Hope is a journey, not a destination

This Friday, July 28^th the Saint Paul Planning Commission is likely to advance the City’s Ford Plant site proposal to the City Council.

Despite the fact that the City has failed three separate times to present to the public an accurate depiction of the depth of opposition to its plan.

Neighbors have started to come together to reach out to elected officials asking them to delay the Planning Commission vote on Friday.

The reasons are as reasonable as the lack of response from some of those elected officials has been unreasonable.

On three separate occasions, the City failed to accurately account for and present public comments submitted by neighbors in opposition to this project. 

Opposition which shows an overwhelming percentage of respondents reject the City’s proposed plan for density on the Ford Plant site which could mean upwards of 10,000 residents, workers and visitors on roughly 112 acres of land.

Density so radical and massive that it will put thousands of more cars and vehicles onto the roadways throughout the neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul that are within two miles of the Ford Plant site.

So much traffic that it will choke traffic and streets in ways we cannot even yet imagine.

Until it becomes reality.

The Ward Three City Councilmember who represents this area, Chris Tolbert, is refusing to meet with or respond to residents who are asking him to call on the Planning Commission to delay its vote.

A delay justified on the grounds that reasonable efforts should be made to ensure that the public record detailing opposition to the project is accurate.

A request that is as reasonable as his unwillingness to meet with them is unreasonable.

After all, shouldn’t the Planning Commission have accurate information before them before they vote on a project this important to the future of St. Paul?

Wouldn’t any citizen representative on any city committee want accurate information before they vote?

Shouldn’t any elected official want the same?

In a form letter response from his office he calls the egregious mistakes that silence the voices of dissent simply a “technical error.”

One can be forgiven for being offended that their elected officials consider their opinions and voice of dissent nothing but a “technical error.”

Those whose voices are being silence by this “technical error” might consider the actions of the City, whether purposeful or otherwise, an act of suppression.

How else to interpret that Councilmember Tolbert refuses to meet with his constituents to hear their concerns about how their voices are not only not being heard – but not being counted?

I can’t imagine he supports suppressing the voices of the people in his community.  Even if he disagrees with them.

However, it’s a reasonable conclusion give his unreasonable decision to ignore that dissent.

Democracy isn’t supposed to work this way.

It’s not supposed to be a choice by elected officials to listen to only those people who agree with them and ignore the voices of those that don’t.

Public projects, using public dollars, that affect the public in ways in which the9 public rises in dissent require more than a form letter from an elected official.

They demand more than a form letter in which citizens are told that their opinion may or may not be counted because of a “technical error.”

The issue is simple.  It is straight forward.

If the City has failed on three occasions to accurately account for and represent the opposition from residents impacted by its zoning plan for the Ford Plant site there should be a pause on any vote on this matter.

The City which wants this project – and the community which does not – should have equal standing in wanting to make sure that the results presented to the public are accurate and credible.

What reasonable person could oppose such a reasonable request?

Perhaps the person that believes that public dissent can be ignored by calling it a “technical error.”

“What did the President know and when did he know it?”

Yes.  That question will, in due time, need to be asked and answered.

For the time being, however, it is clear that at least three members of the Trump for President Campaign inner circle were willing to accept the assistance of a foreign country to influence the outcome of a U.S. Election.

It doesn’t matter whether that foreign country is an antagonist of our nation, Russia – or if that foreign country is a friend of ours – a treasonous act is a treasonous act.

Let me be perfectly candid about a couple of things.

I did not vote for Trump or Clinton.

Once elected and sworn in as our President I have stood by the decision of my fellow Americans to elect Donald Trump as President.

I respect the process of Democracy in America – even if the outcome is not what I would have wanted or chosen.

I have gritted my teeth.  Screamed inside as he and those around him continue to do more and more inane and inept things while in office.  Shaken my head at his continued juvenile and childish antics which raise serious questions about his competency and his balance.

On this issue of collusion between him, his campaign and a foreign country, I have chosen to stand on the sidelines and wait to see if all of the smoke was coming from a fire – or if it was simply smoke.

The revelation by Donald Trump, Jr. that he deliberately took a meeting, along with two key members of the Trump Campaign, with representatives of a foreign government who claimed they had information that would influence the outcome of an American election, is no longer smoke.

It is a raging fire.

This was not the casual act of arrogant and clueless rich businessmen who didn’t know better.

Paul Manafort, who was chair of Trump’s campaign at the time, was not only a seasoned political operative, he was a shrewd businessman who knew a great deal about Russia and how the Russians did business.

Jared Kushner, who joined in the meeting, if we are to be believed, is a brilliant tactician and highly intelligent.

Trump, Jr., himself, by his own volition and those around him is smart, ambitious and intelligent.

Trump, Jr. in his own words understood the purpose and nature behind the meeting he and his two accomplices agreed to accept:  It was to accept the help of Russia to help the campaign of Donald Trump, Sr. and defeat Hillary Clinton.

Which, by definition, was intended to influence the outcome of an election and the direction of the United States of America.

The lawyers of these three men are no doubt working overtime to fashion an argument that the simple act of taking a meeting did not constitute the legal definition of Treason.

Clearly the defense mechanism is already being put in place by Trump, Inc. that all of America must be fools if they believe that this kind of thing isn’t done in politics all the time.

