Our Neighborhood
by Toni Huggar
I have resided on the 1300 block of Russell since 1965. It once was a place where we left our doors open and unlocked. Unfortunately now we live in a war zone. The neighborhood began to deteriorate in the mid 80’s. This community has been crying out for help for over a decade. No one heard our cries or pleas then, so it comes as no surprise to me that City Hall is still deaf to the needs of North Minneapolis. I suggest that we all are being played. We will either be forced out because we haven’t been able to keep up the maintenance on our homes, or we will be forced out due to high property taxes. Once we have been removed, City Hall will move swiftly to rebuild.
The social ills that plague North Minneapolis are everywhere. We just have an overabundance of them. How do we go about cleaning up the neighborhood when we continually open new businesses and implement new programs geared towards the economically disadvantaged? There’s no balance. Why not build homes for the homeless or near homeless in places like Eden Prairie and Woodbury. Show the people they are trying to help a new way of life by placing them in a “new” environment, not one that they are familiar with. They need to learn new habits, new survival skills and have new life experiences.
uncle bill's store
Pillsbury United Communities has a program called Fathers and Children
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Together. It is located in Homewood Apartments at Plymouth and Sheridan. This is right across the street from Uncle Bills. Perhaps we can enlist their aid in tackling the problems we are having with the store. Or, perhaps some of the residents who are in this program is contributing to the problems we are experiencing with the store. Why weren’t we informed of its’ existence in our neighborhood?
I say we don’t need a convenience store in our community. Why? It attracts the types of activity and people that we would like to rid the community of. Keep the stores in the main corridor of the city (like Broadway) where the police are more visible. I don’t recall seeing these types of store in places like Maple Grove, Eden Prairie or Woodbury (just to name a few).
youth & crime
I say let's hold parents accountable for their children, enforce curfew and loitering laws.
I say any youth who is caught with a weapon should be required to enter into a program that requires a visit to the morgue and mandatory service working in a funeral home and or morgue for 6 weeks. Perhaps the reality of death will detour at least some who are entered into the program.
I say any youth involved in criminal activity should be required to make a visit to a prison that houses some of our most vicious criminals and take a six-week course in law. These kids don’t know what a felony is or the consequences of having one on their record. This course would teach them. Let’s enlist the aid of some of our attorneys to work pro bono. Give them a tax credit based on the hours they donate. Who should pay for these programs? The parent(s). If they do not have the money (as most of them won’t), they should be required to work (some
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type of community service) to pay a portion of the expense and or do workhouse time. How much workhouse time? 30 days for the 1st offense and 90 days for the 2nd offense. The 3rd offense the child should be removed from the home. If the parent (s) receives public assistance for the child it should be cut off. As a taxpayer, I find it to be insulting that we pay for these kids to go to school and they don’t—then we pay to feed and clothe them, and then they steal from us and even kill us or our children. If the parent can’t control the child, they should not be receiving aid. Perhaps that is the incentive they need to up the ante on their parenting skills.
policing
Police are human beings with a badge. They, too, make mistakes. Some are caring and some aren’t. The ones who don’t care come with a bad attitude. The ones with the bad attitude are in need of diversity training. I mentioned to Councilman Don Samuels once that perhaps we needed a reality TV show for police officers living in the home of someone in our community for one week. This would give them a better opportunity to learn about our culture and how to communicate with us.
I have seen female officers ridicule and taunt Black males even when the “suspect/person” is being cooperative and polite to them. I’ve had an incident happen to me as well.
double jeopardy
As an African-American, living in this community is like playing double jeopardy. For example: (this is a true story) last spring I was issued a traffic ticket for speeding and going down a one way. I was surprised because I had seen the officer in my rear view mirror and had instinctively looked down at my
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