Minneapolis Community Engagement … Why is this so difficult

I now pronounce you resident and city official.. you may now kiss my butt. The Community Engagement plans coming from the city council is the very height of ignorance. It basically sounds like the council is telling the citizens that you can only talk with us if you’ve successfully navigated thru the huge bureaucracy that is Minneapolis city government. I thought the whole idea of an elected city council member was to have a point of contact to represent residents concerns. Whenever talking to the city council members about concerns they seem to redirect you to another meeting, department, or a neighborhood organization. Shouldn’t the city council member be dealing with the concerns of the residents? That is their job!

Minneapolis one of the most livable cities in the world..hogwash

Minneapolis officials maybe feeling their oats over this ranking, but not so fast. Take a look at the web site of the publication that issued the ranking www.monocle.com.
They seem to miss a number of key elements that make up the livability of a city. They mention crime rates, but Minneapolis total crime picture doesn’t look all that great when you dig into the numbers. They don’t mention schools, which isn’t one of the time proven key factors in the quality of a city. They fail to mention anything about cost of living in a city, and Minneapolis doesn’t have a good record on that account. They do mention business climate, but all you need to do is look around and see that is not so great in Minneapolis. The factors that Monocle uses are self-admittedly subjective and focused more on environmental and cultural issues rather than substantive factors. Over the last year Minneapolis has received a number of these rankings from different publications, but they all surround factors that are very subjective and lean towards environmental and cultural factors. It depends on what the editors and readers of the publications deem important. All these factors are nice and can contribute to the overall experience living in the city, but the foundation bedrock factors are seriously lacking. It’s like building a house with all of the beautiful windows, doors, siding, roof, but it is missing a solid slab and ends up sinking into the ground and falling apart. That describes Minneapolis.

Poor city Library management leads to unexpected higher costs

Like Gomer Pile would say “Surprise Surprise Surprise”. The Minneapolis Shadow isn’t surprised in the least at this revelation, however I’m surprise the County is surprise. What did you expect out of Minneapolis? They can’t find their budgetary butt with two hands for crying out loud! It is simply outrageous for the Twins Ballpark sales tax to be going to the expanded library hours, the fact that the county needed to bailout the city, and that we are now discovering higher costs in the take over. Government management at it’s very best! We should hold all parties involved accountable for this mess.

Crime and Violence: Who is to blame

The elected officials and news outlets like the StarTribune need to stop beating around the bush and address the violence and crime problems. In today’s edition of the StarTribune is a quote that the shooting that happen in 2006 that killed Brian Cole happen after Cole left the Juneteenth festival. In the previous articles, one dated May 28 on the Cole murder trial, mentions it having happen at the festival. Way to cover up for the festivals’ good name. We can’t have this festival be marred by violence now can we. Even if this is a minor detail in a very large issue, it points to a number of problems that are at the very heart of the reason why the violence continues…one major fact is that no one is willing to face this head on. The city council, mayor, and other elected officials aren’t crying out for this violence to stop. They are mute on the very issue. It is outrageous that this behavior is allowed to continue without a strong public stance and action plan by the very people who are responsible for stopping this madness. The press is as much to blame for not calling these folks into account for it. So the madness continues.

Juneteenth shooting .. Where is the outrage

We in Minneapolis have become way to use to this. Where is the outcry from the public and elected officials to address this issue of crime and violence?
One of the great things about Minneapolis is the fun outdoor activity that makes up life in the summertime. This sort of stuff really “kills” the joy of these types of events, and I choose my words here very carefully. What does it take for the “elected” in this town to become serious about this violence problem? Remember the Cole murder? Maybe this incident was another “I didn’t mean to cause any harm”. If these animals that did this on Saturday get caught they should be locked up and the key thrown away. It would not only stop them from ever doing again, but also prove to others thinking about doing the same that society doesn’t put up with this type of behavior. If this isn’t done we will continue to experience this over and over again.Consider this a calling out of Mayor Rybak, City Council members, County Board, State and Federal Representatives and Senators, and Judges. The Minneapolis Shadow challenges to take clear, decisive, and public action to properly address the problem of the violence that grips this city.