Facebook ImageADDENDUM: February 6, 2011. This blog post was written before I and many others in North Minneapolis discovered what a disreputable con man character Don Allen is. I would advise anybody: Do not trust Don Allen. Seek further information about Don Allen from various online sources before having any contact with him.
Don Allen of the IBNN blog, pictured above on the far right, is calling 'em as he sees 'em, and urging citizens to join him tomorrow, Saturday, May 2, in an effort to "take back North Minneapolis" from what Don calls "seven self-appointed black leaders." Click here for a link to Don's blog post about this event, which will be held at the SunnySide Cafe at 1720 Glenwood Ave. N.
Word is the event will go from...
...around 11 in the morning to about 2 PM. The choice to use the SunnySide Cafe is significant: Al McFarlane, who is kind of like Don's nemesis ("The Anti-Donny," if you will) often holds court at the SunnySide. ACCORDING TO DON ALLEN, Al McFarlane recently said Don must work for the "CIA or FBI." Let me tell you, my blog had a lot of fun with THAT, click here.
I understand the SunnySide serves basic, delicious home style food and they are even willing to cater. (This establishment is right across the street from the place where Lennie "The Heckler" Chism saw his small empire rise, only to dramatically crumble, click here)
Don Allen--who is always taking on the folks running things at the Minneapolis Urban League--has been spilling some interesting stuff on his blog, lately, and also letting hot information out in coy little dribs and drabs, click here for an example.
Anybody interested in more details should email Don Allen at info@ibnn.org or call Don at 612-986-0010.
Word is the event will go from...
...around 11 in the morning to about 2 PM. The choice to use the SunnySide Cafe is significant: Al McFarlane, who is kind of like Don's nemesis ("The Anti-Donny," if you will) often holds court at the SunnySide. ACCORDING TO DON ALLEN, Al McFarlane recently said Don must work for the "CIA or FBI." Let me tell you, my blog had a lot of fun with THAT, click here.
I understand the SunnySide serves basic, delicious home style food and they are even willing to cater. (This establishment is right across the street from the place where Lennie "The Heckler" Chism saw his small empire rise, only to dramatically crumble, click here)
Don Allen--who is always taking on the folks running things at the Minneapolis Urban League--has been spilling some interesting stuff on his blog, lately, and also letting hot information out in coy little dribs and drabs, click here for an example.
Anybody interested in more details should email Don Allen at info@ibnn.org or call Don at 612-986-0010.
"Don Allen pictured on the far right..."
ReplyDeleteTruer words were never spoken, and I bet that makes him happy.
LOL @ Mortgage Geek!
ReplyDeleteThanks Johnny!
ReplyDeleteDonald Allen II of Independent Business News Network and Twin City Business is exactly what the North side DOES NOT need more of- another damn mouthpiece trying to catapult himself high up on a pedestal by cutting down people/organizations and generally creating a whole lot of fear and suspicion. I'm not going to say that there are things that shouldn't be called to light, but I've seen him grab for a whole lot of straws, much moreso than anything of substance.
ReplyDeleteDon Allen talks about others' conflict of interest, has anyone ever brought up his inherent conflict of interest in his little business venture? This webpage says a lot: http://www.prlog.org/10084331-twin-city-business-executive-vp-donald-wr-allen-ii-responds-to-commentary.html.
Basically, his business plan is to criticize and cry corruption about every single organization on the Northside, that is until they come to him and ask if they can pay him not to do this about their organization? It's f-ing gangster 'protection' from getting your name sullied by Donald's ability to take a lot of minute details (some true, others not) generally out of context to paint an organization in the worst light possible.
I work for a northside organization serving the community- I have averaged 60-70 hour work weeks for the past 5 years to help people try and make a better life for themselves on the northside and throughout the city on a flat salary that isn't anything to write home to mom about- ingeneral, NOBODY'S getting rich off of nonprofit work, and believe me, ALL funders (esp. government) take a good damn hard look at people's salaries prior to funding an organization, and they verify these salaries through an audit process.
Staff at my agency work hard and garner significant results for the people and communities we work for- and we have records backing up our impact on thousands of folks and some indisputable ROI study results to confirm the power of the work we do.
It's just that we don't have time to devote our entire days to coming up with press releases where the only people we quote are ourselves and our main objective is to tear other people down. While Don Allen II advocates for his own self-appointment as Urban League president, the rest of us are busy doing the work of trying to build this community up. What doesn't get mentioned in Don Allen's spiels about 'how many years this and that' is that the northside has long been a pretty 'transient' community- people have successfully moved out of poverty, and guess what they often do when that happens? -MOVE. And each year hundreds if not thousands of new people migrate to the city for what is perceived nationally as more opportunity here (in jobs, nonprofit services, treatmeent options, etc.)- many of our residents are newcomers from other states.
Anyways, the people doing the work are too busy to mess with the BS that's getting spewed with these types of fear politics- and what little time we do have available is spent trying to convince our significant others from leaving us for always being at work.
Please approve this dissenting post as I know you are so trustworthy in doing Johnny, another perspective desperately needs to be heard on this- for the sake of the community and people that actually do care about it.
To the person who submitted a long comment to this blog post on December 17, 2009.
ReplyDeleteI am not publishing material or comments which I suspect come from "opposing council" and may represent attempts to obtain information or make some kind of legal point about this blog. Your comment falls into that category based on my reasonable analysis of the content of the comment.
I am not rejecting the comment, but keeping the comment unpublished until such a time as I can reasonably post it.
If you want to publish your point, there are other blogs where you can go. Thanks for your interest in this blog and in North Minneapolis.
(Reaching for my Bloody Mary, no beer chaser)