Bloody Blog War, CPED Dollars Denied To Lennie "The Heckler" Chism, Greasing The Palms Of City Officials, And Much More!!!!

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First of all, blog war is an ugly thing. There are no winners in a blog war.

Well, that's not true. Readers apparently enjoy it.

Lennie "The Heckler" Chism has been sending me one angry email missive after another in the wake of my recent blog posts. First, he...

...had me all mixed up with the delegate on the convention floor (identified by an anonymous poster as Chad Reichwald) who grew tired of Lennie's heckling, called for order, and verbally told Lennie to shut his disruptive yap and quit interrupting the official proceedings. Chism thought I was the same guy as Reichward and talked about the "police report" he had made about "me." He even accused me of impersonating a delegate!

I told Lenny he was--and this is a direct quote--"coo coo for Coco Puffs."

Yeah, you can look at the restrained-yet-bemused expressions on the faces of the cops taking the report and tell how far THAT police report is going to go, in any case.

He Said, She Said, By Email

To his credit, Lennie quickly figured out I was not the same guy as Reichwald, but now Lennie has been telling me I did some dirty real estate deal with the city of Minneapolis. Readers are quite familiar with how I was glad to sell the house I bought in the Hawthorne Eco Village to the City of Minneapolis when the city made it clear they wanted it for their development, and would pay me market rate.

So now I've got Lennie going on and on and on and on in his p***ed off emails, accusing me of "stealing wealth" from a black community. This from a guy who heckles Don Samuels, a courageous leader who stood toe-to-toe with drug dealers and pushed them off his block so his two little girls could walk to the store on the corner. (And I've been to that block, and it's rapidly approaching urban utopia despite a vacant house here, a minor problem there, great work by Don Samuels)

Where was I? Oh, yeah, getting "virtually heckled" by Lenny via email. Just as he did at the Fifth Ward Convention, Lenny has a habit of saying the same thing over and over and over. I did a dirty deal. He's going to dig up the details, by golly. At this point in time, Lenny doesn't even appear smart enough to search my own blog by using "3016" as a search term, then taking the facts, twisting them, and throwing them in my face.

I feel like I need to HELP poor Lenny Chism.

Blog war is ugly. I told you. It gets like this.

Lenny would do well to RUSH RIGHT OVER TO 3016 6th St. N. and get some pictures before it is too late. I hear demolition will happen very soon, possibly any hour. There goes all the evidence!!!!

Right Back At Ya, Mister Heckler

I figured the first round of information I dug up about Lennie Chism's messed up little world was enough; his numerous schemes and dreams, the fact his building was foreclosed upon. The story was pretty much done and I could move on to something more interesting, even some minor and heartwarming human interest stories. Really, I could.

But, no, Lennie has to go put his war face on and send me angry emails, being very specific about my former property at 3016 6th St. N. and, oh, he's going to dig up the facts, yes sir, he's going to show everybody Johnny Northside is a fraud, by golly, and--for good measure--Lennie drags in the name of Hawthorne Housing Director Jeff Skrenes and implies in an email that I may have greased the palms of building inspectors.

Well, that just p***es me off. (The part about the building inspectors, I mean. Say whatever you want about Jeff)

(Kidding. I'm kidding)

"Not Meeting The Minimum Requirements"

Lennie's entity, which has been called "Springboard Development Foundation," seems to be more properly called "Springboard Economic Development Corporation" considering its filing with the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office. This entity is listed at 1901 Glenwood Avenue, which, as discussed in the previous post, recently went through foreclosure. In fact, the Hennepin County website lists the entity which now owns 1901 Glenwood: Capital Lending Group, Inc. of 4601 Excelsior Blvd, #309, Minneapolis.

Sometimes the building address comes up as "Glenwood Avenue N.," but the city's property website has it listed merely as "Glenwood Avenue."

Lennie Chism purchased this building for $100,000 on March 1, 2007, from an entity called "Tactics, Inc." I've been unable to find anything, so far, on this mysterious "Tactics, Inc." entity. Lennie had the building only a couple years before it was lost to foreclosure. This from the author of a book--well, more of a booklet, really--about "mobilizing wealth."

The building seems to have fallen on some hard times. A Google street view shows nothing too impressive. The City of Minneapolis website shows a special assessment of $175 for removing rubbish bags of leaves on or about October 10, 2008.

Despite losing 1901 Glenwood Ave. to foreclosure, Springboard boldly put forward an economic proposal to the City of Minneapolis for Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) dollars in the wake of the, um, foreclosure crisis.

A number of entities--14 in all, including Springboard--put forward proposals for the Foreclosure Recovery Rehabilitation Program. If you added up the total funds asked for in all these proposals, it was $11 million.

(If you want the original document without my summary, use this link, click here)

Not all the entities who put forward proposals got money. Some entities that DID get money included GMHC, the Minneapolis Urban League, Project for Pride in Living, and Urban Homeworks. But five entities had their proposals rejected "based on their not meeting the minimum requirements, submitting incomplete applications and/or their low ranking based on scoring."

Ouch.

The non-recommended applicants included Springboard Economic Development Corporation. Actually, Springboard was even listed dead last among the REJECTED applicants, but to be fair the rejected applicants were listed in alphabetical order.

All the same...ouch.

So, just a couple weeks before the 5th Ward DFL Convention, Lennie "The Wealth Mobilizer" Chism had his economic development proposal shot down by the city. His building at 1901 Glenwood--where so many big dreams were dreamed--has been lost to foreclosure. (Gee, that might have something to do with his proposal not being considered viable)

Is it any wonder Lennie Chism was angry and heckled City Council Member Don Samuels? Don Samuels represents the city government, which has so utterly and completely failed to recognize the true genuis behind Lennie Chism...author of a booklet.

(Sarcasm font is broken. Notifying the reader manually)