New Rules for Tax-Forfeited Properties

 

Post and stock photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

In many ways, this is public discourse and public service at its finest.

Several weeks ago, I and other northside housing activists noticed that quite a few tax-forfeited properties were winding up in the hands of slumlords.  The more we looked at the issue, the more we realized that the system was essentially set up to enable those property owners and shut out good ones.  It only took one blog post (and some discussion on North Talk) before County Commissioner Linda Higgins and Minneapolis Council President Barb Johnson responded and set up a meeting.  I used a second post to lay out some potential solutions prior to that discussion.

Higgins and Johnson came prepared, however.  At that meeting they and city and county employees laid out a series of proposals for how to limit such problematic acquisitions.  I believe we all left that meeting energized about changing our community for the better.  At least as a citizen, I am tremendously excited when there is swift constituent response, especially when that response comes with solid proposals that our elected officials come up with.

Much of those are already being put into action, as Commissioner Higgins' most recent newsletter indicates.  In case the link goes dead after a while, the pertinent items are:

Hennepin County Campaign Finance Reports - People Vs. PACs

 Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, photos from the MN Sun.

(Two disclaimers:  first is that I am not a neutral party here and readers should be aware of that.  Second, if I have misread or misinterpreted any items on these reports, I will correct those mistakes.  I was once a treasurer of an organization's PAC, but haven't dealt with such reports in close to ten years.)

As we get closer to election day, I thought it would be revealing to take a look at the contributions that have gone to both Linda Higgins and Blong Yang in their contest for Hennepin County Commissioner.  What I found was surprising.  For instance...

Why I'm voting for Blong Yang

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image from Blong Yang's campaign website.

On November 6, I’m casting my ballot for Blong Yang as our next Hennepin County Commissioner for District 2.  Although his opponent, Linda Higgins, would likely not get my support after her stance on the Vikings’ Stadium, this is not a choice swayed by that issue.  I supported him before the DFL county convention (although Yang is a Democrat, he chose not to seek party endorsement for a non-partisan election), and far ahead of the primary.  In fact, I bought my house and had a Blong Yang sign in my yard before I even moved in a bed.

I was excited to hear of Blong’s entry into the race especially because of the first time we worked together…

Political Speeches at Lowry Bridge Opening

Post and videos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

Every so often, I find myself turning into the north Minneapolis version of C-SPAN.  We have these great events, like the opening of the Lowry Bridge, and of course a parade of politicians have to have their say.  Most of the time, what's said is predictable (thanks to the community and the workers and the fellow politicians and the businesses and the children, etc.), although even in this set of speeches we have a few surprises.

In any case, these are our community leaders, and what they have to say at an event like this should be recorded and readily available.  That's where this blog comes in.

Several of our speakers touted the new bike lanes, and there was that surprise...

Hennepin County District 2 Candidate Forum at the Capri

Post and videos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

Last Thursday marked the first candidate forum between the winners of the primary election for Hennepin County District Two, Blong Yang and Linda Higgins.  Anyone driving past my home can see my support of Yang proudly displayed, and I will be writing more about that soon.  Now that my support has been disclosed, I will present the footage I shot with no further commentary.

More video footage after the jump...

How to Have a Stadium Referendum in North Minneapolis

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  Top document from the city of Minneapolis, bottom image from the Daily Norseman blog.

The Vikings Stadium bill is moving along in the state legislature, and morphing too often and too quickly to keep up with on this blog.  But one key provision that our mayor and seven council members have turned their back on is the fact that the Minneapolis city charter specifically calls for a citywide referendum on any stadium funding greater than $10 million.  At the city council meeting that produced a 7-6 vote in favor of the stadium (Rybak calls that strong support), the city's chief financial officer was asked what the total cost to the city of Minneapolis through 2046 would be for this stadium proposal.

$675 million.

Now I might not be as smart as these people, so I pulled out my calculator to double-check a few things.  And just to be sure I didn't get mixed up with all these newfangled smartphone calculators, I used one that's fifteen years old and only goes up to eight digits.  $67,500,000 minus $10,000,000 equals $57,500,000.  I know I'm missing a zero in there somewhere, but I'm not too good at math and can't figure out where to put it.  Anyway, as best as I can figure, we're allocating far more than ten million in city resources under this proposal, and yet eight of our Minneapolis elected officials are ignoring the referendum requirement.

As an aside, the city attorney has issued a verbal opinion, not a written one, and that this is okey-dokey because the state collects these taxes and gives them back to the city or lets us use them or converts them into unique monetary units that only the Vikings faithful can see, or something like that.  We don't really know, because this is a VERBAL opinion and not written out.  In my opinion, the mayor and city attorney are selling the gang of seven short.  I find it extraordinarily flimsy for a $675,000,000 decision to be made on verbal guidance alone.  If there were a written opinion, then the support that the seven CM's gave would have more weight at least.

So if there's going to be no referendum, what do we do in north Minneapolis?

Redistricting Holdups Won't Serve NoMi

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  Top image from the redistricting court case, bottom image from the city of Minneapolis.

Here in NoMi, we're heading into somewhat uncertain territory.  With redistricting already facing legal hurdles, precinct caucuses for senate district 58 are scheduled for February 7.  Linda Higgins is stepping down from her seat as our state senator, and Bobby Joe Champion has announced his intention to run for that seat.  Raymond Dehn and Terra Cole have announced their candidacies for Champion's seat, but might not even live in the district depending on how lines are redrawn.  Joe Mullery is running for re-election as well.

(I'm covering known DFL candidates because they are the ones most likely to win election, but readers can inform each other about others who are running.)

So the conundrum as I see it is that we're holding our caucuses before we know for sure what the boundaries for legislative districts are.  Right now the best estimation of those boundaries is shown above.  Our senate district would include...

"School is in Session. We Hope You're Taking Notes. There WILL be a Test!"

Post, videos, and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

Over 250 northside residents and North High supporters gathered for a community forum on Monday, October 18.  We told the Minneapolis Public School board and superintendent exactly what the community thought of their proposal to close down North High School.  Board members Madden, Williams, Lee, Stewart, Davis, and Flanagan were in attendance, as well as state Representatives Mullery and Champion, state Senator Higgins, and a representative from Congressman Ellison's office.

Superintendent Johnson began with a series of slides that gave an empirical account of North's decline while conveniently managing not to take any School Board responsibility for such events.  The slides began...