On Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:46:55 -0500, "Opus"
wrote:



There a book entitled "Clearing the Way." It's not a fun read, but it ia
very informative. It's a case study about the 1992 lawsuit filed against
Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, HUD, the Met Council and several other
defendants. Mostly it's about deconcentrating concentrated areas of
impoverished citizens, the demolishion of there homes and their subsequent
involuntary relocation.

I laughed, I cried, I puked.


Yep. I saw some of that when I used to take the bus to work. Older
apartment buildings razed and then everything left to look like a big
hole for a couple of years. By the time I stopped taking the bus,
they were putting in yet another large block building frightfully
lacking in personality. And probably utility.

Hmm. Did you get into any of the fuss about Block E? That was a
disgusting exercise of power. And it's turning useless on them. I
smirk. I liked Block E, scuzzy though it was.

St. Paul did that when it got I-94 through town. Cut right into the
heart of the black neighborhood (not necessarily the impoverished
part), dividing it in two and leaving only a few overpasses. Also
totally removed a couple of square miles of older low rent buildings
that spoiled the view between downtown and the capitol building while
they were at it. I don't know whether it was the St. Palliates or the
legislature that did the latter.

Though, just to prove they weren't colour prejudiced entirely, 10 or
15 years later they later did the same to a blue collar white
neighborhood for another freeway. They lost big time on that one and
it's never really become a freeway, but it has remained a thorn in the
midst of a neighborhood. It's now a 'parkway', with a freeway amount
of automobile traffic, but no trucks. Badly built, too,
intentionally, so that trucks using it would destroy it. By now
automobile use is doing a pretty good destruction job, so when they
rebuild it, it may become a real freeway.
--

r.bc: vixen
Minnow goddess, Speaker to squirrels, willow watcher.
Almost entirely harmless. Really.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli