Zip code 55411 contains 8% of the city's population and 40% of the Level III sex offenders. When a Level III sex offender plans to move to an affluent neighborhood, 800 people turn out and protest. Where do all those offenders who are not welcome elsewhere go? They end up on the northside. I've often wondered how the rest of the city can sleep at night. If you spread out those with a likelihood to reoffend throughout the city and county, there would be little problem keeping track of them. If a neighborhood had one or two, everyone would be keeping an eye on them and making sure their children knew who they were. When you are inundated with them, that becomes impossible. Here we have 3 and 4 living on the same block...across from an elementary school. NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard) is the ultimate form of discrimination.
There are some in city and county government who are indeed working hard to help the northside, but they have a very powerful, well oiled machine working against them. This is why NRP has been such a blessing to the impacted neighborhoods. It has given them an ability to do something for themselves, to make choices and to build what their communities need. In Phase II, because of the funding cuts, continuing that momentum has been cut short. Those who had a long-range, 20-year plan have seen their dreams of a revitalized northside cut short. With the redistricting and the further stripping of power from the northside, one has to wonder if we weren't getting a bit too uppity with our new found power and someone had to step in and put us back where [they think] we belong.
Dottie Titus Jordan
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