Michelle, It is an interesting tactic for someone who claims not to intend to start a debate to pull in extraneous information (actually misinformation) in an attempt to counter a point you disagree with. If your whole intent was negating outside influence, encouraging healing and avoiding debate you could restricted your comments to the situation, said you disagreed, and addressed ways of encouraging respectful dialogue from a neutral point of view for the purpose of resolution. Instead you choose to launch more criticism at Don utilizing misinformation. Since you may not be aware of how much of this is information, allow me to clarify a few points.
Let me be clear though, that I am not speaking for Don or anyone else. I'm not on his campaign and don't work for him, I am not speaking for my office or any affiliation, I am speaking as little ol' me, Jonathan Palmer who just happens to know a lot of information. In regard to the $300K, I didn't list it as an accomplishment, but rather pointed out the attack on Don by Booker and his colleagues to illustrate that this latest incidents was just one in a series of unprovoked, unprofessional assaults that does not become anyone, much less a "Black leader or activist". But more to the point Don didn't negotiate the $300K, it was a group effort, Natalie's name was right next to Don's on the proposal and she along with others like Clarence Hightower and Ezell Jones were part of the effort. The group that was convened prior to this proposal and still meets includes Natalie, and Sherrie Pugh from NRRC, Tene Wells from Women Venture and a whole host of others that represent and work on behalf of the "little people". Organizations like the Urban League, NRRC and the African American Chamber of Commerce exist for the benefit of the community that the "little people" work and reside in and do their best to bring resources and change for the purpose of empowerment. This was a group effort, but Booker and his colleagues have been among the leading people framing this as if it was Don alone and for Don's benefit. It's wrong and no one's been held accountable for this. Now on the matter of the Empowerment Zone, again there has been much misinformation presented and perhaps I can clear some of that up. The Empowerment Zone is a federal designation of geographic areas based on census tracts with federal funds for improvement (originally detailed as economic opportunity) for area residents and businesses. The guidelines and eligibility requirements for designation do not mention race or racial disparity. They did mention the requirement of poverty, unemployment and general distress. General distress being defined as those adverse conditions within the area, beyond pervasive poverty and unemployment, and include such factors as teen pregnancy rate, abandoned housing, high incidence of AIDs, even per capita property tax base, but not race or racial disparity. In fact the policies and procedures governing the selection and evaluation of applications for designation do not mention racial disparity, African American poverty or even race in general as criteria at all. But don't take my word for it, check out the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 24, Chapter V, Part 598 which governs Round II Empowerment Zones. Further, while the a section of the narrative of application for the designation does mention racial disparity (arising from racial discrimination) in conjunction with isolated areas of poverty in MINNEAPOLIS as being the greatest threats to the REGION as a whole, only poverty is part of the application in the Census Tract information of the Population Data Form (i.e. census tracts (areas to be designated) were evaluated based on percent below poverty not race). Other negative descriptors presented in the narrative to encourage the designation besides concentration of poverty and economic disparity by race were: children in poverty, challenges to welfare reform, lack of affordable housing, and transportation. Racial disparity (and specifically African American disparity), despite what you may have been told, was not the major or main factor for the EZ designation. Further, the Strategic Plan, the means by which the City would address all of the social and economic problems, does not mention any strategy for addressing racial disparity specifically, but rather addressing the root causes that lead to racial disparity, poverty and impacted communities in general such as unemployment, crime reduction, and housing options. Were racial disparity or African American disparity to be the deciding factor for the designation, there would have needed to have been a goal, strategy, or even a section on addressing it. Despite what was said at the meeting (which I also attended), the designation was not based on race or the African American community. This was their interpretation based on the number of time the words "African American" appears in the application. Applications are evaluated on goals, strategies and hard data, not word counts. Further clarifying, the Empowerment Zone currently has three methods by which it disburses funds to the community: RFPs, the Small Grants Program, and Small Business Resource programs. The RFPs are generally a large amount like $500K+ (anything over $50K has to be done through an RFP), to be divided amongst awardees and takes usually 4-6 months start to finish, the Small Grants program which is designated for nonprofit 501(c)3s is up to $25K and usually take 2-4 months, the Small Business Resources are small business loans and technical assistance provided through NRRC, Whittier CDC, MCCD and WomenVenture year round. The proposals you mentioned were small business startup proposals