Letters to the Editor

YAWR victory
Hello Youth Against War & Racism supporters, we are working on a fuller report which should be out in the coming days, but we wanted to let everyone know that at the Minneapolis School Board meeting Tuesday there was a unanimous vote to restrict military recruitment to school career centers and to provide equal access to counter-recruitment groups whenever the military comes into schools.
While this is not everything we have demanded (we don’t think schools should be used for military recruitment at all!), it is nonetheless a major step forward and the result of several years of struggle by Twin Cities students. In particular it was a walkout of over 900 students last November, combined with petitions and community pressure on the school board, that got the official gears turning toward this resolution.
Thanks so much to everyone who has supported Youth Against War and Racism in so many different ways! This victory was only possible on the basis of the consistent, collective efforts of countless people in our schools and community.

Ty Moore
Youth Against War & Racism (YAWR)

Parsing NRP
Your story “City resuscitates neighborhood revitalization” in the February issue contained errors that need correcting. The caption under the photo of the LRT train at the 50th Street station says “NRP funds are set to pay for a facelift for the 50th Street LRT station area, among other projects.” There are no plans, or any need, for a facelift at the 50th Street station, and there certainly won’t be any NRP funds spent on it.
The article also states, “NRP is paying for a big facelift in the southeast corner of the Nokomis area.” The City of Minneapolis has redevelopment plans for this area, but no NRP funds will be used. The project is under the control of the Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) Department. Nokomis East Neighborhood Association is keeping a “watchful eye” on these developments, but it should be noted that the City did not choose the project that the neighborhood recommended.

Rita Ulrich
Executive Director, Nokomis East Neighborhood Association

Dennis Geisinger responds:
I spoke to Rita Ulrich about her comments on my article and conceded that by saying “NRP funds are paying” for this or that project does infer that Neighborhood Revitalization resources are the sole well from which money is being drawn to realize development in Nokomis. That is not true. I did point out however that the planned “facelifts” that I talked about, including new pedestrian overlays for area LRT stations, had at least been originally generated by NENA staff, who are paid for with NRP funds.
Please refer to my story in this issue about the controversy between the City and the neighborhoods over how the money from NRP should be controlled.