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Saturday, September 01, 2007

Housing code enforcement officers out of control in Minneapolis

Please click onto the COMMENTS for a post copied here from Minneapolis E Democracy forum.

posted by Bob at Saturday, September 01, 2007

5 Comments:

Blogger Bob said...

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Dear Ms. Glidden:

For the fourth time this year alone, I have answered the door to
another housing inspector saying she/he had a complaint that "there are too
many people at this address." Since the Inspector has never found that
we were over populated on any occasion, I consider that this is
harassment using the city as a tool. I consider these repeated visits from the
Inspections Dept. a civil rights offense.

This house is a 16 room, 7 bedroom, 2500+ sq.ft.
duplex-being-used-single family home, and has been for the last 10 years. Before that it was
Harriet Tubman Shelter for 20 years (group home). I have invested some
$85,000 in the as yet unfinished work of turning it back to the duplex
it was in 1912.

This is a gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender home for five people,
including a housemate/caretaker and me. We are a blue collar working people
home. We keep a tidy home. We shovel snow, cut grass, plant flowers,
pick up litter from Oakland, Lake St., and the alley. We are not noisy. We
do not suffer roudiness in any of its manifestations on this property.


The Housing Dept. allows anonymous calls to trigger inspections on the
city's part. However, someone(s) have discovered that this feature of
city government is a handy tool to harass people.

There are two ways that we can have a resolution to the problem of
repeated, senseless, visits from the Inspections Dept. I could initiate a
long winded, expensive (to the city) complaint to the Civil Rights Dept.
Or, the Housing Inspectors could just back off of these anonymous
complaints about too many people. There have never been too many people,
nor will there be, so long as I own this house.

I would like you to help me to get an agreement from the Inspections
Department to cease these repeated visits for reasons of too many people
in the household.

Wizard Marks
3001 Oakland Av.
612-822-4344

Wizard Marks
Central
Info about Wizard Marks:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/contacts/wizardmarks

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10:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's what the neighbors do! If they don't like you or your life style, they get the inspctions department to make your life miserable. St. Paul does it too. They do it all the time.

1:38 PM  
Blogger Bob said...

Hi All,

Folks, you better be nice to your neighbor. Kiss his ass even if you don't like him. Because if you don't he may sic the gestapo housing code enforcement on you. Where have we seen this before? "SAINT PAUL"!

Personally, I don't want anything to do with the governments desire to turn everyone into a SNITCH.

This snitching on they neighbor training starts in public schools teaching our children they don't have to stand up to bullies. Just go tell a teacher is the message, be a snitch about anything and everything.

This is contrary to what I taught my son. I had always told my son don't be a tattle tail. Stand up to bullies. Isn't this what most of us teach our children?

SOME kids learn SNITCHING can be used as a form of revenge, or a tool to get their way. They leave our public schools as trained snitches and enter our communities as spineless citizens.

They have no concept of working out differences with others because they have been taught someone else is responsible for the things they don't like around them.

They have been taught fear instead of courage in instigating change. They enter our neighborhoods consumed with fear of having to confront a negative situation with their neighbors so they grab a phone and call the police.

Many of these people go on to be "snitch on they neighbor block club leaders" or "Mrs. Kravitz's busy body types in the window watching every move of their neighbors".

If my neighbor was doing something I didn't like I'd tell him!

I have a neighbor who makes a camp fire in his back yard. The smoke always seems to be carried by the wind to my home spilling in through the windows. I rush around closing the windows so I don't have to smell the scrap wood he burns.

I don't call the police, the city, code enforcement or anybody else! I put up with it because someday maybe I will have a camp fire in my back yard with a beer. I have had the thought to go over there and ask him if he would burn birch only because I like that smell. BUT I WILL NOT CALL THE POLICE!

What happen to love thy neighbor?

City government would like us to WATCH THY NEIGHBOR FOR BIG BROTHER. Call them if you see something, anything, you don't like about your neighbor!

Our character and back bone, is slowly but surely being erroded by policies that are intended to turn us into sheep. Next they will want our guns!

5:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

good post Bob.........

"Jesus" wasn't a SNITCH either.. He lived among the sinners and never condoned their behavior.

Instead, he set an example of how they could live their lives.

5:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Stp Snitchin' - Didn't we see a campaign to get rid of that mentality just recently?

9:29 AM  

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