Thank you for the "Prophet and healer" profile of Michael Osterholm in the March 21 Star Tribune Magazine. I would like to add "courageous" to that. Some years before his speaking against quarantining AIDS patients in 1986, he was among the few who met with gay social groups and their support groups explaining the risks of AIDS and emphasizing the importance of safe sex measures. I am among those likely alive because of his bravery and diligence.
Ron Linde, Burnsville
DOWNTOWN
Minneapolis is stronger than its naysayers seem to think
Regarding "Downtown recovery isn't a sure thing" (editorial, March 21): As a Minneapolis resident I appreciate all helpful comments offered, a few of which are by fellow Minneapolitans. We do have a real leadership problem and hopefully we can do something about that in the upcoming city elections. And yes, we'll have police. Don't believe all the doom and gloom about how dangerous it is, blah, blah, blah, by people who never come into the city anyway. Right now (Sunday), every restaurant patio downtown is packed, people are walking on the Stone Arch Bridge, and if the Twins were playing the stadium would be full. When the Guthrie reopens it will be packed again too. Can you get mugged? Of course, it's a freaking city! You can also get mugged in Brainerd; just pay attention!
So I am fairly confident that we will be OK. Minneapolis is a beautiful city, with terrific amenities — the arts, restaurants, sports, colleges — and involved citizens. Yeah, we have hit a real tough stretch, but what city or town doesn't? I suspect that in a few years when the dust settles on all these issues and we see what the new normal is, the city will be just fine.
Let's face it, humans have been urbanizing for over 3,000 years so it's hard to imagine that it will all come to an end over things as relatively minor as these — pandemic notwithstanding. I predict in five years a lot of people who moved out to the sticks for the quiet tranquillity (and because they have few of "those people" around) will tiptoe their way back to civilization. If they're smart they might try to get in on the bargains that are about to abound in the meantime. Think I'll go get a deal on one of the beautiful condos on the river!
D. Roger Pederson, Minneapolis
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I take issue with the editorial characterizing the citizen urgency for a restructuring of public safety through a city charter amendment as a "misguided effort." It is a last resort after repeated failures by the Minneapolis Police Department to achieve substantive reform. In 2016 Minneapolis was one of six cities selected for a Department of Justice program to reform policing through implicit bias training, community dialogue and engagement in racial reconciliation. The failure of these reforms is demonstrated most spectacularly by the killing of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, one of the MPD's training officers. The fault is not with Chief Medaria Arradondo, but with the toxic culture of the current MPD fostered by the tactics of the Police Federation.
The charter amendment proposed by the City Council would include law enforcement services that would be staffed by carefully selected police professionals trained and temperamentally suited for this important and exclusive role. They would not respond to every 911 call, as it does not take armed officers in a squad car to take the report of a garage that's been vandalized. Other public safety staff would do that. Mental health professionals would respond to calls indicating mental health crises. The city would no longer be obligated to employ police based on a ratio to city population, so there would be flexibility in how public safety dollars would be spent. And the city could start afresh in publicly negotiating a transparent contract with the Police Federation.
Patrice C. Koelsch, Minneapolis
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Before the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest after the death of George Floyd, Minneapolis was prospering despite its dysfunctional City Council. Residents, investment dollars and jobs were flowing into the city due to demographic factors that were reviving central cities across America.
Immigrants were bringing young families and an entrepreneurial spirit that revived neighborhoods largely abandoned during the suburban exodus of the 1960s and 1970s. At the same time, many young upwardly mobile people were choosing Minneapolis over outer-ring suburbs, and some of their empty-nest parents or grandparents were doing the same. Real estate investors and employers responded to these trends by bringing development and jobs to downtown and elsewhere in the city.