Trump, Jr. himself has taken to the social media networks to mock those who would challenge his assertion that he should not have accepted the meeting.

We are hearing the argument that there is a difference between accepting a meeting with representatives of a foreign country promising information to influence an American election and actually accepting their help to influence an American election.

That may be a defense necessary to keep Trump, Jr., Kushner and Manafort out of prison.

But, it doesn’t absolve them from their willingness to consider an act of treason against America.

We don’t know, either, whether or not they actually did accept the help of the Russian government, or its agents, which would have been actual acts of treason against America.

In the days and weeks ahead the most important role the American media can play in helping America get to the bottom of this matter is to avoid the temptation to create conjecture and, instead, stick to what we actually know.

This is now the moment for the American media to avoid the headlong rush to talk to anybody and everybody who has an opinion.

It is time for sober analysis of the facts and to focus on what it is we do know – and to be candid about what we don’t know.

We are heading towards dangerous grounds here.

There may be more to this story than currently meets our eyes.

This is the moment where the 4^th Estate can, and must, rise to meet the occasion.

Take the time to get the story right.  Give the American people the insightful, probing and accurate depiction of what we actually know and what we must come to know.

We need the nation’s press to get this story right.

The American people need to get the right story.

We need the facts. 

We can handle the facts.

While policymakers in St. Paul have been obsessed with implementing costly initiatives that make St. Paul an economic outlier they have focused very little on the real measure of economic health for the city’s minority community.

In particular, the fact that far more African American families in St. Paul continue to find themselves on the short end of the stick when it comes to economic opportunity in the city.

According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) post by Economic Analyst Janelle Jones “Wealth is a crucially important measure of economic health. Wealth allows families to transfer income earned in the past to meet spending demands in the future, such as by building up savings to finance a child’s college education. Wealth also provides a buffer of economic security against periods of unemployment, or risk-taking, like starting a business. And wealth is needed to finance a comfortable retirement or provide an inheritance to children. In order to construct wealth, a number of building blocks are required. Steady well-paid employment during one’s working life is important, as it allows for a decent standard of living plus the ability to save. Also, access to well-functioning financial markets that provide a healthy rate of return on savings without undue risks is crucial.”

It should not be, then, surprising to know that African American families fall well behind white families when it comes to wealth and, to that end, economic health.

In 2015 the Urban Institute released a report that underscored the vast differential between white families and African-American and Hispanic families when it came to retirement families.

According to the Urban Institute in 2013, the average white family had more than $130,000 in liquid retirement savings, compared to $19,000 for the average African-American family and $12,000 for the average Hispanic family.

While much time and attention is focused on income inequality in the United States there has been far less time and attention paid to these kinds of issues.

To be sure we need to focus on ensuring a fair wage for American workers. As someone who has long supported increases in minimum wage I am not against focusing on increasing the federal minimum wage.

However, the scattered approach to increasing the minimum wage cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul may make politicians feel good it does nothing to strengthen the accumulation of wealth and, thusly, economic health for minority families.

There are, however, specific things that can be done to put more wealth into the hands of minority families.  Things that will have long-lasting impact and create a situation where minority families can realistically expect to achieve their slice of the American Dream.

Home ownership is clearly one of the underlying differences between the wealth of white Americans and African-American and Hispanic Americans.

For most white Americans, the bulk of their wealth is tied up in their home.

It is imperative to focus on how minority Americans can build wealth through home ownership.

Federal tax policy is another area that needs to have focus if we are to reduce the gap between white America and African-American and Hispanic Americans.

For white Americans who are homeowners the mortgage deduction is a significant economic boost for them.

And, while the Earned Income Tax Credit is seen as being a tremendous boost for low income Americans it still benefits white Americans far more than it does minority families.

More broadly, according to a story in The Atlantic which quotes Dorothy Brown, a professor of tax law at Emory University, some of the credits, deductions, and rules that provide windfalls for families at tax time give white families more of a boost than black or Hispanic ones.

“Tax law is a political, a social, and an economic document. So of course there are going to be racial disparities.” Brown says. “To say, ‘the tax law is neutral’ is just nonsense.”

How we encourage minority entrepreneurship is another area of focus we should consider.

If one agrees that wealth accumulation is directly related to one’s economic health then finding ways for minority families to accumulate wealth has to be a priority.

Increases in the minimum wage do not increase wealth.

Creating an environment in which high wage jobs can be created in a community like St. Paul must be a key factor in closing the wealth gap.

One way to do that is to increase minority ownership in business throughout the City.

I’ve proposed two potential ways to do that in previous blog posts:

https://mischellaneous.com/2017/04/12/creating-wealth-for-st-pauls-minority-community-the-public-safety-annex-opportunity-for-the-american-dream/

https://mischellaneous.com/2016/07/19/st-pauls-mississippi-riverfront-an-historic-opportunity-for-minority-economic-development-and-job-creation/

The key to unravelling the cycle of poverty and the yawning divide between white America and African-American and Hispanic families and other minorities isn’t in continued battles over whether St. Paul and Minneapolis do or don’t increase the minimum wage.

That’s small thinking and it provides cheap solutions that do not create long-term positive impact on the families that politicians pushing these initiatives claim to want to help.

