Does $2 million divided by 81 make a commitment to neighborhoods?
By: Brock Hanson 02/01/2008
On December 20, 2007 the City Council‘s Committee of the Whole discussed and voted on the fate of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP). Recommendations brought forth to the Committee of the Whole included what governance and funding would look like after 2009. City Council Members proudly voiced their support for “Neighborhood Organizations” and all of the work that they do for the City, but the 81 Minneapolis NRP neighborhood organizations should prepare for some major changes beginning in 2009 if no further support or changes are approved.
In November 2007 the City Council appointed a work group in charge of coming up with the recommendations for the future framework of NRP. It included Council President Barbara Johnson (Ward 4), Council Vice-President Robert Lilligren (Ward 6), Council Member Paul Ostrow, Ways & Means/Budget Committee Chair (Ward 1), Council Member Betsy Hodges, Inter-Governmental Relations Committee Chair (Ward 13), Robert Miller, Neighborhood Revitalization Program Director, and Cara Letofsky, Mayor R.T. Rybak’s Policy Aide. Their recommendations included providing limited administrative funding for neighborhood groups, the creation of language for (but no funding for) a new Neighborhood Investment Funding pool that neighborhoods would compete from, and recommended that the City must provide better administrative support to community participation efforts.
Boiled down to the neighborhood level, the City Council vote on December 20 does nothing short of ending the current independent NRP program, and incorporates it into a “new and funded” City Department. The only recommended dollar amount that the city is willing to commit to is $2 million city-wide to the NRP program, which would be divided by the 81 city neighborhoods; this is a grand total of $24,700 per neighborhood for operation and programming. The breakdown by ward then would be approximately $222,300 for Third Ward neighborhoods, $148,200 for Fourth Ward neighborhoods and $148,200 for Fifth Ward neighborhoods. Compare that to the commitment of the City Council in the early 1990s — with neighborhoods facing mortgage foreclosure, urban flight, and failing school issues — when they chose to create a “new program called NRP” and committed $20 million for 20 years. That commitment brought a total of $40 million in investments to all of the Northside, $9 million of which was for home improvement loans, neighborhood organizing, and programming for local community events and activities in the Camden area.
After 2009, NRP will be moved to within the Minneapolis City budget. Neighborhood organizations will be subject to the annual budget cycle and compete against each other in a limited funding pool. Having the NRP move into a city department brings it into competition with programs that it had not had to compete with before like the fire and police departments, Meet Minneapolis, and traffic and parking services. The original commitment for NRP was $20 million for 20 years. The new commitment that came out of the Committee of the Whole is at best $2 million, with no commitment after 2010.