LONGFELLOW NEIGHBORHOOD THREATENED!
Marcea Mariani's
How it looks, what amenities it offers and the level of crime judges a neighborhood. If judged positive, people choose to live there, if undesirable, people choose to live elsewhere. Today, our Longfellow neighborhood reflects an influx of young families as well as established residents who choose to remain until retirement and beyond.
This is a change from 15 years ago, when people couldn’t leave the area fast enough. Something happened. Housing stock improved, parks became safer and the River Gorge is now a sanctuary. Lake Street is currently receiving a face-lift and promises to be more user friendly.
How did these things happen? Because we are fortunate to have elements that many neighborhoods do not have: the Longfellow Community Council (LCC) and the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP). The funds made available through NRP enable the LCC staff to work every single day to keep our many projects moving to completion.
The Longfellow Community Council works FOR us and WITH us and asks for our input. The LCC staff and volunteers carry our ideas forward to developers before a developer puts anything into our neighborhood that we may determine unacceptable. Without the Neighborhood Revitalization Program funding, we would not be as organized or empowered as we are today.
Remember the Cub store big box that was planned for the corner of 46th and Minnehaha? Neighbors gave a resounding ‘no’ and the LCC staff took our response directly to the developer and presto: no big box!
We have a YWCA in our midst because we asked for it. The LCC provided NRP funds to help make it happen. We have a fix and paint program, which allows homeowners to select a matching fund program or a low rate loan option.
The LCC staff not only secures the additional funds necessary to get a project up and running, they protect those funds on our behalf. What would you say if you were told that someone wants to take away the money that does all these things? Well, I just did. Your mayor and city council want that money not in your hands, where it continues to accomplish positive projects, but they want it all downtown. It seems empowered communities making decisions on their own behalf, has recently become unacceptable in Minneapolis.
The Longfellow community has many brilliant and dedicated professionals who are willing to volunteer their time to better the community. Coordination of those volunteers requires staff time to write proposals to fund projects and to make daytime phone calls.
The Longfellow Community Council used the 9.3 million dollars allocated in 1995 to leverage over 15 million by 2006. This is an amazing accomplishment. By all criteria, LCC has performed in an exemplary manner and has provided a tremendous amount of benefits for our neighborhoods. They should be allowed to continue the work of the community.
If NRP is not funded, there will be no Longfellow Community Council to promote our interests. We will be forced to rely on the city to propose and fund our improvement projects. How will downtown to take care of our Longfellow community when there are 61 other neighborhoods also needing similar attention in Minneapolis? We run a very real risk that continued improvements in our neighborhood will cease. Then we will deal with a degenerating and neglected area once again.
Remember R. T. Rybak’s election platform when he originally ran for mayor? He supported NRP! Now, several years later, he has decided we should have none of that money. He has set up community work teams to reach this goal. You need to call the mayor; (612-673-2100) and tell him how important it is to: “Fully fund NRP through the year 2025”. Your councilpersons are waiting to hear from you too:
Ward 2 Cam Gordon 612-673-2202
Ward 9 Gary Schiff 612-673-2209
Ward 12 Sandra Colvin Roy 612-673-2212