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Solution Paper #42, posted December 22, 2010

PLANNING

For The Positive Future Possibilities Of Minnesota,

for Minneapolis in General,

and the African American Community in Particular.

For years, under different banners, “planning” and “plans” have been discussed in countless meetings, but with little to show other than fortifying the status quo.  Here, then, are thoughts about planning for every community, Black and white, fully inclusive, not exclusive, to end the circular process of planners meeting with planners to plan meetings, and instead to actually develop and execute plans for the community, not just for the continuation of the bureaucratic process of planning for planning.

In my book, The Minneapolis Story, through my eyes, in Chapter 8, housing, pp. 129-140 (also posted as Solution paper #41, Housing, December 22, 2010), I reported the staggering sums spent on planning, amounts that often far exceed the amount actually spent on what they planned for, a practice common not only to Minneapolis but in cities across the country.  It is part of what is bankrupting America’s cities, that have become Planning Resorts for government workers in administration and education bureaucracies, larding themselves with extraordinary pay packages with unfunded liabilities for pensions and health care benefits now totaling, nationally, $1 Trillion that they expect tax payers on their plantations to pay, coming particularly at the expense of communities of color.  See “60 Minutes”, December 19, 2010, on the The Day of Reckoning for state and city budgets woes.

From the Minneapolis Story Book:   Solutions Page Table of Contents.

Overall planning:  The Positive Future Possibilities for Minneapolis: Envisioning the Dream, Sustaining the Vision: Not Asking Permission, Making No Apologies For Being Free (Chapter 17)

Planning for education (Chapter 7) 
Planning for jobs (Chapter 9)  and,related in terms of stadium construction jobs
Planning for housing (Chapter 8)
Planning to keep Vikingsor kick them out (Chapter 15; see also here).
Planning from the standpoint of various perspectives and approaches, entering into a contestation of ideas.

RELEVANT COLUMNS AND SOLUTION PAPERS

Planning for ending the gaps caused by racism, injustice, and dream deferral, using 2004’s New Year’s Resolutions
Planning7 KEY THEMES, 7 KEY PROBLEMS, and 7 KEY SOLUTIONS
Planning:  a process:  "Ubuntu" Reconciliation of Communities and Races
Planning:  The Blocks to Construct a Minneapolis Table for All to Sit at Together to plan together.
Planning:  10 ideas for the NAACP,  from 2004.
Planning to deal with violence:  Where’s the plan to confront these dangerous, violent times?
Planning needed for the Findings and recommendations of the Diversity Study:  adhering to the findings and recommendations are relevant and key to planning.  See columns here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Examples of planning to plan planning, but no real action in our community:  see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The February 10, 2010 column lists the columns reporting How it all went wrong, the nails in the civil rights coffin, all related to the stunning comment of the then Director of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department, that the City can meet its minority compliance goals without having to hire a single Black person.  Response at the time from mayor and council?  None.

The “Tracking the Gaps” blog entry of 7-31-08, lists a roundup of columns related to the February 10, 2010 column, including a list of columns from 2005, 2006, and 2007, which raised the question: "When will Blacks be included in the billions of dollars worth of jobs in construction for stadiums, bridges, light rail, and other big money projects?"  Listed also are columns dealing with how major media, especially the Star Tribune’s agenda based journalism, purposefully fails in its journalistic task of informing instead of propagandizing for the state about its failures to follow its own laws and statues regarding race, especially in terms of education, jobs, and housing.

To order The Minneapolis Story, through my eyes, and/or its follow-up, A Seat For Everyone, click here.


Ron hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm. Formerly head of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League, he continues his “watchdog” role for Minneapolis. Order his book, hear his voice, read his solution papers, and read his between columns “web log” at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.

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