoods and view the magificent foliage. And continue to keep the "dirty little secret" of the northside out-of-sight and out-of-mind.
dennis plante jordan
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