The key is putting more wealth into the hands, and bank accounts, of minority families in our community.

That closes the gap.  That opens the doors.  That builds the American Dream.

 

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”

                                                                                                         –          Joseph Heller

As I have watched the City of St. Paul continue its headlong effort to pack up to 10,000 residents, workers and visitors onto 121 acres of land known as the Ford Plant site, I have had to ask myself, “Why?”

Not only will such an abomination wreak havoc on existing neighborhoods and roads in the proximity of the site, with anywhere from 7,000 to 8,000 more cars trying to navigate roads that are already overburdened, but it will immediately depress the property values of tens of thousands of residents in both Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The City doesn’t even own the land.

So, why spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money on studies, consultants, public relations firms and others to create a zoning plan that no developer in his or her right mind would actually agree to?

For that matter, why create the potential for even more costly litigation with Ford Motor Company who will see the City’s zoning plan as onerous and detrimental to its efforts to sell its land at the best price possible?

And, if Ford Motor Company doesn’t sue the City you can be sure the developer who purchases the land will when they realize what the City is demanding be built is not only unprofitable for them but will likely saddle them a 140-acre white elephant.

Then it hit me.

The City intends to buy this land.

The City intends to be the developer.

More specifically, the City may direct the St. Paul Port Authority to purchase the land and become, in essence, the developer. 

How else to explain the unexplainable?

The City is pushing a development plan that makes no economic sense to a private developer. 

It clearly makes no economic sense to the taxpayers of St. Paul.

It makes no sense to the residents in Minneapolis and St. Paul who will be negatively impacted by the chaos and congestion that will pour into the streets from cramming up to 10,000 new residents, workers and visitors onto 121 acres of land.

However the City chooses to conduct this purchase and become the ad hoc developer of the land this much is true:  It is the only way they can get their politically conceived development plan at the Ford site built.

So, then, how will they find the money to build this plan?

They don’t actually have the money.  The fact is there are significant projects throughout the City that aren’t being addressed because they don’t have the money.

Yes, there is money for bike lanes.  Money for any of the pet projects of the City Council.  But, there isn’t any money for the City to buy the Ford site.

Candidly, the City won’t even find money to hire more police and community service officers despite historic increases in violent crime and shootings in the City.

But, they will find the money to buy the Ford site.

Union money.

Yes, that is right. 

More specifically, union funds from union dues that sit in a bank account that union leaders can direct to help purchase this tract of land.

Why would unions agree to this?

Because they believe that every single job created by building the City’s dystopian vision on 121 acres of land will be a union job.

They would have to be if the unions gave the city the money they need to buy the land.

Now, for this to happen Ford Motor Company would have to be complicit, as well.

Ford is now under new leadership.  My guess is that 140 acres of land in St. Paul, Minnesota is not a high priority of theirs at the moment.

Avoid the hassle of getting caught in the political crossfire between the City and the neighborhoods the city will destroy and just come up with a price and let the City use union funds to buy it.

Do I know any of this to be true?

No.  I don’t. 

In fact, none of it could be true.

It may just be hypothetical.

But given the circumstances and the facts, including the fact that the City has cut off any further public comment on this project, one can be forgiven for speculating.

The City of St. Paul and those advocating for this mass density nightmare that will destroy communities to build a city of up to 10,000 people on 121 acres need a way to implement their plan.

By using union money and buying the land themselves and developing it themselves they not only remove the middle man from the process.

They remove the power of tens of thousands of taxpayers and voters in the neighborhood impacted by this plan from fighting back.

For the city, problem solved.

Every politician leaves office wanting to leave behind a legacy.

It’s a natural extension of the human inclination to be remembered before we leave this Earth.

In big ways and small every person wants to be known for something.

The Saint Paul Ford Plant is one of those legacy projects that has nearly every City and County elected official salivating.

After all, it’s not every day 140 acres of land suddenly opens up in an urban area.

It’s a piece of land so tempting that it has City planners envisioning a project so dense in population that it makes New York City neighborhoods seem like pleasant acres of farmland.

If one can envision up to 10,000 people living, working and visiting in 121 acres of land one can envision what is euphemistically called the “Ford Site Zoning and Public Realm Master Plan.”

It is a document that tries its best to convince us that what we fear is what we should embrace.

Or, as St. Paul Mayoral candidate Melvin Carter exhorts us to do after reading the document that destroys neighborhoods — “Be Brave.”

Its advocates assure us that this is the future.  They tell us this is a perfect urban experiment for the rest of America.

Want to stop pollution?  They tell us that 10,000 people living, working and visiting on 121 acres of land is the solution.

Want to expand the tax base?  They tell us that 10,000 people living, working and visiting 10-story apartment buildings, retail stores arranged like min-strip malls and playing on 20 acres of green space is the answer.

Want to stop traffic congestion?  Design a development where nobody drives cars and everybody rides bikes, walks or takes the bus to work and everywhere else.

For them, and the City planners and politicians advocating this vision, it is Utopia.

For tens of thousands of others who will see their neighborhoods destroyed it is Dystopia.

People are entitled to their opinion.

And, I have an opinion.

