By Harvey Winje
When students, public policy makers, funders, journalists and other observers inquire about the area of the  Backyard Initiative”“Central, Powderhorn Park, Corcoran and the four neighborhoods of Phillips”“typical questions residents are asked include:
“What are the problems that affect your community?
“Is anyone or any group trying to make change or trying to solve these problems?”
“Why doesn”'t anything appear to be changing?”
The issues or problems to which they refer are less than half of the story since they are only referring to negative factors and statistics that affect the whole. Fortunately for us, more than half of the story is that we have an abundance or a plethora of very positive characteristics, circumstances, infrastructures, and amenities to apply to the problems which, in turn, restores wellness to our lives.
This issue of The Alley Newspaper portrays some examples of those positive things as we do in every issue;
Community cohesiveness combating negative forces with tenacity and persistence as we have done for decades,
Vast diversity of culture, ethnic origin, opinion, and lifestyle.
Many examples of locally created public art
Public and private schools, parks and green space.
More festivals, celebrations, parades, theaters, worship centers, and businesses per capita/per acre than any other metropolitan area in Minnesota.
However, we also have our share of systemic issues that need to be addressed such as:
We have more health-related businesses than any other area of town and yet health care for our residents is either not accessible or unequally available.
In spite of having good parks, two swimming pools, and public and private schools, we are still considerably underserved relative to the whole metropolitan area.
We are plagued by traditional media representation that usually reports with a negative bias.
We have state highways, streets and thoroughfares with higher speeds but without adequate safety features whose primary purpose is to provide direct access to or from downtown or across town.
Indeed, students, public policy makers, corporate executives, funders, journalists, and other observers are correct, we have a plethora of problems.  There would be more if it were not for the plethora of community members who have remained resilient, persistent, and work effectively on behalf of the common good.
