Welcome NN attendees to your unauthorized guide to the vast world of progressive bloggers outside of NN's bubble. From NN management's comments on yesterday's diary it became pretty obvious that NN lives in a rather stifling protective bubble that includes their San Francisco HQ and the narrow range of big city convention centers they frequent for their annual convo. Between those locations it seems they fly, probably not wanting to risk a trip through the wilds of Minnesota and other states between San Francisco and Minneapolis.
You, as an NN attendee or follower, are not so blinded to experiences beyond the inner sanctum of progressive blogging. There are places NN won't take you (and they'll probably warn you against going) within minutes of the convention center that will greatly enrich your NN experience. Besides, the Minneapolis Convention Center is about the most boring place in the universe. And to the best of my knowledge, none of the Minneapolis netroots activists will be attending NN. So here's your guide to Minneapolis neighborhoods and their netroots activists. (And NN staffers, before you try to blow me out of the water, please reply to my friend Rachel on your NN facebook page, she's a local and interested in attending).
Minneapolis has a long and proud history of progressive neighborhood activism; Some of them have been around for decades. Minneapolis also has something called Neighborhood Revitaliization Program or NRP; I rank this program right up with Social Security and Medicare as the best government programs ever invented and you can learn more about it here. Neighborhood organizations in Minneapolis have elected boards and have invested their NRP wisely in their communities by upgrading housing, reducing crime, and guiding development. But NRP is threatened by Minneapolis Mayor and City Council who have tried to weaken or outright abolish NRP. Why? Because NRP is so efficent it sometimes makes the city look bad, for a start. And how can politicians set up a traditional machine where citizens have to beg and pay tribute to them for every stupid little permit and variance when the local neighborhood group is taking care of that function? In the bad old days before NRP a developer merely had to win by whatever means the support of the ward's council member to get a development approved. Now, neighbors serving on neighborhood committees and elected boards decide what gets built in their communities. When Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak finishes his prefunctory welcoming address, would someone please ask him before he can escape why he wants to destroy NRP and take us back to the bad old days? Or better yet, why doesn't NN let some neighborhood leaders in and give them equal time to challenge the mayor's assertions?
On to the neighborhoods... I've lived in several over the years- Elliot Park, Wittier, Stevens Square, etc.. But I'm most familiar with Hawthorne on the Northside. My family has been on the Northside for a century now, but I'm the last to own property there and keep the taxes paid up in hopes that someday I or another of my family can move back. Essentially, I'm a Northsider in exile, forced to move out to more affordable western Minnesota to escape Minneapolis artificially jacked up housing costs and crime. Here's our neighborhood groups's website. And that provides a neat little segway to introduce one of our Northside netroots activist heros, Jeff Skrenes. In a past life Jeff was a mortgage banker as well as a vet, and he's put that experience to good use as Hawthorne Neighborhoods Housing Director. He's dug up the evidence to put the home loan scam artists that robbed working class neighbors in the Northside in jail and been one of the primary movers and shakers in the Hawthorne Eco-Village and other neighborhood projects. He's also a blogger, and you can find him here. He's also got links to much of the rest of the vast Northside progressive bloggerverse, including award winning bloggers like Johnny Northside, another vet who has helped to chase the criminals, slumlords, and loan sharks out of the Northside. Again, you probably won't see these people at NN; Unless NN staff dares to venture outside their bubble and send them an invite.
Time to broaden the scale... Minneapolis has long been home to online activists, and for years they've been raisin' heck on the Minneapolis Issues List and other forums here Mayor R.T. Rybak started his political career on the Minneapolis Issues List, but after nearly 10 years in office dares not show his face there. But we know he and every Minneapolis elected officials and department heads read the list, but most won't 'fess up to it.
Got more content to add, but running out of time. So I suggest you venture out of NN's bubble and explore the places the Minneapolis the Convention and Visitors Bureau doesn't want you to see as well as Eat Street. The Northside begins just a few blocks away and can be reached by walking, bike, or bus in case you don't have your own wheels with. You can try the Nice Ride rental bikes, but beware that they require credit cards and will put a couple hundred dollar charge against your account for a couple days if you use a debit card. Please remember that while crime is down in Minneapolis from the peaks a few years ago, the Northside still has too much crime so be careful; I'd advise exploring in a group and early in the day when the criminals are still sleeping.
Bye for now, and may be back tomorrow on more of the progressive netroots that's NOT@Netroots Nation...