Jordan Area Community Council (JACC) Got Down To Serious Business Last Night (But Where Was Slumlord Keith Reitman?)

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

Meeting at the Plymouth Christian Youth Center (PCYC) last night, the Jordan Area Community Council tackled an impressive laundry list of neighborhood issues, affirmed Michael "Kip" Browne as its Chair, and met in closed session over the latest frivolous grievance filed by Level Three sex offender Peter "Spanky Pete" Rickmyer.

As discussed in a previous blog post, Rickmyer appears to be claiming his loathsome and disgusting "pedophile" status makes him a member of a protected class for purposes of discrimination, like race and gender.

Yup, just another fun-filled JACC meeting. Here's the rundown...

1.) City Council Member Don Samuels--who lives quite near JACC headquarters--would like to have office space at the "JACC house" so he can meet, conveniently, with constituents. JACC approved the request, unanimously.

2.) Vincent Thomas, the Director of Development at Kwanzaa Community Church in Minneapolis, spoke of his desire to provide a drop-in center for women involved in prostitution. The drop-in center would be on the 2100 block of Emerson Ave. N. This would allow the women to talk to social workers, use bathrooms, etc. in a comfortable space "instead of having to go all the way downtown" for the same services.

Expect more editorials on this topic, but the Irving Inquisition blog has a great example of what our neighborhood is enduring due to the presence of these so-called "sex workers," click here.

3.) David Snyder, a Community Organizer for Jewish Community Action, spoke of the need for more folks to help with door knocking as part of the ongoing outreach by the Northside Community Reinvestment Coalition to help individuals experiencing mortgage problems to save their homes.

4.) There was a presentation on plans for the upcoming Minneapolis public schools headquarters. Impressive architectural drawings were circulated. Four individuals presented on this topic: former City Council president Jackie Cherryhomes, Todd Elkins of Urban Home Works, Mark Bollinger, the Executive Director of Facilities at Minneapolis Public Schools, and Lynn R. Littlejohn, Director of Community Affairs for Mortenson Construction.

Though many aspects of the project were covered, I was particularly interested in the fact some "public art" would be incorporated into the project. During the comment period, I spoke up and expressed a hope any such public art would be "tasteful" and not done in a style I would dub "contemporary urban dystopia," which celebrates the aesthetic of graffiti, decay, and lawlessness. I pointed out there were many individuals (Gratia Countryman comes to mind) who have made substantial educational contributions to Minneapolis, and have connections to the Northside. These individuals are deserving of tasteful statues in their honor. Or, to sum it up another way: ANYTHING BUT A GRAFFITI MURAL LIKE THE "TRIPPING COWS" ON THE SIDE OF THE KEMPS BUILDING.

5.) There was an extensive discussion on using "buy back dollars" to promote more police presence in the Jordan Neighborhood. The discussion got incredibly bogged down--and, it is fair to say, somewhat tense--over a desire by some members in the community to use bike and foot patrols only. It is fair to say "drive by policing" is a major concern and source of irritation in this neighborhood. When Jordan residents call police about a hooker on Penn Ave. N., we want the police to get out, check identification, do pat down searches, detain, and INTERACT INTENSELY AND INTERPERSONALLY WITH THE SUSPECTS, rather than making a "keep on moving" motion from behind their windshield while slowing down to five miles an hour.

6.) Three recommendations came from the Housing Committee. A.) Supporting the preliminary design proposal for the Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters building, B.) supporting a variance and conditional use permit for Alliance Housing/Gateway Lofts, C.) recommending JACC support the Lowry Avenue Strategic Plan and proposed zoning changes.

7.) Michael "Kip" Browne, serving as Chair in the wake of the resignation of Vladamir Monroe, was unanimously reaffirmed without opposition. Eric Johnson was appointed Vice Chair, without opposition, after two other board members declined nominations to the position of Vice Chair.

8.) The most exciting part of the night was closed to the public: dealing with Peter "Spanky Pete" Rickmyer's latest frivolous and stupid grievance.

If I had to hazard a guess as to how the matter will be resolved, I'm guessing JACC will write a letter saying pedophilia is NOT a protected class, the grievance therefore has no basis, and Peter Rickmyer should go crawling back to whatever dark snake hole he crawled out of. (I'm paraphrasing the last part) Unless, of course, the grievance is just dismissed by the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department, which is what SHOULD have happened.

9.) A grievance filed by the Penn Gas Station was resolved. The gas station--which is a filthy hole where dubious activity takes place openly right in front of employees, see a recent blog post regarding THAT, click here--had its metaphorical pants all in a sweaty bunch over something that had been said in long-ago minutes about how the store had been raided by police. The comment had been made by some random community member during open commentary, and NOT by a board member.

The store denies it has ever been raided. JACC agreed to change the minutes to reflect the fact the store had never been raided. How this old, obscure portion of the minutes ended up in front of the store owners is not hard to guess. This may be a good time to mention Peter "Spanky Pete" Rickmyer has been known to work at the store.

The store, pictured above, recently laid down new blacktop in its parking lot, which will undoubtedly improve the store as much as lipstick will improve a pig.

10.) At the very end of the meeting, right before closed session, a relatively recent Jordan resident and proud home owner stepped forward and politely asked to join the board. She highlighted some experience serving on other boards, which she promised to document with a resume.

She was appointed to the board, conditionally, and must present documentation of her residency by the next board meeting.

The appointment is only good until October, when JACC board elections will be held again.

Oh, and on a final note: Slumlord Keith Reitman, who is a JACC board member and usually makes JACC board meetings, missed this particular meeting.

One can't help but suspect the heat is a little too hot in the kitchen for Reitman's tastes, but this is all Johnny Northside Dot Com can say at the present time about this matter.

