Stock photo by John HoffSOUND THE ALARM! The Mayor and some on the Minneapolis City Council are proposing the IMMEDIATE freezing of ALL NRP FUNDS in order to balance their budget.
Downpayment assistance - gone.
Facade improvements - gone.
Funding for developments like the EcoVillage or Cottage Park - gone.
Police officer buy back money - gone.
Street light funding - gone.
Acquisition money for demolitions - gone (okay, maybe that's not such a bad thing).
Neighborhood staff - gone.
What would this save us? According to buzz on the Minneapolis Issues Forum, the average property tax savings per person would be $42. And for this, they claim they've "listened" to residents about property taxes.
The mayor and any city council person who votes for this is essentially reneging on a promise they made to the neighborhoods most in need. People, this goes before the Ways and Means Committee TOMORROW MORNING!
Call your city council person (or click on their name below and email them) IMMEDIATELY and tell them you oppose the abandonment of our neighborhoods!
Diane Hofstede 612-673-2203
Barb Johnson 612-673-2204
Don Samuels 612-673-2205
(Do Not Click "Read More")
19 comments:
Housing Director paychecks - gone.
This anonymous comment somehow got lost but was retrieved from the backup email:
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I think this may be a blessing in disguise. You won't like what i'm going to say but it might be true. Just like extending unemployment benefits actually creates more unemployment. Paying for neighborhood items such as home owner associations only breeds more dependance on tax dollars. In the suburbs we might have neighborhood or homeowner associations but we don't get any government funding and we tailor our services accordingly. We use volunteers, keep the lights on and let everyone life and let live. It's a cheaper way and yes we deliver "less services" but we also don't worry about LGA or the Mayor's budget etc. It will be painful but in the end Minneapolis will be better and have more character.
Ditto with this comment from JamieR
I think we're in a rock and a hard place. From what I read in the paper the taxpayers rose up and demanded less property taxes. It seems we got it but by cutting our own throats. Is there nowhere else this money can come from? How about the rich folks that live near Lake Harriet?
jaimeR does have a point, city dwellers got all worked up over the tax increase, so, something has to give. Like a prominent Jordan neighbor said: "Ok What don't you want? Kind of like going to the grocery store filling up the cart and then saying lower your prices to fit the price I think is fair!"
The blog post says all those things are (or will be) gone, but the thing is there IS NO money for projects, money for down payments, money for housing clusters... the money isn't there. It may be there on paper but it isn't really anywhere.
If I had plans to buy a new car this year, but I didn't have any money for a new car, so I announce to my family that there will be no new car this year, it doesn't mean the new car is "gone", it means there is/was no money for a new car, so the plans need to be nixed.
Good point.
So I guess we can forget the Hmong policeman on 1st shift.
How about the rich folks that live near Lake Harriet?
What a stupid comment. Those "rich folks" around the lakes, as well as those of us in the far NE corner already pay the highest property taxes. Our property taxes also went through the roof with this latest increase, while home resale values fell.
And the property taxes we pay don't for the most part, stay in our neighborhood. They pay for YOUR NRP funding, YOUR extra police patrols, YOUR extra housing inspections, YOUR extra park programs, and YOUR extra social services. Take a look at the NRP allocation figures. The NRP groups around the lakes get squat, while JACC, HNC, and other northside NRP groups get big bucks.
JACC and HNC own offices and paid staff, while the lakes groups have a few volunteers. And we in NE can barely afford to pay a part-time staff, and have to pool resources.
NRP has not been fairly distributed around the city, and have been used for numerous "pork" projects decided by a few board members with minimal community input. Ending it and using the money elsewhere is the best thing to happen.
Obviously more intelligent people live around Lake Harriet. We might as well just tax the more intelligent people to pay for the poor folks - a tax based on IQ. That's what we need!
The problem with some of these comments is that the money is already there. They are just taking it away from us.
This would amount to changing the terms of a contract without mutual consent.
