Minneapolis Homeless Tent City Walk Through-Bob Davis Podcast 771

Minneapolis Homeless Tent City Walk Through-Bob Davis Podcast 771

During the summer homeless people pitched a few tents along a highway in Minneapolis. Politicians visited. Publicity helped the camp population swell to hundreds. Take a walk through a homeless tent city in Minneapolis Homeless Tent City Walk Through-Bob Davis Podcast 771.

Homeless People In Lots of Tents Equals Instant Controversy

Now, as the weather gets colder interest and controversy about this encampment grows.

Native Americans In Tents-New Immigrants in Public Housing

Most of these folks are Native Americans. The camp is less than a hundred feet away from public housing. Especially relevant many of the public housing units in the neighborhood are occupied by recent immigrants to the US.

Tent Cities Everywhere-America’s New Homeless Problem

Across the country these tent cities are popping up. These days everyone knows about homeless in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. What about Minneapolis? Documentarian Brandon Fertig is making a video detailing America’s homeless problem. Brandon’s website and links to social media are here. Last summer he decided to focus on the tent city here in Minneapolis. He says things have changed a lot when it comes to the Homeless since the 1950’s.

More Homeless Than Houston-Despite The Cold

Why? Many people don’t know the City of Lakes has more homeless than Houston.

Walk And Talk Through The Encampment

What you hear is what we experienced when Brandon and I did a walk and talk through the encampment.

Some Are Helping Now

We met James Cross of Natives Against Heroin and Allan Law, better known as the Sandwich Man. We also spent some time talking with residents of this tent city at Franklin Avenue and Highway 55 in South East Minneapolis. Check it out in Minneapolis Homeless Tent City Walk Through-Bob Davis Podcast 771.

Solutions May Not Be In Time

Finally what about solutions? One of the Tribes is tearing down a building across the highway. The plan is to bring in trailers. They won’t be ready for another two months. Moreover not all the residents of the camp will be able to move in. Then what? No one knows. Learn more in Minneapolis Homeless Tent City Walk Through-Bob Davis Podcast 771.

Politicians Visit In Summer-Not Around When November Winds Turn Cold

In conclusion Minneapolis could have a very serious and controversial problem on its hands when the weather changes. The real question is whether the city’s policies of subsidized apartment buildings for the rich, as well as other ‘regentrification‘ projects fueled by public money have contributed to the problem. Meanwhile the problems of the old city are stubborn reminders all is not well in the shining city of Minneapolis.

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

Minneapolis Homeless Tent City Walk Through-Bob Davis Podcast 771

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Minneapolis Police Shooting Exposes Training Questions-Podcast 650

Minneapolis Police Shooting Exposes Training Questions-Podcast 650

Another officer involved shooting. Another tragedy. More media coverage of excessive force by police. This time it’s Minneapolis on the hot seat. We’ll talk about it in Minneapolis Police Shooting Exposes Training Questions-Podcast 650.

R. Steven Rogers, a firearms instructor with Pistolcraft, joins Bob Davis. Rogers believes training is the key in the mystery of why officers may be prone to reaching for firearms.

Another Officer Involved Shooting

Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor shot and killed Justine Ruszczyk Saturday Night July 15th, 2017. The 40 year old South Minneapolis woman had called 911 to report a disturbance in the alley behind her home.

Details are sketchy so far, since the officer isn’t talking. Speculation is running rampant. Rogers asks some questions about the level of training for officer Noor and police as a whole in Minneapolis Police Shooting Exposes Training Questions-Podcast 650.

More Questions About City Management

Especially relevant is the question of how Minneapolis manages police. Is there too much involvement in police management by Mayor Betsy Hodges? There have been questions about police coverage in the city’s poorer neighborhoods for years. With reports of more crime in entertainment districts, now, suddenly, come questions of enough whether there are enough police, whether they are experienced enough and how they are trained. In Minneapolis Police Shooting Exposes Training Questions-Podcast 650.

Higher Training Standards May Be Key

Despite assertions that Minnesota ranks high in standards for police training, Rogers says the standard may not be high enough. He questions whether officers are getting enough training in dealing with the difficult situations they encounter, and thus revert to their firearms. In Minneapolis Police Shooting Exposes Training Questions-Podcast 650.