One of those opinions is that I believe it is time for the current Mayor, Chris Coleman, to call for a suspension of any further public hearings, Council votes, staff work or use of taxpayer funds on this project until after the election of a new Mayor.

I call it a suspension.

Others, like Saint Paul Mayoral Candidate Tom Goldstein, calls it a moratorium.

Since he used that word first I decided to use the word suspend.

This includes suspending the contracts of any company or individual under contract by the City or the County who have been retained to help market and promote the use of the Ford Plant site.

It means directing all City planning staff to end any of the work they are currently doing on this project.

I think every candidate for Mayor – including those who are the biggest advocates of the “Ford Site Zoning and Public Realm Master Plan.” – should ask the Mayor to refrain from any further effort on this project.

Or, as Saint Paul Mayoral Candidate Tom Goldstein has proposed – a moratorium on any further work on the Ford Plant project.

Saint Paul’s 3^rd Ward City Councilmember – Chris Tolbert – who has become the leading advocate for the “Ford Site Zoning and Public Realm Master Plan.” should at least give the perception he is representing the interests of his constituents and call on the Mayor to suspend all work on this project until after the Saint Paul Mayoral election.

My opinion isn’t because of any issue I have with Mayor Chris Coleman.  I believe he has a done a fine job as Mayor of St. Paul.

My opinion is based solely on my belief that this project requires a new approach.

A new process.  A new vision.  A new plan.

A new Mayor.

Rushing to get a vote on the “Ford Site Zoning and Public Realm Master Plan.” before a new Mayor is elected is putting politics before people.

It shouldn’t even a big deal to agree to this opinion.

After all, Saint Paul doesn’t own the site.

It will have little control over who Ford does or doesn’t decide to sell the site to in the future.

So, what’s the hurry to pass a “Ford Site Zoning and Public Realm Master Plan.” on a piece of property the City doesn’t own?

I have an opinion.  But, that opinion isn’t important.

What is important – to me – is that we have a Mayor’s race this November and we will have a new Mayor.

With a new Mayor, we should have a new process.  A new vision.  A new plan.

An entirely new, transparent and open engagement with the people of the City of St. Paul – those who will be most physically impacted by future development – and those throughout the City who need to understand how this project figures into their future.

If this site is, as City Councilmember Chris Tolbert continues to parrot a “Once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity” for the city, then we should treat it as such.

The current Mayor will no longer be Mayor by the time Ford gets around to actually selling this land.

The next Mayor may or may not be Mayor by the time Ford gets around to actually selling this land.

The future Mayor, not the current Mayor, is the right Mayor to lead this project forward for the City of St. Paul.

 

 

 

This past weekend I joined hundreds of other parents in witnessing a basic training graduation of somewhere around 250 Sea Cadets at Great Lakes Naval Base.

The Sea Cadets were created in 1962 by Congress as a way and means to teach and educate young Americans about the Navy.

From its website, the Sea Cadets state that:

“Today’s U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps continues to further the image of our maritime services by adhering to a standardized training program designed to:

 

• Develop an interest and ability in seamanship and seagoing skills

• Instill virtues of good citizenship and strong moral principles in each cadet

• Demonstrate the value of an alcohol-free, drug-free and gang-free lifestyle

• Expose cadets to the prestige of public service and a variety of career paths through hands-on training with our nation’s armed services”

 

This much I know to be true about what I witnessed this past weekend – America is in good hands.

My 16-year-old son, Owen, is a member of the Sea Cadets.  He is also a member of his high school’s JROTC program.

He, along with the hundreds of other fine young men and women who participate in these programs, represent another testament to an American nation that is far from the decline we might be inclined to see from today’s popular media.

Both programs are rooted in military tradition, this much is true.  However, neither program, today, seeks to indoctrinate young people into the virtues of choosing a military life as their career path.

That being said it many of those who participate in these programs do make that choice.

And, America is a greater country because of their service and sacrifice on behalf of a grateful nation.

Watching the hundreds of young men and women coming into the huge hall where they would begin their graduation it was evident that the parents and families in that room were proud of the effort each of their cadets had put into their basic training program.

For nearly two hours we waited in anticipation of the raising of a massive door and see our Cadets walk through the door.

They did not disappoint.

In nearly perfect marching they filed in, Division by Division, until they stood before the assembled audience who looked at them with pride, awe and appreciation for what they had accomplished.

In the face of each young man and woman was the face of America’s future.

One that isn’t seeing its best days in the rearview mirror.

It’s a nation where young men and women of every color, shape, size, religion, gender and persuasion gathered from different points across the country to share in an experience that further strengthened them and honed their sense personal and community achievement.

These are the faces of America’s future.  They are the energy, the passion and the spirit that we celebrate today on America’s birth day.

Our Independence Day was not forged by a piece of paper but on the promise and purpose of those who felt that freedom and liberty was something worth dying for and, ultimately, worth living for.

We are 241 years old today.  We are a young nation.  Our history, while rich and laden with profound impact on the world around us, is only now just being made.

More of that American history will be made by the young men and women, including my own son, I watched this weekend at Great Lakes Naval Base.

The world is not for the faint of heart.  It needs young men and women who are prepared to step up to serve.

To serve in every way in every part of American life in any way they can.

We need leaders in America.  Leaders for our future.

