Confessions of an Errant Mind

someone steals the actual garage door (the one meant for cars) off the abandoned house next door in broad daylight on a weekend. We came home from church around 11:15 and it (and the garage door opener) were gone by 2. I'm sure it had some value for scrap metal, and the opener could be pawned. But seriously--stealing something that big? That takes some planning. Even the local neighborhood association thought this was a new one.

Of course the house is abandoned because its caught up in a scam that was part of the larger mortgage crisis, which itself is having its strongest toll on our much poorer than average area. But that's the big picture.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At our church small group last night, I found out that one of our local coffee shops, the Bean Scene, had shuttered up for good. The Bean Scene opened up about four years ago in a former Burger King--fitting for north Minneapolis. They offered award winning coffee and passable food. More notably, it's been a community center of sorts. I've seen most of our local and national politicians there (Councilman Don Samuels, Representative Keith Ellison, and Mayor R.T. Rybak), it's hosted community events like poetry slams, and in general it was just a good place to network and meet people. For me, it was a spot to hang out with a few guy friends on Saturday mornings. Unfortunately, it seems like the market for a $3.50 latte in the 'hood ain't good. It almost closed six months ago, but the city stepped in. Whatever was offered must not have been enough.

This is business, and in a sense it's no great loss. In the food business in particular, the chances of success are quite low--something like 20%. And opening up an upscale coffee place in a poor urban area doesn't help that rate. Still, there's a part of me that wants to see my neighborhood as the type of community in which spaces like the Bean Scene can exist. I recognize that my desire reflects my background: north Minneapolis has other neighborhood "centers," like buses, convenience stores, and barber shops. But the Bean Scene to me was a place community activists could use to connect. In my academic research, I'm sure to be talking about the negative affects of gentrification. And certainly I don't want to see a Starbucks on every corner here. But a little of it wasn't a bad thing.

The Bean Scene recently opened a second location a few blocks down the street, and that one survives. Yet it will never have the "charm" of the hamburger embossed door handle. And I have my doubts about it's long term future as well. Other coffee shops may come and go, but this one had a special place in my heart. So forgive me if I feel a little sentimental looking back over the short life of this modest enterprise.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Star-Trib published this map today of properties owned by a local firm responsible for many of the foreclosures in my neighborhood. The city of Minneapolis is suing the firm, T.J. Waconia. One of the open dots ("not in foreclosure") is right next door. It's been unoccupied for the last two years and has received only basic maintenance, maybe three lawn mows a summer.This story is the first I've seen it linked to Waconia. This map shows the extent of the damage well, I think.

In any case, while the violence in my neighborhood is often unexplicable and deeply tragic, a scheme like this has its own tragedy. The people behind this firm made cold, calculated decisions that have damaged hundreds of lives--property values have tanked here in part because of them. Not good. Not good.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Star-Trib published this map today of properties owned by a local firm responsible for many of the foreclosures in my neighborhood. The city of Minneapolis is suing the firm, T.J. Waconia. One of the open dots ("not in foreclosure") is right next door. It's been unoccupied for the last two years and has received only basic maintenance, maybe three lawn mows a summer.This story is the first I've seen it linked to Waconia. This map shows the extent of the damage well, I think.

In any case, while the violence in my neighborhood is often unexplicable and deeply tragic, a scheme like this has its own tragedy. The people behind this firm made cold, calculated decisions that have damaged hundreds of lives--property values have tanked here in part because of them. Not good. Not good.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've become quite interested in gentrification over the last year or two, and it's refreshing to see that America's finest news source has finally taken up the issue. It's time that yuppies get the justice they deserve!!

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An article in today's Strib talks about the decline in home value assessments this year. For my neighborhood, it's eye-popping--25% in our area and 44% by our first house (which we sold three years ago for $195K--think about that loss). A scan of sold homes in our neighborhood over the last two months shows only two homes sold for over $100K. Most were around $50K. I can't even fathom what foreclosures have done to the market here or how the neighborhood will be affected as a result. Who's buying all these foreclosed homes? What will be done with them?

In any case, here's a letter I sent to the Strib about their piece. One upside--our property taxes will be lower next year

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Buried deep within the recent article on dropping home values was a truly astounding number. In parts of North Minneapolis, home values have dropped by almost 50%. This is a catastrophic loss for neighborhood homeowners, many of whom already live with limited means. Why this number doesn’t deserve its own headline is beyond me.

At the same time, perhaps the fact that these price drops extend beyond the city’s poorest areas is good news. The fallout from this foreclosure crisis cannot just be dismissed as an unfortunate consequence to a limited (and relatively powerless) few. Hopefully, lenders and public officials can both create protections for those currently most affected and long-term, substantial reforms to protect against such disasters in the future.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interesting editorial in Time about the war on drugs by the writers of HBO's The Wire. Those who know me are aware of my love of the show. It's one of the few on television to give a comprehensive, three-dimensional look at poverty in the American City. Drug dealers and gangsters aren't monsters on The Wire, they're real people (albeit ones often with serious issues) with their own motivations and humanity.

