Weatherization program could help change job, education climate

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Andy Bonoban moved to Minneapolis from Chicago last year to be with his sweetheart. As he was moving north, the economy was heading south. Once here, he applied for 55 jobs over a four-month stretch, everything from consulting jobs and graphic design to construction positions. In February, the former corporate librarian got a job as an energy auditor with the Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington Counties, one of the jobs that should be getting a kick start under the federal stimulus package. “It had been a long search,” said Bonoban, who had worried about having to settle on a lesser job. Continue Reading

Riding the bus, worrying about transit deficit, fare hikes

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Sarah Sevcik works as an employment developer with Lifetrack Resources. In one year, she helped nearly 100 clients get work. Of those, one third were unable to take their jobs because they didn’t have a car or because public transit didn’t go to the job. In one case, a St. Paul woman couldn’t take a hotel housekeeping job because the earliest Saturday bus did not get her to work on time. Continue Reading

Youth sports in the cities

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In 2003, the Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board (YCB) said the Minneapolis youth sports programs needed a major restructuring. The mix of sports offered by schools, parks and community programs lacked resources, organization and coordination. The problem was so severe “that youth are being turned away from youth sports opportunities across Minneapolis,” it said. For more on this topic, see Competition, higher costs for youth sports in Minneapolis
The solution? Create a new nonprofit, the Minneapolis Youth Sports Coordinating Organization, to improve communication and collaboration among key players. Continue Reading

Competition, higher costs for youth sports in Minneapolis

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Paddy Mittag-McNaught, 11, is entering his third year playing for the Minneapolis Youth Baseball Association (MYBA). He had played on Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board teams before, but he and his family wanted a more challenging experience. For more on this topic, see Youth sports in the cities
Paddy and 250 other kids recently went through MYBA’s 2009 tryouts, a record turnout. They did fielding, hitting and running drills at the Midtown YWCA and got rated by a consultant. “It is way more competitive than just Park Board,” Paddy said. Continue Reading

Immigrant Law Center tackles asylum appeal for youth fleeing gangs

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Three El Salvadoran teenage siblings fled their country in 2004 after members of a violent youth gang known as MS-13 beat the two younger brothers and threatened to kill them if they did not join the gang. Now living in the St. Paul area, the youths have tried to get asylum. So far, they have lost at each step of the way. Now their case is heading to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Continue Reading

Parent boot camp marches on, but history casts doubt on Minneapolis efforts to sustain youth anti-violence efforts

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The high-energy call and response summed up the evening’s lesson for about 15 black parents with teenage children.“What do we do?”“Model and Teach!”Dr. BraVada Garrett-Akinsanya, a psychologist, started what she calls a parent boot camp after working with a number of black families whose children were traumatized by seeing violence in school and the community. It’s called Project Murua, which is Swahili for respect. Her lesson this evening is that children take their cues from parents, so parents have to model and teach the behaviors and attitudes they want to see in their children. No matter what parents do, they will model and teach something, either love and understanding, or hostility and rejection, she said. “The path to destruction is to model low self esteem,” Garrett-Akinsanya said. Continue Reading

Minneapolis juvenile crime trends look good, but don’t credit prevention work—yet

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Last January, Minneapolis city government and community leaders launched the Blueprint for Action: Preventing Youth Violence. This October, advocates, led by Mayor R.T. Rybak, touted a 46 percent drop in juvenile crime. The plan is a good one and all agree that the crime trends are positive, but it appears that the city has oversold the immediate benefits of the Blueprint’s prevention initiative. Start digging into the Blueprint’s work plan and it’s tough to conclude that prevention programs, most of which are less than a year old, are already paying big dividends. Prevention efforts take time. Continue Reading

Nicollet Island: Cash cow or public park?

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The Nicollet Island Pavilion appears to be a cash cow for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and for a private catering company, but is it the park and open space promised to the public when it was bought with public funds in the 1980s? The Park Board bought most of Nicollet Island—including the building that is now the Pavilion—with money from the Metropolitan Council. That money came with strings: The Park Board needed to devote the land exclusively to “regional recreational open space for public use.” If the Park Board wanted to lease out land, say to a catering company, it needed prior Met Council approval. Today, Mintáhoe Hospitality Group has exclusive catering rights at the Nicollet Island Pavilion, under a deal first cut in 2002. However, its lease with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board contract could run afoul of the decades-old restrictive land use covenant that is only now being reviewed. Continue Reading

Untangling the web: Taxable business and tax-exempt land

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The for-profit Tin Fish operates on tax-exempt Minneapolis parkland near Lake Calhoun; it will pay $7,983.44 in property taxes this year. The for-profit Kelber Catering operates in the tax-exempt Minneapolis Convention Center; it does not pay property taxes. The for-profit Sea Salt Seafood restaurant operates on tax-exempt parkland near Minnehaha Falls; it will pay $7,471.09 in property taxes this year. The for-profit Wolfgang Puck runs the upscale 20.21 Restaurant & Bar at the tax-exempt Walker Art Center; it will not pay property taxes. Confused? Continue Reading