Stay tuned as more information comes available.

Foreclosure Prevention Outreach: Not just for the Community, but WITH the Community

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image from www.hudsonriverhousing.org

Earlier today, I received an uplifting message from Dave Snyder of Jewish Community Action about the foreclosure prevention outreach being done by NCRC. That's the Northside Community Reinvestment Coalition. Not only has NCRC been doing groundbreaking work on foreclosure prevention outreach, but the group (of which Hawthorne is a founding member) has also been lobbying Senators Klobuchar and Franken on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency bills going through Congress. We need to reach out to those at risk of losing their homes but also work with our elected officials to ensure that such a crisis never happens again.

Dave Snyder and Marcus Harcus have been doing a top-notch job of coordinating the outreach and lobbying, and today Dave told this story...

..."WE ARE STOPPING FORECLOSURES!

"Several months ago, when our volunteers knocked on Ms. Dorette B.’s door to talk with her about foreclosure prevention counseling, she told them that she had the situation firmly in hand, and didn’t need help. At the time, Dorette had negotiated a loan modification with GMAC to allow her and her daughter, who lives with autism, to stay in her home of 13 years. She called us back, however, when GMAC refused to make her modification permanent, citing a single missing signature on her application. With only a few days before her sheriff’s sale date, we connected Dorette to a counselor at Habitat for Humanity, and they were able to get her sale postponed until August 2, buying her some time to plan and negotiate further. Her case is still unresolved and JCA and other partners may still need to push for help for Dorette.

"But the point of this story is not that Dorette is getting help because of volunteer doorknockers like YOU. The point is that shortly after receiving assistance, Dorette was out with our team in north Minneapolis, wading through knee-deep snowbanks to knock on doors herself, to reach fellow residents who could use some help. The point is that the core leaders of our campaign—who have knocked on doors, traveled to Washington DC to represent us, and lobbied elected officials for fair lending reforms, are residents who have struggled against foreclosure themselves, and have decided to stand up for their neighbors.

"Since 2006, there have been more than 2,600 foreclosure sales in near North Minneapolis, out of 9,291 total households--a financial tsunami that wiped out millions of dollars of community wealth and uprooted thousands of families.

"In 2006-07, 49% of all home loans made to northside residents were subprime, higher-cost loans, compared to just 13.5% of Twin Cities loans overall. Subprime loans can easily cost you $50,000-$100,000 more for your home over the course of a 30 year mortgage than you would with a conventional, prime rate loan. That’s long-term, generational wealth that could have sent a kid to college or secured a small business on solid footing. Multiply that by 100, or 500, or 2,600, and then try to think of what impact that community wealth could have had for the Northside."

NCRC has two important dates coming up: On Tuesday, May 25, we will meet at the Urban League, 2100 Plymouth Ave N, at 6 p.m. to plan next steps and do foreclosure prevention outreach. And on Wednesday, June 9th at 5 p.m. we will hold an NCRC Community press event with John Taylor, President of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and local elected officials. If you can't make it to either event but still want to help, there are always opportunities. Contact Dave Snyder at david@jewishcommunityaction.org.

Fighting Foreclosures!

Guest post by the Hawthorne Hawkman. Photos contributed by Dave Snyder.

I think we all pretty much know that north Minneapolis has been ravaged by foreclosures. The way I see it, it's no good to sit around and wonder why anybody isn't doing anything about it.

And committed residents and staffers throughout NoMi see things the same way. We formed the Northside Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), and we're getting out in the neighborhood and doing direct outreach to people at risk of foreclosures. We're meeting to do outreach on October 27, 5 p.m. at the Minneapolis Urban League. Here's how it works and how you can get involved...

NCRC consists of neighborhood groups like Hawthorne, Jordan, and Harrison; religious groups like Jewish Community Action (pictured above is Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman and NCRC staffer Marcus Harcus) and the MN State Baptists' Convention, and cultural groups like the Lao Assistance Center and the Hmong American Mutual Assistance Association. We work with services like Legal Aid and Habitat for Humanity to get both owners and renters referred to services that can protect them.

What makes NCRC unique is that we are doing targeted outreach to people most at risk of foreclosure, instead of just picking a block and going door-to-door. (The other picture above is of some NCRC volunteers in action) Earlier this year, we partnered with CURA to identify people in north Minneapolis whose adjustable rate mortgages were about to reset, and we sent letters and doorknocked them. Now we get lists of people in the very early stages of delinquency and go directly to those most at risk of slipping into foreclosure.

Sometimes those folks are caught back up on payments by the time we get to them, and a lot of the time there isn't anyone home so we leave fliers. When we do talk to people, we'll get them to Legal Aid for renters, and to foreclosure prevention counseling services for owners. That's the good news. The bad news is that we just don't have enough bodies to reach everyone at risk.

Since I'm a numbers guy, I'll toss out some very rough calculations: We usually go out in teams of two, and can hit about ten addresses an hour. So a two-hour session gets 20 doors per team. Out of those 20 households, about four go to counseling either because of direct conversation or because they received the literature we left them. So if we get twenty people (ten teams) out for two hours, that's 40 households that wind up at least contacting a foreclosure prevention service. The success rate (which could be better, especially if banks and lenders were more cooperative in loan modifications) there is about 60%, so that evening of outreach led to about 24 loan mods in our neighborhood.

Sounds great, right? Well, there are still hundreds of people we've identified as at risk of foreclosure and we just don't have the volunteers to reach them all. That's where YOU come in. We need you to join us at the Urban League, Tuesday October 27th, at 5 p.m. to hit the streets and connect people with services that will help them. We can even divide things up so that you go to the houses that are closest to you and you can help out your own neighborhood or block.

Let's get out there and get things done! I'll see you all on the 27th!