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

Minneapolis Police Go To The Gun-Podcast 650

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Friday Night On Mean Street Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis-Podcast 648

Friday Night On Mean Street Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis-Podcast 648

Have you been to downtown Minneapolis lately? These days some don’t feel safe there. In Friday Night On Mean Street Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis-Podcast 648 we run the gauntlet on Hennepin Avenue.

After Billions Spent, New Questions About Safety Downtown

The media is starting to ask questions about crime in downtown. Opinion makers and the city’s leaders are apparently concerned. The questions they don’t ask are revealing.

Another New Crisis

The Crisis in American Cities has been grabbing headlines for a hundred years. From The Gateway District to Mayo Square it’s the same formula. Use taxpayer dollars to Demolish. Rebuild. Repeat. Has it been worth it?

Robert Moses and Richard Daley Would Be Proud

Light rail and mixed use condos. Expensive restaurants and Hipster art districts. Bike paths. Safe spaces. Higher Minimum Wages. Political fights about redevelopment and economic inequality. Tax Increment Financing to bring in big retail and big companies.

When these efforts produce mixed results, the process starts all over again. More money. Newer stadiums. More buildings. More condos that are sold as ‘affordable’ but cost at least two hundred thousand dollars. Higher rents. Traffic Jams. Crime.

Downtown Minneapolis was never a ‘thing’

The neighborhoods and retail business were located in North Minneapolis and North East, Uptown, Lake Street in South Minneapolis and Saint Paul’s ‘Midway’. Sure, Hennepin Avenue always featured bars and hotels, places to eat and entertainment. But downtown was for warehouses, light industry, office buildings, city and county government. And drunks.

Not DisneyLand

Let’s just say it. Downtown Minneapolis isn’t Disneyland. It never was. That’s the reason punks loved in in the early 80’s. The gritty nature of Moby’s and other Block E attractions made it ‘charming’. It’s one of the reasons First Avenue was able to gain a foothold as a seminal and nationally famous music and punk culture venue.

These days, the well connected, with impeccable credentials in the Twin Cities’ public-private partnership world, continue to sell ‘more of the same’; Taxes, regulation, and fees that make seeing a show or going to a baseball, football, or basketball game and having dinner after, impossibly expensive for most of the disappearing middle class.

Investment For What?

Want to start a business downtown? Want to buy a condo downtown? Better be juiced into the money or have a lot of money. No wonder people are concerned about the nitty gritty nature of Hennepin Avenue. Walking down this street you’re mixing with the great unwashed. Unruly, scantily clad, vulgar, of different races and often from the poor side of the cities. And it’s really, really fun.

What Does The 21st Century Look Like?

We need to start asking questions about the nature of the city in the mid twenty first century. Retail is dying. Corporations don’t need tons of office space anymore. No one wants to pay more and more tax. No one wants to have to pay 22 dollars for a hamburger to fund the sports cathedrals for billionaire team owners that live around Lake of Isles or out in Minnetonka.

Is the solution really more cops downtown. Another Light Rail line? Subsidized office space? Another redevelopment of Nicollet Mall? More incremental taxes added to the bills at the Smack Shack? Who lives down here? Not the servers. Nor the kids hanging out at the LRT station.

Spend Daddy’s Money Downtown

Downtown Minneapolis is a place for trust fund babies, lawyers and corporates relocating. People who are used to having things their way. No wonder they think it’s unsafe. Sadly, they’re making everyone else pay for their own personal Epcot Center. It’s a con.

Present Becomes Past?

No matter how much they spend when you walk this street, you’re walking where the bums in the Gateway used to spend the winter drinking. The past echoes up and down Hennepin, even if the buildings are long torn down. That’s never going to change.

We Pay For Power In The Shadows

When you think about how much of the taxpayer’s hard earned dollars they’ve spent, one wonders when the Downtown Council and the real shadow power in Minneapolis will be held accountable.

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing of Saint Paul

Friday Night On Mean Street Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis-Podcast 648

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