In any case, the show's writers are proposing that juries in non-violent drug offenses uniformly refuse to convict. It's an indictment against what they see as the failure of aggressive prosecution to make any real dent in drug crime or the violence tied to it. I see their point, though as a resident of a drug infested neighborhood, I'm not sure I want to completely get rid of enforcement. But the real problems are much deeper than street level. And if the tactics of The Wire's heroes (few and far between) are any indication of the kind of system they would prefer--one based on more systematic and meticulous investigations of the main players of the trade--I'd say there's some real arguments in their favor.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The home neighborhoods been in the news as of late. First, in a story straight out of my current HBO fav The Wire, the owners of Harold's Chicken Shack on West Broadway are on trial for using it to launder cocaine money. When we lived on W. Broadway, a few years back, the drug trade was obvious and frustrating, but mostly run by 17 year olds. It's interesting to get a deeper glimpse into the action. There's already been accusations against some of the prosecution witnesses saying they've also sold crack. In any case, it's not often that I (as a suburban, white, educated man) get this kind of real glimpse into the economic infrastructure of the drug trade, even though it used to happen in my front yard!

Second, the Minnesota Daily had a short piece today detailing progress in the U's Northside Partnership. They're buying Penn Crossings, once home to a kick ass soul food place and more recently a home for drug dealing (ironic, since they're feet away from the precinct police station). This has been 2-3 years coming, and not without controversy. Some in the community are suspicious (rightfully so) of the university's goals--people don't like just being guinea pigs. But hopefully the university has done its groundwork right and this can be an asset.

Finally, I just came across this map of a few key northside statistics. The post hs education rates for African American men are astounding--most neighborhoods are below 1%. Wow. Can't say much else than that.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That's the slogan of Vision 20/20, an online service (using technology called a Mashup) that offers online map-related services. Most notably this includes a geographical search for registered sex offenders in your immediate area. I tried this with our address, just to see how it worked. Not well. The Minnesota Dept. of Corrections (slogan: "Contributing to a Safer Minnesota") lists six Level 3 Offenders in our zip code, including one a block from our house. Vision 20/20 listed five offenders, but none actually in our zip code. There was no overlap between the two lists, so I don't know where they're getting they're information from if not from the DOC. It's certainly not as impressive as ChicagoCrime.org, where you can sign up for a feed of crimes happening near any city address--it's linked to a publicly available police database.

With our house languishing on the market the last few months, I've been thinking about maps like these. I posted a few weeks ago about the foreclosure, or crime maps that Minneapolis has on its city website. There's some value to these--particularly for citizens seeking information about crime patterns in the city. Yet, as Vision 20/20s slogan suggests, they also allow people to steer clear of potentially dangerous people--giving us "peace of mind" about our neighborhood so we can be truly "prosperous." And so, while we live in a great house on a relatively quiet section of a poor neighborhood, people are scared to live here because bad things do occasionally happen around us.

As a Christian, though, my reading of the gospels shows another mindset. Jesus didn't look at the maps to find the safest place to live. He chose the "dangerous" neighborhood. He didn't avoid "dangerous" characters--he sought them out. When all these maps do is instill fear and create segregated communities, they run counter to the purpose of the church: reconciliation and peace-making.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This month's Sojourners has an interesting look at the spiritual life of suburbia. As an ex-suburbanite, I found it an interesting read. The local paper had a similarly interesting series of stories recently on the ethnic changes happening in many suburbs around the Twin Cities (and, I assume, nationally). This seems like a good thing. The economic development of the suburbs was coupled with the creation of ghettos and the urban underclass during the 1960s and 70s. Seeing those suburban cities become more economically and ethnically mixed is a sign that maybe some balance is being restored. Though I do begin to wonder if those inner-ring suburbs will become the new ghettos--Brooklyn Center, near our home in N. Minneapolis, already has a pretty tough reputation. As Minneapolis redefines itself as a center for entertainment and culture, will it only push the poor to the next available subdivision?

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some friends in our small group forwarded this map of foreclosures in our neighborhood. It's easy to see signs of this just driving around: house auction signs, boarded windows, and overgrown lawns. What's really amazing is how recent many of these mortgages are, only 1 or 2 years old. Somebody was definitely out to make a quick buck from closing costs and interest. Not that I'd know, but I've never heard of something like this happening before, and I really wonder how it will end up reshaping the fabric of the neighborhood. Since many of this properties will probably end up as low-quality rentals, I can't think it's a good thing.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Star-Trib has an interesting article today about the future of NRP funding. NRP, as some of my not so many readers may know, was a program started by the state some years back. It funnels property tax revenues into a pot of money distributed to neighborhood organizations, who can do with it as they please. In concept, the idea is that neighborhood residents decide how to spend the state's money, not politicians. Democracy!

Now I don't know much about how effective the program has been. Our neighborhood association, FNA, has done some research on crime in the area and used the money for a variety of housing related improvements, offering low cost home loans for renovations. It was interesting to me that two potential research subjects in my academic future, Eat Street and Mercado Central, were funded by NRP.

The criticism in the article is that residents essentially spend the money too frivolously. Rather than addressing core issues, like public safety or library funding, they're a little too fond of bigger projects (like food courts). There may be a point there. At the same time, I'd hate to see the city go back to only concentrating on those basic needs. To use a metaphor, we certainly need food on the table, but sometimes it's nice to go get our hair done, too. Healthy neighborhoods find a good balance between the two.

Posted by Jerry Shannon at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)