Since I live in the area "served" by NRRC, we never had any of these things, anyway, although I do feel for neighborhoods who have functioning neighborhood associations. There is talk on the Minneapolis Issues list of setting up a "homeowner association" system in Minneapolis. The day I have to pay a couple of hundred dollars a year worth of "dues" to line the pockets of whichever poverty pimp swarms in and gains control of the homeowner association in my neighborhood, with no recourse whatsovever to the city, is the day I leave North Minneapolis.
The game is well practiced and they have it down to an art.It started a while back and is beginning to trickle down a little bit at a time.They are burying us in their personal excretement. They got their tax cut without so much of a wimper out of our ball-less president who has no guts and will not stand up to the rich republicans who keep making him look like the biggest bitch of all time. We are fucked because this wimp scolds and reprimands democrats and his base but is true chicken shit when it comes to calling the selfish,greedy assholes who want it all. Obama has let us down and the results are we will have no money to work with when it comes to improving the infrastructure of our communities. He let the republicans get what they wanted and that was a piece of his spineless ass. We're fucked and i do not want to hear any excuses about how everyone received a tax break and unemployment was extended.... what a pile of bullshit and we had no one to stand up for us.Expect more of the same and then when the republicans either win or steal the election in 2012 i will personally seek out a Mayan who has anscestoral ties with someone who wrote that fucked up calendar and thank him for having the foresight to realize that civilzation in the 21st century devoured itself.We are fucked. Good Day.
Anon 9:05, probably so. I will find other work if it comes to that, but the city will have abandoned the Hawthorne neighborhood.
@Chickens, NRP has nothing to do with that issue.
As for budgetary concerns and whether there is or ever was such money, I think we can all expect cuts of some kind. But the draconian proposal initially brought forth went WAY too far.
The ways and means committee hearing will be streamed live on the city's website and I'll post updates on my twitter feed, northxnorthside, www.northbynorthside.com.
@Anon 7:37am, please explain what you mean. "the money is already there".
This money has been allocated to fund these programs. They would just take the money allocated for neighborhoods and use it to reduce property taxes.
I think it is about time these programs were ended. I wasn't familiar with them but am now reading some emails on e-democracy. It seems taxpayers are paying to fix and improve the homes of private citizens? I can understand if a volunteer organization wants to do this but to take taxpayer money and transfer it to another taxpayer (or not) in the form of home improvements? That smacks of Socialism.
NEaster's comments are very accurate. According to Cam Gordon the Kenwood neighborhood lost about $3000, while Hawthorne looses $750,000. Obviously, the wealthiest areas of the city are paying for the poorest.
This "robbing Peter to pay Paul" isn't working. While considerable resources are being poured into the northside of the city, there are areas south of downtown going down the toilet. Go look around the city from Franklin to Lake street, Nicollet to Cedar Avenue.
That area is deteriorating at a record rate. Many of the historic homes are rotting away. Street and boulevards are in pathetic condition.
Even in Kenwood, there are rim-bender potholes that still need repair. And the parks need updating.
The city needs to come up with a more equatable way to maintain the infrastructure.
People need to stop being so concerned about bike shops and kiosks, and worry more about how we are going to keep the street lights on.
As long as we're talking about NRP dollars here is a interesting note: While Jeff Skrenes updates his personal blog frequently, and Twitter feed multiple times daily, the official "Hawthorne Voices" blog has not been updated in over a month.
Shouldn't the residents of Hawthorne expect their paid staff to use some of their paid time to update the official blog (Jeff states he blogs the NxNS on his time).
There is a lot of important information that needs to get out. How about the official blog get some attention, and paid staff put their personal work on the back burner.
How about we figure out where you are and whose clock you are on?
Jeff does his own blog on his own time. The Hawthorne Voices blog is, unfortunately, not a priority for HNC. I wish it were, but it's not. When there is official information that needs to go on that blog, Jeff puts it on that blog. But there isn't really time allocated to that task, on top of all the other stuff Jeff does.
His blogging on his personal blog is purely a volunteer effort for which he should be commended, not criticized by anonymous trolls or trolloid comments. (Trolloid means "having the appearance of a troll)
So what is the latest news with this issue, update us please.
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