Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor
I own a home in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis where I am a law- abiding, taxpaying citizen. When I purchased my home about 10 years ago the
things that drew me to Minn-eapolis were the parks, the lakes and the bike trails. I love living in this part of the world. However, the longer I have lived here the more disenchanted I have become with the city and its government. Modest neighborhoods with a low crime rate such as mine have fallen off the radar of our elected officials. I have been trying to contact the mayor’s office and the zoning department for the last seven weeks regarding problems with a neighboring apartment’s parking lot.

The property owner (my neighbor) has neglected to follow City-mandated regulations. The fence between our properties has been taken down, I have cars parked 3 feet away from my home, garbage from their dumpster blowing into my yard and their cars parked so close to the property line that they often encroach on my back lawn. My issue here is not really the problem I am having with my neighbor but rather with the lack of response I am getting from the City in trying to resolve a prickly local issue.

Calling 311 is a farce. It is a bureaucratic runaround to give residents the impression that somebody cares. Nobody ever returns a call made through the 311 network.  I resorted to the old-fashioned method of writing a letter to my elected representative. After numerous letters to a number of different officials over a period of seven weeks, I have received only one totally inadequate response. Neither the mayor’s office nor the zoning or fire department seems to know or care enough to respond to the valid concerns of constituents.  How does a citizen make his or her voice heard?  How does one get the opportunity to talk to an official? Why is local government so completely unresponsive? Surely some reply to a written inquiry is not too much to ask.

Mark Wagar.