We need people who will build our cities.  Protect our neighborhoods.  Heal our sick.  Teach our young. Feed our hungry.  Bind us together.

Protect our nation and defend our freedom.

Like every parent in that room my heart was full of love and pride in my son.

I want his future to be everything he wants it to be.

Standing in that room.  Cheering wildly for him, his Division and the other Divisions in that great hall, I believe it will be.

Owen.

He is my son.

He is a Sea Cadet.

He is an American.

On this day of our nation’s birth I wish him and all of America “Fair winds and following seas.”

 

Saint Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell went before the Saint Paul City Council and declared that Minnesota’s Capitol City is in the midst of a “public health crisis.”

Shots fired in St. Paul are up 67%.

Overall, major crime is up 17% this year.

That means more rapes.  More aggravated assault.  More murders.  More thefts.

More danger to the citizens of St. Paul.

A “public health crisis” indeed.

Chief Axtell is one of the most creative, innovative and community connected police chiefs in the nation.

When he stands before you and tells you that he needs more police, the community to be more involved and Saint Paul is a city in a “public health crisis” we should listen to what he is saying.

Yet, our political leaders in St. Paul live in a land of make believe.

Witness the profound statement of Ward One City Council member and Mayoral candidate Dai Thao:

“Folks I’ve talked to are really scared.”

Really?  You think?

I can’t imagine.  I mean, with 80 people already shot this year, many of them young and 65 percent of them African-Americans why would anybody be “…really scared?”

I don’t mean to pick on Councilmember Dao.  After all, he’s just one of many political leaders in the City who sails adrift in a sea of denial.

The entire St. Paul City Council has immersed itself in ignoring the growing violence throughout St. Paul in lieu of their own pet projects.

Whether it’s Ward Three Councilmember Chris Tolbert’s advocacy for a grotesque mass density development on the Ford Plant property or Councilmember Russ Stark’s obsession with creating a new bureaucracy for garbage pick-up in St. Paul, it is apparent political leaders have taken their hand off the rudder.

There’s plenty of time for the City Council to debate resolutions condemning Donald Trump.

Lots of time to figure out how to raise property taxes by up to 30% on taxpayers next year.

And even more time to figure out how to ring the city with hundreds of miles of bike lanes that we have no money to pay for.

But, there’s no time to deal with the city’s growing “public health crisis.”

Even the City’s representatives on the Ramsey County Board are out to sea.

Commissioner Rafael Ortega had time to raise his pay.  Increase the county sales tax.  And, maintain a $20 excise tax on the purchase of new vehicles in Ramsey County.

He hasn’t, however, had any time to tell us his plans for helping to make the City he serves safer for the taxpayers he insists maintain the standard of living to which he has grown accustomed.

Nor are there any political leaders in the City coming forward with proposals or plans to figure out how to get more police on the streets.

More community service officers in the neighborhoods.

And other tools to start bringing the growing menace of violent crime to heel in St. Paul.

Witness, too, the deafening silence of every current candidate for Mayor of St. Paul.

Candidates who have spent considerable time bragging about their advocacy of “sanctuary cities”, how they are more liberal than the other and how firmly committed they are to raising the minimum wage faster than the other can barely utter a peep about the growing violence in the city they hope to lead.

In a city with a “public health crisis” of crime one would think that violence in St. Paul against the people of St. Paul might rank in the top one or two issues of this year’s mayoral campaign.

There will, of course, be the usual declarations of concern.

The standard “there are too many guns on the street” and the “we need to stand in solidarity with one another” and “we must bring the community together to figure this out.”

Yes, there are too many guns on the streets.  Yes, we need to be part of the solution.  Yes, all of us need to come together to solve this public health crisis.

We, the people, already know that.

They, the politicians, think they’ve just invented fire.

I’m not a rocket scientist but let me offer a few specific ideas that I am glad to let anyone take credit for.

• Let’s hire more police.
• Let’s hire more police officers that reflect the diversity of St. Paul.
• St. Louis, roughly the same population as St. Paul has about 1,230 police officers. St. Paul has roughly half the number.  Let’s pick a number – say, 200.  Let’s add 200 more cops.  If we need more, let’s hire more.
• Convene a group of current and former members of law enforcement, former prosecutors, public defenders, judges and those who are acknowledged experts on “use of force” policies. Ask former Supreme Court Justice Alan Page to chair the group.  Don’t let a single elected official on the group on the group – including Sheriffs, County Attorneys and the like. Lock them all in a room until they come out with some specific ideas about how we can do a better job of dealing with policies impacting public safety.  Included in these ideas should be:

–      What are the “best practices” we should be implementing when it comes to “use of force” by our City’s law enforcement officers

–      How do we take a step back from shootings that may be “lawful but awful” and still ensure the safety of our police officers while maintaining the equal right of suspects to walk away from encounters with law enforcement?

–      Improved de-escalation tactics

–      Specific ideas on how to break-down the mistrust between members of our minority community and law enforcement.

–      Faster transparency from law enforcement and prosecutors about incidents involving use of force.  The greatest way to deal with suspicions about violent conflict between law enforcement and the people it encounters is to provide sunlight immediately.

–      Implement policies that underscore the obligation of law enforcement to engage in tactical retreat when such an option is readily available.

