[Mpls] Stone Arch Apartments - Affordable to who?

[Michael Atherton]

Jason Stone wrote:

> The people I've worked with on NRP planning are quite smart 
> and have a high degree of integrity and a sincere commitment 
> to gather and incorporate input and report on all of the phases 
> of NRP planning.  I haven't met any of the dullards that Michael 
> describes.   

Regardless of whether you've met dullards in NRP, the problem
is that there are no real checks and balances to prevent them from
controlling neighborhood NRP processes.  Who controls the NRP
at the neighborhood level is, for the most part, self-selected
(i.e., "who shows up").  There is no public vetting, as normally 
occurs in our representative democracy.  The vast majority of
neighborhood residents have no idea who is "representing" them
and no idea of the decisions that they are considering and the
actions they take (regardless of whether the NRP claims that 
they are).

Chris Johnson wrote:

> Like Jason Stone, the people I've met who worked on NRP projects in 
> neighborhoods have been intelligent, informed and most of all, 
> sincerely trying to do the right thing for the entire neighborhood.

I hope that Mr. Johnson is also lucky enough to live in a
neighborhood where everyone obeys traffic laws... I don't.

I would also posit that what self-selected individuals believe
is, "...right thing for the entire neighborhood...," may not
actually be the right course of action or what is desired by the 
majority of residents (even if enforced "sincerely").

Joan Thom wrote:

>  As I've said many times over the years if you weren't involved 
>  than you can't complain about how it was done. Make sure you 
>  are next time and you can have more input.

This is a great example of the type of thought processes that
go into the NRP process, I've often heard it voiced in my
neighborhood.  Never mind that it totally invalidates the right of
political protest, liberal or otherwise.  "So, you didn't
vote in the 2000 election and you haven't been actively
lobbying at the Capital, then you have no right to complain
about the War in Iraq."  Wrong.  Besides the fact that I have
been actively involved in the NRP process, since I moved into
in my neighborhood, and have spent hundreds of hours and dollars
supporting community activism.  I will NEVER claim that people who 
haven't been involved in the process don't have the right to complain 
about its outcomes.  It's ridiculous to claim such a thing in a free 
society.

And while I'm ranting, I believe that much of the housing "shortage" 
was manipulated (as it was in other cities) and that, if there ever 
was a housing shortage, it doesn't exist anymore.  And, being in an 
extremely cynical phase, I currently don't see city politics as much 
more than the process of determining who gets to milk the city cow.

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park