Insight About Insight News, Foreclosures, Hatin' On Councilman Don Samuels, And More!

Skrenes Family Photo

This is probably like "inside baseball" to a lot of folks, but I may as well complete the historical record about Insight news going after Jeff Skrenes (pictured above, as a child) over some comments Jeff made in a Minn Post article. The comments were about some unexpectedly positive side effects of the foreclosure crisis hitting North Minneapolis...

Here's a recap of the story. First, some U of M college students were doing an article for some kind of intership-slash-journalism-class, and they asked me for some North Minneapolis insights and contacts. So I helped hook them up. The article took forever to come out but it finally did. The headline was horrible, but the article itself was wonderful.

Some of the things said in the article included pointing out something both obvious and positive: because of the foreclosure crisis, hookers and drug dealers are getting booted out of the neighborhood because their crappy slumlord housing is gone, HOORAY.

This isn't anything which hasn't been said before and, in fact, it has been said by many people. But Insight News launched a harsh critique aimed at Jeff Skrenes and Don Samuels for daring to have anything positive to say about POOR WIDDLE HOOKERS AND DRUG DEALERS being forced to leave the neighborhood.

After the article appeared, Jeff and Samuels had a good-natured disagreement over who was the intended target of the critique, and who was just "collateral damage." (Kind of like Jeff, above, after childhood eye surgery and, oh, look...Big Bird has a bandage, too)

Insight News has been pretty consistent in its dislike of Don Samuels, so when Samuels says one thing, you can expect Insight News to say the opposite.

Here's where it turns into "inside baseball." Jeff Skrenes sent an email requesting to publish a rebuttal to the Insight News article. And here's what Insight News did: they published Jeff's email, which was REQUESTING a chance to rebut, and was not the rebuttal itself. Now, you have to ask yourself: was that just SLOP, or was that deliberate?

The votes were counted in a recent round-robin discussion, and the verdict came back, and it was an overwhelming consensus of opinion:

SLOP!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeff published what he wanted to say on (of all places!) his Facebook profile, but not everybody has access to that, so I'm going to publish what Jeff said, here on Johnny Northside. (Finally)

Here it is, unedited, though I've added some extra paragraph breaks.

(Jeff's text follows)

Recently, two articles have appeared in local Minneapolis media around the foreclosure crisis. One touts some positive developments that have come about as a result of the foreclosure crisis, and another article offers a countering opinion.

http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2009/02/03/6336/are_foreclosures_helping_to_improve_minneapolis_north_side

http://www.insightnews.com/index.php?id=4046:samuels-foreclosure-crisis-improves-neighborhood-safety&option=com_content&catid=1:commentary&Itemid=4

I was quoted in the first article and called to task for my comments in the second. What follows in this note are some of my thoughts about where north Minneapolis stands in light of the housing crisis, and where we may be heading.

First, the title of the original article, "Are foreclosures helping to improve Minneapolis' north side?" is frankly, terrible. It makes it appear as if Councilmember (CM) Samuels, Hawthorne residents, developers, and I have all been wiping our foreheads in relief, saying "Thank goodness this foreclosure crisis came along just in time. What a relief!"

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The title also does a disservice to the wonderful success stories told throughout the rest of the article. Hawthorne is turning around an area filled with problem properties, foreclosures, and crime. Our residents who have had the courage to stand their ground have my absolute support and they deserve every bit of it. I believe CM Samuels is one of the many politicians in north Minneapolis who truly "gets it" and even though he does not represent the Hawthorne neighborhood, I am proud to have him as a partner in this fight. There are few developers who have done more for our community than the Ackerberg Group, and the Minnpost article does their contribution justice as well.

I just wish I could have spoken with the editors before this went online, so I could have said, "It's PERFECT! Just one thing...CHANGE THE DAMN TITLE!"

The Insight News article is, in my opinion, nothing more than a desperate swipe at CM Samuels in an attempt to drum up support for an opponent - any opponent - of his in the upcoming 2009 city council elections. I should say that I have great respect for Insight's editor-in-chief, Al McFarlane, and all he has done for our community. But I can't even call this article "bad journalism" because labeling it as such would do a disservice to journalism itself.

On top of its politically-based attempt to create ire over a well-written but poorly-titled article, it brings up a neighboring conflict in Jordan that has only tangential connections to the issue at hand. Then it doesn't even get those facts right.

But what I want to focus on in this note are what I see as positive outcomes from the crisis we are in. Once again, I must state that I am not happy about this crisis, that I have spent the past nine years of my life working against housing and mortgage injustices, and I remain as dedicated to this issue as ever. One thing I've said though, is that a positive aspect of the housing problems we face is that "drug dealers tend to get bad mortgages."

I can think of three houses in Hawthorne off the top of my head (2942 Aldrich, 3020 6th, and 614 23rd) that are owned by drug dealers, have been open sores on the face of our community, and are now in foreclosure. Oh, and 3101 6th and 3119 4th were open-air drug market apartment buildings that were lost to foreclosure, vacated, and then demolished. I made various trips to these two buildings in an attempt to connect tenants with housing services that would help them through what is surely a difficult process. In turn, I was verbally assaulted, had my pamphlets torn up in front of my face, and left reeking from the haze of pot that hung thickly in the air.

One year ago, the Hawthorne EcoVillage, a development project centered around 31st Ave N and 6th St N had no fewer than nine properties with open-air drug dealing and prostitution. Now there is one. It was raided once again tonight by Minneapolis' Finest, and our efforts have cut into the owner's illicit revenue to the point where a foreclosure will force him and his tenants out by the spring or early summer. Out of the nine properties where problems were rampant, two landlords evicted problem tenants and put in new renters, one was purchased from a slumlord and demolished, and six went into foreclosure.

At our February Hawthorne Crime Prevention and Family Safety meeting, a map was passed around that plotted crimes that had been noted by the Minneapolis Police Department in Hawthorne during the previous month. There were three crimes on the borders of the EcoVillage, but NOTHING inside it.

This is a marked difference over last year, and I claim it as a tremendous success on behalf of the neighborhood. There is no way around it; foreclosures forced drug dealers out of the area faster than the police and our city departments could have addressed the issues. This is not a knock on the city at all, just the reality of what has happened.

In Hawthorne, we are drawing a line in the sand. We are standing together as a community and saying, "This behavior will not be tolerated. If you engage in behaviors that harm our neighbors, we will bring the full force of our community to bear, and we will emerge victorious." I've been asked "When you kick these criminals out of your neighborhood, where will they go?" "Not Hawthorne," is my immediate response.

And I call upon our neighbors in the Near North, Willard Hay, McKinley, and Jordan neighborhoods, all the way to the cities of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center to do the same. Stand against illegal and illicit behavior and make it known that criminals are not welcome here or anywhere.

I could write an equally long missive about the devastating effects of foreclosures on communities and families, and perhaps I may. But the question at hand is whether there are positive aspects coming from the problems we face. Although I wish as much as anyone that we were not facing such a crisis, the unequivocal answer is that yes, some good things are happening and they will be part of a transformative time in north Minneapolis.

(Here Jeff's text ends)

HERE'S JOHNNY AGAIN:

I'll add one thing in closing: Insight News consistently misspelled "Hawthorne," which is kind of ironic: word is many years ago the Hawthorne Neighborhood helped to kick in some dough to assist in getting that publication off the ground. Now a community newspaper which could be an asset is acting like a sad and sorry rag with a near-sighted agenda, blinded by unreasoning hatred for Don Samuels.

Jeff phrases things delicately and politically. But I call 'em as I see 'em.