• Let’s put some time and effort back into quality of life law enforcement. Where there is graffiti, let’s clean it up.
• Where there are people living at intersections and begging for money, let’s intervene. Let’s get them off those street corners and get them the services and resources they need.  If we’re willing to let the little things slide it eventually ends up turning into big things.
• We need to hire more community service officers, too. We need more people in our neighborhoods working with the neighborhood.  The fact that police are having challenges getting information involving the gruesome shooting of a two-year old baby this week it should be evidence that far too many people living in our neighborhoods don’t feel ownership in those neighborhoods.
• Let’s have a Mayoral debate in every Ward of the City ONLY about public safety and what each candidate intends to do to make the City safer for EVERY resident of St. Paul. Have it moderated in such a way that candidates MUST present specific ideas and solutions – and then require they each must justify those policy proposals to one another. Assume that every candidate will tell us we have too many guns on the streets illegally.  Demand their solution for getting them off the streets. Boo them off the stage if they tell us the number one solution to making St. Paul safer is “more love, less guns.”
• Let’s put a freeze on any new spending in the City of St. Paul that is not dedicated towards adding more police officers and community service officers to the streets.
• Demand media outlets ensure their reporters be experts on issues related to public safety, law enforcement, the judicial system and anything else remotely related to these issues.
• Resolve that none of us will believe that creating a hashtag or a post on Facebook, Twitter or some other social media platform means we are actually doing anything about making St. Paul safer.
• Resolve that none of us, including myself, consider themselves to be experts on any of these issues unless we are, of course, experts on any facets of these issues.
• Require every single District Council in the City of St. Paul to focus the next 12 months solely on matters related to public safety including requiring a minimum of 75% of their funds to be used to support events and initiatives focused on bringing neighbors together to talk about how to make their City safer.

Above all else let’s stop listening to elected officials and those running for elective office tell us that all we need to do is get guns off the streets.

Or, to those who tell us all we need to do is arrest everyone and throw them in jail.

In a city that is taking on water as violent crime grows it is time to spend far more time talking about how we must find the resources to make our city safe than spending time calculating how many human beings we can fit on the head of a pin on the Ford Plant property.

We don’t need a “Gang Summit” to get criminals to agree to a truce.

We need a “Neighborhood Summit” of every single neighborhood to talk about what each and every one of us can do to stop the escalation of violence and crime in our city.

There comes a tipping point in the life of every City when it comes to violent crime.

In the early 1990s Saint Paul nearly hit that tipping point.

Thankfully, thanks to the leadership of many different political, religious, community and business leaders, the City pushed back against crime and the criminals who committed it and restored hope and confidence in our future.

Today, the boat of leadership is adrift.

It is taking on water.

And if something and someone doesn’t step up soon to get their hand on the rudder we’re soon to sink even further into the Land of Make Believe.

A father’s only child.

A 19-year Navy veteran who adored his wife and sang Karaoke with her in their living room on their Sony PlayStation.

A “quiet, sweet, selfless” brother who wanted to do something “adventurous.”

An 8-year Navy veteran whose family came from poverty in Guatemala and whose family believe he was the one who “made it.”

A son whose mother observed upon learning of his death that “We just borrow this time from God..So now he has to go back.”

These sailors, and the others who make up the seven who lost their lives in the collision of the USS Fitzgerald and the ACX Crystal, a 30,000-ton container ship, each of their own unique American story.

The sailors, all men, are Xavier Alec Martin, 24; Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25; Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19; Carlos Victor Ganzon Sibayan, 23. Ngoc Truong Huynh, 25; Noe Hernandez, 26; and Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37.

On any given day, their life story would not register anything remarkable on the radar of most Americans.

Yet, upon closer reflection each of them represents the face of something more than the victims of a collision that took their lives suddenly and without compassion.

They represent the face of America.

An America that I hope our President, and those who call for the deportation of millions of illegal residents out of our country, will see in the faces of the seven soldiers whose lives were given in the defense of our nation.

America’s face to the everyday world is not President Donald Trump.

I know it is a popular notion to believe that in every nook and cranny of the world that the America the world sees is the one on television who holds the title President of the United States.

But, it is an untrue one and one that doesn’t understand that America is in the faces of those seven sailors who died on a ship in the middle of the night as many of them slept in their beds.

America is the more than 150,000 American service men and women stationed in foreign nations across the world.

Today’s navy has roughly 94 ships deployed at any given time around the world with thousands of sailors on-board.

They are the face of America around the world.

The Peace Corps and untold numbers of NGOs and companies and non-profits that are doing work and commerce throughout and around the world.

They are the face of America around the world.

I have grown weary of the idea that America’s face in the world is the face of our President.

Whether that face is Donald Trump or Barack Obama.

Yes, it is true, that the President of the United States of America is the single most powerful person on the face of the Earth.

But, the millions of Americans living and serving and working around the world are the most powerful representatives of our values and beliefs everywhere in the world.

They are the Americans saving lives.  Bringing hope to millions.  Repairing broken faces.  Restoring smiles.  Feeding the starving.  Standing up for the oppressed.  Battling tyranny.  Defending freedom.  Protecting families.  Teaching children.  Building businesses.  Creating jobs.  Nursing the sick.  Burying the dead.