submitted to the Small Grants program, they were ineligible based on not being non-profits, and further, many did not have business plans or other sources of funding. The recommendation and information was presented by the Staff to the full 30-member board, which approved the declination. Don could not single handedly turn them down even if they were eligible. I explained this to Booker when I met with him in December. More importantly, not everyone who has an idea or a desire has the capacity to make it reality. It is not a simple as being a constituent wanting to generate income in an impoverished community, you have to be able to be sustainable. Without that, you are not empowering the community. Many people see the Empowerment Zone as the one stop to fix it all and as free money that should be given away for anyone who wants it. You are not changing a community then, you are squandering resources. And the City has plenty of resources that many of the people did not avail themselves of. The providers I mentioned can help provide funds and technical assistance to develop sound business plans and sustainable strategies to small businesses. The Office of Grants and Special projects does the same for nonprofits (it doesn't provide funds but can identify good sources to apply to). The City's Business Finance division has a variety of business funding resources, however based on the misinformation presented at that meeting many people showed up with expectations for resources that were never available. They are the real losers here because the operated under false information presented to them and probably are more discouraged now. Finally, and addressing the point of getting money out into the community. Of, the roughly $25 Million that has been allocated about $11 Million has gone to the Northside initiatives mostly through Northside Agencies. Almost $10 Million has gone to the African American community through African American organizations or projects primarily focussed on or in the African American community, such as Heritage Park, Phyllis Wheatley, Hospitality House, Harvest Prep, Oasis of Love, Siyeza, El Amin's Fish House, Juxtaposition Arts, MAD DADs, Lucille's Kitchen, Cafe Tata Bunna, KMOJ, Summit Academy, Uhuru program and many more. This does not include initiatives like the City's METP program which provides jobs and training to Minneapolis residents, the majority of which are African American. Don, by the way, has been a leading advocate for more funding to the Northside and the African American community. For someone who points out that being one-sided helps no one and weren't out to choose a side, you've made an extensive effort to criticize Don and virtually none to do the same or even hold accountable Booker. But again, your position is largely based on misinformation. The STOP unit was the idea and creation of Chief McManus, and if you've had one conversation with him, you'd know that he is not that kind of person to engage in a political ploy, even more so at the behest of a public official. And while it may focus on North Minneapolis, it moves around the City as necessary. David Brauer referenced this in this forum regarding their help in SW. I too was at the Convention and you must have missed Al Flowers having to be escorted from the Convention for accosting Don. He attempted the same thing at the 5th Ward convention. He was also part of the television show where Booker made his comments. And no, you cannot just speak your opinion always, such things as hate speech, perjury and terroristic threats are not allowed and you can go to jail for them. But if you really believe that people are entitled to their own opinion and the ability to express them in any forum and others can listen or not, then Booker's response is even more unprovoked and Don's comments should not be criticized. The bottom line here Michelle, is that this wasn't about tit for tat and devising a list of good and bad things, it was about a specific incident that is predicated on a series of incidents, all amounting to unprovoked attacks by Booker and his colleagues against Don. And it's about a standard of behavior and decorum that must apply to everyone, not just Don or Booker. This is not an incident in isolation, but part of series of assaults by Booker and his colleagues. If you're really about healing then you have to look at all of the actions related to this and hold him accountable for the repetitive behavior that is unwarranted. It does no good to deal with one instance if the behavior doesn't change. But most of all, the continues to create division in a community that is rife with crime, poverty and general distress. Booker too has the opportunity to talk to Don without interference and since Don has tried this with him to little avail, I hope Booker steps up to plate and reciprocate. And I hope that everyone will maintain a standard of decorum and behavior approp Lastly, my issue is with Booker's actions, not with him. While I have disagreed with him on a number of things, I have listened to him on many others and think he has tremendous passion and potential. I greatly appreciate the attention he's brought to the issues of Hood Stores, and one of the things that Empowerment Zone is working to do with it's Small Business loans is lower the interest rates to make it less burdensome on the small businesses that are trying to make their way. That idea came directly from a conversation with him in December. Both he and Don have a passion for the Northside and the African American community and if they work together so much more could be accomplished. Jonathan Palmer at the end of a very long post in Victory 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
