Readers Write (Dec. 15): Affordable housing in Eden Prairie, MnSCU, Affordable Care Act, Catholic Church, I-94 sound barriers

The Dec. 10 article "Panel takes on issue of affordable housing" incites many questions about what Eden Prairie looks like. As an Eden Prairie native, I am excited to see such efforts. While our football dynasty may immediately come to mind, Eden Prairie also holds one of the only gated communities in Minnesota, which may lead one to question how necessary affordable housing is there.

Though the American Community Survey estimates that Eden Prairie has a household median income of more than $95,000, it also estimates that 5.2 percent of individuals fall beneath the federal poverty level. Additionally, the 2010 census cited that more than 20 percent of Eden Prairie's households paid more than 35 percent of their income toward housing; the federal government's standard is 30 percent.

In interviewing staff from Housing and Community Services this fall, I learned that Eden Prairie does not have mandatory inclusionary housing for developers who abstain from subsidies, thus preventing many from creating affordable units. Consequentially, the average family sits on a waiting list for at least two to five years before placement into affordable Section 8 buildings within Eden Prairie, showing that there is certainly an urgent demand.

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Chancellor Steven Rosenstone and the MnSCU board of trustees seem to believe that they have a monopoly on the idea of "change." MnSCU overlooks that 8,000 faculty members are perpetually making changes on their campuses to ensure that Minnesota students receive an excellent, accessible and affordable higher education.

No one is out to destroy MnSCU or its strategic plan, Charting the Future. However, the plan's top-down and centralized approach to change allows little autonomy for the diversity of local campuses and communities. What critics are demanding is that the plan's implementation process becomes less administrator-centric and more inclusive of those who are on the front lines of teaching and learning.

The chancellor cannot implement anything without significant buy-in from students, faculty and staff. As witnessed for two months, many of those constituents are not buying what he is selling.

Perhaps it is time for MnSCU to rethink its position. Its leaders should not read resistance to the current autocratic process as indiscriminate resistance to all change.

Trustees, the ball is in your court.

The writer is a professor at Metropolitan State University.

To those concerned about Jonathan Gruber ("GOP grills MIT economist about 'voter stupidity,' " Dec. 11): Please remember he's just a distraction, the current cause célèbre — he was not the architect of, did not vote on and did not sign the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The idea of the ACA was originally crafted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and was established as a state plan by Mitt Romney when he was the governor of Massachusetts. It only became fashionable as something to detest by Republicans when it was adopted and became national law under the Democrats. Well, at least that's the only reason I can tell as to why Republicans don't like it.

Under the ACA, 8 million more of our fellow Americans have health insurance coverage. That's as many people as the populations of Minnesota and Iowa combined. I've never figured out how anyone could view that as a bad thing. These people no longer have to show up at an emergency room as a last resort, often when it's too late. Let's celebrate the idea that we're finally trending toward universal health care.

Wow! Without any kind of support, the writer just blasts the Catholic Church. As a Catholic woman, I reject her appraisal. Folks, quit thinking you know anything about the Catholic Church without educating yourself, and that includes former Catholics who have had little catechesis.

Put some time in studying. Your first book should be "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization." If you read that, google some encyclicals, like Pope John Paul II's Teaching on Women.

As a Catholic woman, I am valued, respected and spiritually alive. I am a source of strength and courage to all those around me. I really think I've had enough of Catholic-bashing from some of you! Most of you, sadly, do not know what you are talking about and are contributing to a lack of love within the Christian church.

To those daily commuters down Interstate 94 through Prospect Park whose sensibilities are insulted by the sound wall "improvements," as a born-and-raised resident of the neighborhood, I offer this context:

The original insult was when the Minnesota Highway Department (now MnDOT), at the height of its condemnatory powers, aligned the new freeway through the neighborhood. It could have been worse. What you see today is the result of heavy blowback from residents to minimize the damage.

The current resurfacing of the wall that draws your ire is the culmination of years of residents meeting with MnDOT and its consultants to address the issue — including the color of the panels.

As for your passing comments, I am reminded of Bess Truman's friends, who urged the first lady to get Harry not to say "manure" in public. Bess' reply was: "You don't know how long it took to get him to say 'manure.' "