Millions of similar faces can be found in America.

Living, serving and working in America.

Millions of them are not American citizens but aspire to become one.

Some of them are the mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles and cousins to those who have become American citizens who live, serve and work in America.

And on ships off the coast of Japan who died in the middle of the night asleep in their bed defending America.

Who are we in America if we are not the people who embrace the desires of others who yearn to be free and have a better life for themselves and their children?

I take no issue with the fact that there are millions of people in America who are living here illegally and outside the rule of law in our nation.

It is true.  And, we must create a pathway to citizenship that brings them out of the darkness.

That pathway doesn’t begin on a bus or a train or a plane and a one-way ticket out of America back to the land they fled in fear or in hopes of a better life for themselves and their own families.

I take great exception and issue with the idea that we are a greater nation by demanding their expulsion through the use of force or other means that dehumanize their very existence.

We are not.

By doing so we are not the nation that is represented by the faces of seven Sailors who lost their lives defending it.

There is virtually no chance that President Donald Trump will read this post.  In the whole scheme of things, it is not likely to make any impact in the world outside of the small number of people who choose to read it.

That’s okay.

What’s not okay for me, though, is to let the lives of seven American sailors fade off into the distance without stopping for a moment to reflect on their service to America and my family.

Or to forget that those seven American sailors are America’s face to the world.

Strong.  Courageous.  Free.  Diverse.  Proud.  Brave.  Loved.

Sons of immigrants.

Sons of America.

May they rest in Peace with the thanks of a grateful nation for their service.

 

Today is birthday number 54 out of a possible 100.

That’s right.

I will live to 100.

The plan is not to make it one day longer than that.

Doing so is superfluous and simply bragging.

The past 54 trips around the sun have been pretty amazing.

The next 46 promise to be even more remarkable.

This morning I crawl into a car with my soon to be 44-year-old brother, Will, to run Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota tomorrow.

The next day will be Father’s Day. 

Of all the days in my life that are the most important the date of my birth is, of course, the most important.

For without that date there are no 54 trips around the sun.

There is no Mary-Helen.  No Owen.  No Maisie.

And, yes, Sailor, there is no dog.

There is no being a Father – the best job I have ever had or will ever have.

There’s no previous marathons.  No long bike rides.  No Chapter 13 bankruptcy.  There is no blood clot.

Without my birthday, there are not five brothers.  Or three sisters.  Or an 85-year-old Mom who is my next-door neighbor feeding baloney over the fence to our dog.

There is nothing for me without June 16, 1963.

I don’t take my birthday lightly.

I mark it as a milestone about what I did the previous year.  I evaluate what I did.  What I didn’t do.

What I am disappointed about and what I think I should have done better.

I smile and embrace the joy of the year. 

My 53^rd year was a good year.  It wasn’t the best year.  Or the worst year.

But, it was a good year. 

Not every day of it was great. 

There were a few bad days. 

I had some sad days. 

Days where I would have rather stayed in bed.

But no single day was an ordinary in my 53^rd year.

I look at my birthday as a time to think about what my next year of life should be like.

There’s no doubt that I can feel my age. 

My vision is not what it used to be.  My body creaks and cracks more than the floor boards in my home.

Losing the carrying weight of a 54-year-old man is harder than I want it to be.  I wish every mile I ran meant that I could eat more cheesecake and cheeseburgers. 

Sadly, 54 means I have to roughly run three miles for every bowl of Butter Brickle Ice Cream I like to eat.

I have a chart of miles that equal what it is I can eat before it stays on my aging frame. 

Trust me, I have a lot of running to do this year to make sure that 55 isn’t the Year of Liposuction!

I’m not entirely sure what the Year of 54 will bring. 

I know what it won’t bring:  Standing still.

I have things I want to do this year.  I will try to do better at my running and staying in shape.  There are some places I want to go.  I’ve yet to get on my bike this summer and I am anxious to do some serious bike rides to places I’ve been and places I have yet to go.

I need to change the world somehow this year, too.  In some way that I consider to be positive and important. 

In small ways and big ways. 

There are some initiatives at Spare Key we hope to launch that I truly believe will help more families.

I’ve been trying to find ways to get more involved in public policy without getting back involved in politics.  It’s a dilemma that frustrates me to no end. 

I want to do things that will bring people together.  I have some ideas. 

I want to finish the book I started years ago and start on another book that I hope won’t take me so long to write.  It would be great if at the end of year 54 I was able to do both. 

Thankfully, I have 46 more years to get it done if I don’t.

I also want this year to be a year in which I spend less time looking at screens at more times looking at the world and the people around it.

I spend so much time looking down at the screen of a device that I don’t spend enough time looking up at the world that is happening around me.

Being 54 is a blessing. 

Simply being alive is amazing.

I have done my best to avoid living my life by meme.

I don’t look for the inspirational quote that will get me through the day.

I have inspiration all around me.

As I write this I have a 16-year-old boy sitting in front of a fireplace eating Gold Fish Pretzel Crackers with a Gatorade reading a book. 

He inspires me.

The dog is at the top of the stairs whimpering because she cannot come downstairs to help the boy eat the Gold Fish Pretzel Crackers.  She inspires me.

