Mr. Johnson, are you suggesting that violations of occupancy limits should have been ignored?
[Johnson]:
Of course I am not suggesting any such thing, but you are trying really hard to change the subject by ignoring the fact that the three UM student deaths were not caused by overoccupancy.
One can call a sow's ear a silk purse, but that doesn't make it one (although it once was proven technologically possible to convert the one into the other at great expense).
So it being established that the deaths were not caused by overoccupancy, then why did the sweeps become mostly about occupancy limits and just a bit about fire safety?
The tradition on the East Bank of the residents discriminating against students is a longstanding one, and the Prospect Park club worked hard to keep it going even before Zerby became CM Zerby. But then the three UM student deaths in September 2003 was an excuse to do the extensive overoccupancy sweeps under the pretense of 'safety sweeps'.
I cite once again an article in the East Bank's neighborhood newspaper, "Renters left out in the cold?", "Southeast Angle", p. 4 (Dec 2003), which in paragraph 5 reports: "JoAnn Velde, city housing inspections director, said most violations cited in the sweeps so far were for occupancy limits."
That is now supplemented by referring to another article the following month in that newspaper, "Fury erupts at meeting on renter issues", "Southeast Angle", pp. 1-3 (Jan 2004), which on p. 1 reports, "The safety weep has become an occupancy sweep, as owners are cited for overoccupied properties rather than safety violations."
Moving just across the Mississippi, I ask you, how do you explain the major overoccupancy and very poor general conditions in Riverside Plaza with its 1,303 units which is also in CM Zerby's ward, but which he totally ignores?
Does Riverside Plaza being across the Mississippi River somehow make the overoccupancy problem there into some Western-cow-country-situation which is judged to be tolerable, but not at all acceptable in the Elite Eastern Enclave on the East Bank?
As far as the PP folks and CM Zerby are concerned, living in Cedar-Riverside must be about like living on the wrong side of the tracks as it was spoken of in the 1940s and 1950s. I thought that in great progressive Minneapolis that sort of segregationist thinking had been left behind long ago.
(continued in Part 2 which follows)
Bob Johnson Cedar-Riverside West Bank W2-P10
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