Readers Write (Dec. 9): Edina's planning, a 'baby bump,' sentencing disparities, Holidazzle

Thanks to the Star Tribune Editorial Board for its coverage of Edina's efforts to build a more walkable city ("Charting a course ...," Dec. 6). However, I deserve no special credit for championing the passing of our current sidewalk plan. It was the entire Edina City Council that provided the policy framework for this plan, and all of the council members continually championed its importance to our community. Credit for creation of this specific plan is appropriately given to the Edina Transportation Commission members, participants from the Edina public schools, Bloomington Public Health and the capable staff members who did all of the detailed work necessary to present to the council a product worthy of passage and implementation.

The provocative front-page article "Baby bump is overdue for the state" (Dec. 6) raises two important questions:

First, is it fair to imply that women should have more children when working conditions don't favor pregnancy? Put another way, when most women are direct contributors to family income — are in the workforce to support or help support their children — can they be expected to add children to their physical and financial burden?

Second, doesn't detailing which racial or ethnic group is having how many children contribute to the racism and racial and ethnic stereotyping that we, as a nation, are supposed to be trying to eliminate? Wouldn't it be better to simply talk and write about Americans rather than always noting the color of a person's skin or their heritage?

The basic question is why women should be expected to provide the future workforce and not be compensated or helped in so doing.

Ask any woman of childbearing age and every grandmother what she thinks of these questions. On second thought, ask all fathers and grandfathers, too. And watch the current pregnancy discrimination case before the U. S. Supreme Court.

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Is that why we are supposed to have children? Whatever happened to zero population growth? Why don't we just tax people based on how much their children would have spent if they had been born, "force" everyone to buy two and a half houses if they don't have any children and demand that every resident spend every waking hour shopping to make sure that our elite billionaire citizens can continue their elaborate lifestyles?

And all this time I thought children were born out of love. Well, I guess they are — love of money.

As a decadelong resident of north Minneapolis, a community very negatively affected by the fallout from disproportionate arrest rates for nonviolent drug and other offenses, I see a different side of the story. On one hand, drug and nonviolent felony convictions do follow the offenders for life with little to no benefit to society. On the other hand, I rarely go out in public in my community and do not see anybody openly using or selling marijuana, loitering, catcalling female pedestrians, soliciting everything from A to Z and generally engaging in nuisance activity. This behavior discourages residents from supporting the local economy, discourages investment in the community and generally makes for an undesirable living environment that people living in most suburbs simply do not see — such as the Dec. 7 letter writer from Edina who addressed this topic.

Often, when reports on arrest and sentencing disparities are published, the conversation entirely neglects to address the behavior that pervades some communities and that drives the increased police patrols and enforcement. The reality is that we need the arrests for these nuisance crimes in order to maintain any civility. The solution to address the disparities is often to not enforce nuisance crimes. This exacerbates the issues some communities face. Perhaps the conversation needs to encompass the disparities in community standards and behavior in order to more effectively address the issue.

I have seen a lot of negative letters, and now a Jon Tevlin column ("Has the city's Holidazzle become a Holifizzle?" Dec. 7), regarding the holiday market in Minneapolis. My wife and I beg to differ. We live in north Minneapolis and would normally spend Sunday reading the paper on the sofa. This week, however, we made a point of getting up and going out to meet a couple friends at the market. I have to say it is one of the best uses for Peavey Plaza I've seen in quite a while. We all paid our $6 and each found gifts to buy from the local food and clothing vendors. We checked out the website and saw that a band we've seen before, Alpenstrene, would be playing and that the day was "hosted" by the town of New Ulm, Minn., where we've been many times. Even when it started snowing, we enjoyed our time in the sheltered plaza between Nicollet Mall and Orchestra Hall.

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I do agree that it's not perfect — yet, but I think it rates a lot higher than Tevlin rates it. I've gone to dozens of Christmas markets, large and small, in Europe, and it's tough to compete with them. But Minneapolis' first attempt was admirable; vendors I talked to were actually from Europe. Prices were comparable to European markets, though I do agree there shouldn't be an admission fee.

What can Minneapolis do next year to make it better? Get it out of Peavey Plaza. As cozy as it was, it was too cozy. One section was filled with shoppers on either side, leaving no room for browsers to walk through. It was not friendly to disabled folks — I saw a wheelchair being carried down the steps. And it didn't have much for the kids.

So move it up to street level, cut the admission fee, get some good entertainment, dump the Holidazzle floats and give everyone something to enjoy.