My wife upstairs getting ready for work.  My daughter still asleep in her bed.

My 85-year-old mother next door and my soon to be 44-year-old brother who lives with her.

They both inspire me.

I am surrounded by a world of people that give me great hope for the next 46 years of my life even if there are days the world around me brings me down.

Today’s my birthday.

53 down.

47 to go.

I intend to use the rest of them wisely. 

Friday, June 9^th began like any other day for me on my way to my office.

I parked my car.

Made sure to lock my doors.

Debated whether I should take a picture of the floor I parked on or if I felt confident enough I would remember it by the time I left for the day.

On this particular day, I opted for confidence.

I chose to take the stairs rather than the elevator and ascended to the skyway floor of the parking ramp to begin my several minute walk to my office.

Barely 100 feet into my skyway journey I saw it.

Or, rather I saw him.

A figure lying right outside the entrance to the skyway.

There was a backpack.  There was him.

Sleeping.

This isn’t the first time I have seen someone sleeping in the skyway in St. Paul.

I have seen many people sleeping in the skyway.

Let me rephrase that:  I have seen many men sleeping in the skyway.

Older men. Or, at least they appear much older.

Yet, on this day.  In this skyway.  The man I saw sleeping in the skyway did not seem like a man.

He seemed like a boy.

Not much more than a teenage boy.

Maybe not even more than a teenage boy.

It is my initial reaction that has weighed on me since that moment I began to walk by him.

So much of my reaction was my irritation that here, again, was another example of why the skyway system in downtown St. Paul is so unwelcoming and unpleasant for people.

I took a picture of the sleeping figure.

I intended to use that picture of that sleeping person to prove a point that the skyways were not a welcoming place for workers, residents or visitors in St. Paul.

I was completely focused on the point I intended to prove.

About less than 100 feet from him I stopped.

Behind me I saw my son, Owen.

Not literally.

But in the rumpled form of that sleeping figure in the skyway.

My son is 16.  He lives in a home that is warm in the winter.  Cool in the summer.

He has all the food he needs.  Parents who love him  A sister who adores him.  A dog that confuses him.

All around him is a family that holds him tight in our hearts and mind.

Behind me, though, was some Dad’s Owen.

He wasn’t in a home with food.  In a bed with a blanket.  Or surrounded by people who love him or keep him safe.

He was lying in a skyway.

A chill went through me.

Because in the midst of my irritation and annoyance it never occurred to me that some Dad’s Owen might be laying in a skyway badly injured, suffering or God forbid, dead.

I turned around.  I walked back.

I looked at the figure of a young man lying on his side.

I looked at him for a moment.

Doing what I do when I look at my Owen when he is sleeping — and what I have done from the moment he was brought into this world…

…I looked to see if he was breathing.

Unlike my Owen I didn’t poke him or shake him to see if he would move to prove he was breathing and alive.

Instead, I said, “Hey, are you okay there?”

No answer. No movement.  No breathing.

Just like when my Owen didn’t and doesn’t respond immediately after my poking or shaking or raised voice to see if he is breathing and alive I could feel the tightness in my chest and the discomfort in the pit of my stomach.

I asked louder, and closer, “Hey, are you okay there?”

It was only then that he moved.  And barely rolled over enough for me to see his face and muttered, “Yeah” that I could see this man was not much more than a teenage boy.

In fact, maybe not even more than a teenage boy.

Uneasily satisfied that he was alive and, despite his surroundings, relatively safe, I turned and returned to my route to my office.

I continue to hope and wish for an epiphany.

A revelation that will give me a sign and guidance on what I can and should do to erase the enormous sense of despair and shame I continue to feel about that moment in the skyway.

I feel obligated to do something.

To speak up.  To speak out.

To fix it.

But, to speak up to who?

To speak out to who?

To fix it how?

I don’t know the story of that boy in the skyway.  I don’t know the journey he took that morning that brought him to the floor of that skyway or how he came to feel that the place he should lay his head should be that particular place.

Was it the safest place he could find?

Or, was he simply a kid who was tired and sat down in the skyway and fell asleep without intending to do so?

Was he someone living in crisis?

Or, was he a teenage boy doing something that his Dad or Mom back at home would scold him for if they knew what he was doing?

Along the way of the skyway these past several months I have seen so many people sleeping in the skyway I have lost count.

They are all men.

Of every color.

Men of every age.

But, none of them have been as young as that boy sleeping in the corner of a skyway in St. Paul.

There are a myriad of challenges, problems and issues that impact those who find themselves homeless. Living on the streets.  Sleeping in the skyways.

There are no single causes, reasons, answers or solutions to it.

I know what it is that bothers me and troubles me the most about all of this.

It’s that my Owen’s Dad didn’t do what I would hope another Dad would do if they saw my son laying in a skyway in St. Paul.

I didn’t immediately stop to see if some other Dad’s Owen was safe and free from harm.

I didn’t kneel down and poke that boy.

I didn’t shake him.

I didn’t check to see if he was breathing.

I was too busy being mad about someone sleeping in a skyway.

Which makes me feel obligated to do something.

To speak up.

To speak out.

To fix it.

It’s not somebody else I need to ask to do what I think must be done.

That somebody else is me.