Laura Sether speaking for the Mayor in this campaign piece says, "Public safety throughout the City is the number-one priority. Rybak referenced the unprecedented work of Chief McManus partnering with the Hennepin County Sheriff, Transit Police, and Downtown Council to coordinate security concerns."
I am sorry Laura, and RT, but while this may be unprecedented for Chief McManus it is NOT for either Minneapolis or for the "Chief" of Police in Minneapolis. Then U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug, Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety Don Davis, County Attorney Pete Cahill, Sheriff Pat McGowan, Transit Police Chief Mansell Mitchell, the Minnesota Attorney General, and yes the Minneapolis Chief of Police Bob Olson once did the same thing. The Community representatives on that "Drug and Crime Task Force" were myself and a police sergeant named Ralf Culhane. I do not remember if it was myself or David Lillehaug who thought it up, but it was a good idea. David Lillehaug, Don Davis and Pat McGowan were the driving force behind it.
When South Minneapolis faced a flood of drugs and crime and an uncaring City Hall Lillehaug, Davis, and McGowan were the friends of the Neighborhoods who stepped forward. When we at PNBC asked to be declared a "National Disaster Area" because of the crime and blight those three with Mansell Mitchell came forward to be the engines that pulled the load. North Minneapolis needs that commitment now, but North residents have to realize that it was an effort driven by Neighborhood people, not City Hall. If they do not drive it, the train will not get them safely home. No matter how good an engine you have, it is the community people who add the spark and keep pumping the gas peddle.
So Mayor Rybak and Chief McManus, if you want to be "Building on South Side Success" go to the authors of that success. Go to the Neighborhood activist who drove that train. Also, ask David Lillehaug and Don Davis. David especially can and would be able to give you some insight. Of course David became a part of our community, so with him you get the best of both worlds. It is why the community still loves him.
Laura and the Mayor can be excused for assumptions they make about the clean up of the Phillips Neighborhood and Franklin Avenue. They were not there. Chuck Wexlar also had little to do with it. I am afraid Chuck was more involved with the doughnut he was brought in to create around Honeywell and Allina after PNBC and the community were already at work. The community people with their Neighborhood Block Clubs, partnering with a few street cops, and a United States Attorney are responsible for that effort, not someone from Harvard telling officials what the Block Club people had already been telling them all along. You take a city and a community back "Block by Block", and you hold it.
So Laura, I am glad that the Mayor has come to realize what the real priorities of his office are, before it is too late. He could have just asked, or perhaps read back issues of the Minneapolis Issues Forum. This matter has been extensively discussed before. "Communicating" these new ideas is great, but communication is a two way deal. Perhaps listening might increase the productivity of that communication. You do not have to create a new wheel when Firestone lives down the block. Bringing in the "Pro from Dover" makes good copy, but a little listening to the "communication" of community people who have real experience in Minneapolis might help to address the real problem. The book has already been written, you just have to read it. Heck, RT should know that. There were still twenty or thirty drug dealers per block in some areas of Franklin after he was in office. RT sat through a couple of meetings at the Franklin Safety Center when we were putting the finishing touch on Franklin's clean up.
Well at least the problem is now being talked about as if it is serious, so hopefully we will begin to see resources dedicated to it. So thanks RT.
Jim Graham, Ventura Village,
"The attempt to close the gap between what is known and what IS, is the temptation behind the apple in Genesis."
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