682/684 Fourth St. East - a Brad Nilles property in Dayton's Bluff

This is one of three properties on Fourth Street

East in Dayton's Bluff. These are owned by Brad
Nilles, Calabash Properties. He also owns Seven
Hawks Vineyard, just outside of Fountain, Wisconsin.
Bill Walker is the property manager, but had not been overly responsive to neighbors' complaints about tenant behavior or the overflowing garbage that has become a fairly regularly event. This example, to be fair, came out over Labor Day weekend...gave our visitors and friends a new look at Dayton's Bluff!

A few years ago, I invited Brad to meet with a few
Fourth Street neighbors, but he declinedl. We would
still like to meet, to talk about how we could all
improve the Fourth and Bates area. He might get
better tenants (with a better screening process)
and we all could be on the receiving end of a better
quality of life experience - probably not quite like a
lodge room at Seven Hawks, but nice, nonetheless.

It was a very nice day

I finally finished a letter about local traffic - I had been procrastinating for months. It took concentration, coffee, a Caribou environment, and three hours; interrupted once by a neighbor who sounded as if she had a desire to pick a fight. I needed to get back to my work and I wasn't wanting to parry words with her (she kept picking things apart). I'm afraid when I said I didn't want to go into anything right now (work and public place on a cell) she took offense, which I think she wanted to do anyway, and hung up. Not the first time and it won't be the last...she's one of two who seem to always be looking for something to disparage or tsk about.

That was a very small, but annoying piece of the day. I got home and Kenchi came running over with a hug, Samm asked if I was going to visit her at her house, Pedro, Jose, Jesus, John, Mario, Fermin, Cesar, Kenchi, were all out and I love the joking and teasing. John is so good with the boys. The boys know quite a bit about what goes on in the neighborhood. It's an active intersection and John filled me in on Brandon's run-in with his mother and the latest, usual petition for blocking the cul-de-sac. Supposedly it's for a 'block party', but the petitioner invites only a select few, not her neighbors for a private party. Several of us won't go after the first one because it was such a sham, plus she was appeared upset with more than half the people there. Now it's pretty much of a private party with public funds paying for firefighters to block the street with their truck. It's adds to the funkiness and weirdness of the neighborhood.

A plus is that several weeks back I serendipitously met a man who had just finished teaching a drumming workshop here at Metro State Library and he's agreed to hold a drumming workshop for my neighborhood kids. I have to come up with $75 and he can work with 10-15 kids, using the big plastic pails (like the restaurant pickle pails). They'll love it! I can invite some of the newer kids who live down on Maria and seem to have no supervision. It might be a helpful way of bringing some of them together.

Who are we?

This sickens me:
In a wooded area of Mounds Boulevard, off Seventh Street, and near where I work, a homeless camp must have been spotted and called in to the City. Within a short day's time (much less time than Child Protection or Code Enforcement was out to get a window screen repaired or stop the young child from leaning out the two story window), the camp was razed - bulldozed.

A 'blight' it is called, on our lovely lower Dayton's Bluff. DAMN! The blight is on the people of this neighborhood and city who refuse to look at the growing number of homeless INDIVIDUALS as human beings. I know some of the men who camp out - Dorothy Day and the Mission become too crowded, too many personalities under stress, and sometimes just no room. I've pointed out a couple places they could sleep outside. Damn!

Carl, one who had camped out for at least two years, finally got housing through the housing for homeless individuals program. He referred to his big back pack as his 'home', his house. He told the police that they could not search his home without a warrant. WOW! To the bulldozer and city, these homes were nothing more than garbage.

God, I feel so angry.

A couple years ago a person from our community council told me with no uncertainty, "we work with buildings, not people!" There are times that I don't think I belong here.

I have become wary of being specific to certain issues - instead of enhancing and finding solutions for those who are making do, our city, on many layers, further makes life hell for those who have little or nothing. 'No, we're not trying to regentrify'. ROT!! How inhumane can the good people of Dayton's Bluff be?

Last year at a meeting with someone from the Mayor's office and Youth Services, a friend and I mentioned how great it was that a group of people in one neighborhood put up a portable basketball hoop - because the city refused to place a basketball hoop or court in the huge rec center play area across the street (too much noise). Within the week the city had it removed. (illegal to have it in the street - it took up less space than a car, and it was in front of a park, not a residence).

What if these men (I know there are women, also who camp, and teens) became faces? Not photos, but snapshots of who they are, and how they came to be in such a situation? For the brief time I had to stay in the hostel and knew no one here, I can speak to being 'invisible' among humanity, and living basically out of a backpack. But at least I was sure of having a bed at night among 8 other women.

Steve, the homeless man I worked with on Tuesday, now will be getting an apartment (we worked it through with his doctor and housing admin who had been screaming at him. Also, I connected him with a friend in District 5 who can pay him for helping to clean Payne Ave. this weekend.

EVERY HUMAN BEING HAS A FACE, A PERSONALITY, A HISTORY, A STORY. ARE PEOPLE AFRAID OF THE UNKNOWN? WHERE IS THE HUMANITY!!!!

Don't give me the crap about camps being festering places of crime, disease, etc. We are our own festering diseases of the heart and soul!

Our kids

Last night we were visited by a Minneapolis Trib photograper as we held our Friday movie on the porch. We showed Gran Torino (kids got permission). Kyle gave an occasional commentary to relate the action or comments so the kids could relate them to their own lives and experiences. They all stayed for the end and they'll be talking more about it when they're over later today.

When I'm asked for a description of our neighborhood, all too often I fall into the sociological or physical description...I become a parrot of those who don't live here and know it. What our neighborhood is, is the kids. They keep me grounded, they make me smile when I come home and I see them on our porch or at the fence waiting for me. Bonni is home during the day right now and has been engaging them in watercolor. Cesar, especially enjoys art...how would we have ever known? Phermin, oldest at 'almost 14' is the most shy, but opening up. Last night he giggled a lot, but didn't pull his shirt up over his face as a couple weeks before when his photograph is being taken.

Mario, Cesar's brother will follow in his brother's outgoing, confident steps, I think. Pedro is a bit quieter....Last night, Ariel finally joined us. She walks past our house very often and we've invited her up. After talking at Neighborhood Night Out, she's become a bit more open...she's a joy and I'll look forward to getting to know her.

Adrian, Brandon, and Riley all stopped by later and stayed for the end...Chris, starting eighth grade this fall, tries to be so cool...too bad he couldn't have stayed for 'Pretty in Pink' or 'Sixteen Candles' last weekend! All that young male angst...

Besides movies, we've started group video games on the porch and Jeopardy (they love the adults getting excited) with the projector.

We REALLY need our own multi-use projector to use with the DVD/VHS players and game attachments.

It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood.....