News Day

Congratulations to John Keller, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, who received the 2011 Access to Justice award from the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association. ILCM’s press release noted that last year they served more than 3,300 cases, reaching nearly 10,000 Minnesota individuals and families, who come from 95 different countries. Continue reading →

As traffic snakes through construction barriers on University Avenue, I look at the chain link fences lining the sidewalks and wonder just how much damage some of my favorite small businesses have already felt. Corner businesses on major cross streets are luckier—the #16 bus still stops at Prior and University and traffic still crosses the street in all directions. Mid-block businesses on the south side of University Avenue (now) and on the north side (later) are cut off by trenches and earth-moving equipment, imprisoned behind chain-link fences. Continue reading →

The official story from the Met Council on April , as repeated in MinnPost and MPRwas that there’s great news and new government money to help businesses along the Central Corridor. “Assistance to businesses along the Central Corridor LRT route will increase to $11.1 million, which now includes more than $6 million in forgivable loans and grants,” said the Met Council press release.

The University Avenue Business Association said that they were “happy to see the Met Council responding, but their announcement is confusing.”

They got that right. Continue reading →

Do the wealthiest 400 people in the United States actually earn more than the rest of us all put together? Yes, said a speaker at a recent forum in Minneapolis. Just one problem: like a fisherman describing the big one that got away, he didn’t get the facts quite right. The big fish—the large and growing income disparity between the extremely wealthy and the rest of us—is out there, but the numbers used to measure its weight and length are a little slippery.

In fact, the 400 wealthiest people in the United States own more of the nation’s wealth than the bottom 50 percent of the U.S. population. That’s different from what the speaker claimed in two ways:

1.     The difference between income and wealth: Income is what is earned in a year. Wealth or net worth is how much someone owns.

2.     The difference between “greater than all the rest of us” and “greater than the bottom 50 percent of the population.”

Michael Moore talked about the 400 wealthiest people at a Wisconsin protest. PolitiFact checked the original statement by Michael Moore, crunched numbers from half a dozen places, and found that the statement was true:

How could it be that 400 people have more wealth than half of the more than 100 million U.S. households?

Think of it this way. Many Americans make a good income, have some savings and investments, and own a nice home; they also have debt, for a mortgage, credit cards and other bills. Some people would still have a pretty healthy bottom line. But many — including those who lost a job and their home in the recession — have a negative net worth. So that drags down the total net worth for the poorer half of U.S. households that Moore cited.

I agree with the speaker that the widening disparity in distribution of wealth and income, and the increasing concentration of wealth and income in the hands of the top five percent or one percent or 400 people is an outrage and a disgrace to our nation.

Facts, like fish, are slippery things. If the length of a fish grows each time the story is told, no one really minds. When someone gets the economic or political facts wrong, they lose credibility and that hurts the rest of their message.

The question-and-answer portion of the forum provided more examples of problems with facts. An elderly African-American woman stood up to make a point about people sticking together and making sure that government works for all of us, but veered off-track.

“A lot of people are coming here free,” she said. “They can get health care free. A lot of people are coming over here. They are coming from other countries, getting this health care. The elderly, people like us, we are paying these big bucks for health insurance.

There are other people coming over, groups, whole nations, coming to this state and they’re getting health care free. You may not believe it, but I know it’s true.”

Well—it’s not true. And in the room full of activists and community members and public officials, not a single person challenged or corrected this firmly-held prejudice about immigrants.

The repetition of long-discredited myths about immigrants (or about African American people, welfare recipients, gay people, etc.) hurts more than the groups who are stereotyped. Not-quite-accurate or outright-false “facts” multiply and grow with each re-telling. Their proliferation in civic discussion pollutes the waters and that’s not good for any of us.

I wasn’t sure how to respond to the misstatements made this morning, and I’m still not sure. Part of the problem is that the statements are made in real time, and checking the facts to document the errors takes a little time.

Then there’s the question of whose “job” it is to correct the facts. Who should have answered these statements? How could they answer without seeming to be uppity authority figures or experts squashing the voice of a regular citizen?

I’m still fishing for answers to these questions.

Central Corridor residents have lower incomes, higher unemployment, and pay a higher proportion of their income for housing costs, according to a set of studies released by the Healthy Corridors for All coalition on March 5. The studies explored the effect of city plans for rezoning and redevelopment along the Central Corridor route on residents. Continue reading →

Did you know that St. Paul is in the running to become a Fan Favorite among a Dozen Distinctive Destinations chosen by the National Trust for Historic Preservation? Well, now  you know—and you can help St. Paul win! “Vote for your favorite destination between February 15 and March 15,” the NTHP tells us, “and not only could your town become the 2011 Fan Favorite, but you will also be entered to win a two night stay at any Historic Hotel of America.” If that’s not enough incentive, consider this: right now, St. Paul is ranked number nine. That’s right, folks, we are NINTH out of twelve, trailing such notables as Paducah, Kentucky and Sheridan, Wyoming.  I don’t know about you, but that hurts my St. Paul pride. Vote early! Vote often! (Yes, you can vote once a day.) And you folks over in Minneapolis—lend us a hand, or at least a mouse-click-vote! Continue reading →

Want to find out the percent of adults with diabetes in Fillmore County (7.8%) or the rate of deficient bridges (19.8%) in the county? How does that compare to diabetes rates (7.3% in Beltrami County, or to Beltrami’s bridge (6.8% deficient)? Minnesota Compass has answers to these and dozens of other questions in areas ranging from education and housing to population and income. Compass is part of the Wilder Foundation’s research arm. Continue reading →

Jim Falk, a fourth generation farmer from Swift County, warns that pending legislation billed as “streamlining” environmental protection actually endangers community rights and local control.

A whole set of proposed laws aims to streamline regulation, make bureaucracy move faster, cut the red tape are moving through the legislative process. Among the proposals: Continue reading →

Growing from a beginning focus on the Twin Cities in 2008, Minnesota Compass research now takes in the entire state. Its website describes its work as:

• Providing unbiased, credible information
• Tracking trends and measuring progress on issues that impact our quality of life.
• Identifying disparities by including trend data by race, age, gender and income whenever possible.
• Providing additional resources for addressing issues. Continue reading →

I am watching Tahrir Square, live on Al Jazeera, and remembering 21 years ago, watching Tiananmen Square and the tanks moving in. This morning here/tonight there – ambulances are now being allowed in, troops are moving about, occasional rock-throwing appears, a government helicopter is circling the square, a petrol bomb (Molotov cocktail?) has been thrown toward the anti-government protesters … Continue reading →