Well, I listened, in its entirety, to the Mayor's State of the City Address via
webcast. I got an email from the Mayor's office to tune in if I wanted to hear
him (they must have used the email addresses for the snow plowing alerts). The
speech is printed on the city website for all of you that missed it.
I do have a few reflections on the address as I'm sure many of you do.
First of all, I won't have to go to Mass this week. There was enough praying
at this meeting to last me at least a week. I feel wayyy too holy right now.
I'm going to have to go out and get in trouble tonight to get back to normal.
There wasn't anything too earth shattering that he said about education (he
wants his tenure to be known as the education administration), Arts ( he wants
more support for theatre district and artists in St. Paul) Transportation (
light rail to the depot and trolleys in St. Paul are good things). What did I
miss?
As for the homeless. He wants to end chronic homelessness in St. Paul in 10
years. Sigh. I don't think he will have to wait that long. In today's
Pioneer Press it says that Minnesota leads the nation in the rise of its prison
population which has grown about 45% in the last 5 years.
The State is finding a way to house the chronic homeless. It is putting people
with mental illness, chemical dependency and others the state doesn't like to
take care of or deal with in prison. Out of sight.
Homelessness is a symptom of bigger problems that ail society.You can give
medication for symptoms and try to make them better, but you will still have
those bigger problems unless you address them, try to understand them and
hopefully prevent them in the future.
I applaud Mayor Kelly for doing what he can to increase affordable housing in
St. Paul and address the issue of homeless children, teens and families. But
until there is more emphasis on preventative measures at the state and federal
level, he will not be able to end chronic homelessness in St. Paul.
Oh yeah, one other thing, what the heck was Linda Runbeck doing in the Street
Beat film strip before the State of the City Address? The last I checked she
lived on Golden Lake in the northern suburbs. What do I care what she has to
say about the St. Paul neighborhoods?
Renée Jenson
Como
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