So the List has yielded another bit of information; that we in poor neighborhoods are being discriminated against to even a larger extent. There is absolutely no justification for such discrimination, other than once again the politicians are attempting to pander to single family voters on the backs of poor renters. Doesn't this pack of ninnies understand that such waterbills are passed on to the renters? No, I guess they probably do, the proper question is DON"T THEY CARE that they are having the more affluent ride on the backs of the poorest? And again the answer is NO. Once again the poor from the inner-city are being stuck by an uncaring corporate world, only this time the corporation stealing from them and charging them to be poor is the City of Minneapolis Corporation.
Duplexes, especially owner-occupied ones, should NOT be charged more for the same rainwater. There simply is no justification for it. If anything those with rents below what the City defines as "affordable" rent should be paying LESS. If the justification is "Homestead", then exactly why does it not apply to ALL homesteads? Does God make more expensive rain fall upon just poor people?
I seem to remember the Council and this Mayor advocating for (or at least giving lip service to) more housing and "affordable" housing. It sounded like a good idea! So it's implemented by an additional tax being figured out to penalize renters and those who provide 90% of all the truly affordable housing? The owners of rental duplexes. Owners whose small margin does not allow them to absorb the additional fees? Owners who MUST, unwillingly, pass the City's fraud along to those least able to pay it. Pass it on to the renters paying $600.00 for a three bedroom apartment?
My, My, My, what hypocrites! A Council Member running in my Ward told me that the Council Members had been assured that their personal stormwater payments would either remain neutral or go down. Since they live in single family houses, I wonder where they imagined the extra money would come from if not from the poor.
This brings up another issue. I remember watching RT Rybak on television at several different times promising the Landlords group, that he would stop the City from discriminating against small rental property owners. I guess that promise meant nothing. Oh that's right, it wasn't a real promise it was just paltering to get contributions and support in order to get elected. No one expects a Mayor to tell the truth when running for office, DO THEY?
The Mayor and the Council would be lying if they said they were unaware of this problem. Isn't it time they began to fix it. Or, are these people so inept and arrogant that they feel that by ignoring it, it will go away? I seem to remember a religious Quaker politician who ignored what his hirelings had done, thinking it would just go away. Tricky Dick learned that they do not go way. Ethics for Quaker Presidents, or pretty looking mayors are NOT different from what is expected of other less anointed people. Situational ethics do not work for either. Just because it was appointed people doing the screw up they are still under the direction of the "Executive". The "Executive" is the one ultimately responsible.
Real leaders fix the mistakes caused by their staff, they do not ignore them or sweep them under the carpet. It calls for character, not personality. Minneapolis needs a little more substance from its elected political leaders and a little less paltering fluff.
Jim Graham, from those porch steps in Ventura Village
"The rarest of gems, with the greatest clarity,
and with the greatest brilliance is not the diamond.
The rarest of all gems is the truth.
Yet as scarce as truth is, the supply has always far exceeded any demand for it. In fact it may well be
the lest desirable commodity in the Universe.
Ask any politician. ."<
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