‘Commentary’ Archives
Letter to the community: Why is YWCA unwilling to have open and fair conversation?
By Doris Overby Midtown COmmittee for due process We have been deeply concerned that the Minneapolis YWCA management and Board chose not to involve the general membership in decision making regarding the new costly pay to park system. We believe that it is now necessary to send this letter to each member of the YWCA Minneapolis Board of Directors. Even more disconcerting is the lack of due process in the YWCA”'s decision to suspend the memberships of Doris Overby and Dick Taylor. Management”'s unwillingness to fairly and openly negotiate a reconciliation has impeded the reinstatement of the memberships. We believe the management”'s decision to suspend without due process constitutes a glaring injustice. We are further concerned that management may have used surveillance cameras to identify a member who was peacefully exercising her First Amendment rights to inform members of the controversy that had developed over the abruptly imposed parking system and [...]
The Rand Report: Sex workers on Lake St. #2
By Rand Retterath Rand Retterrath Part 2 of a series. After the one man research project attempting to fully comprehend all the mitigating factors affecting the sex tourism market on Lake St. and on Bloomington Ave. among others, I was left with the following considerations: Gender-based approach doesn”'t work! Community approach doesn”'t work! Political approach doesn”'t work! Feminist approach doesn”'t work! Social Service approach meets with only very limited success! Law Enforcement doesn”'t have the resources to effectively arrest their way to a solution (nor should they)! Judicial approach doesn”'t work, it means nothing! Penalties are meaningless. Combined Judicial/Social Service approach meets with limited success! Community Engagement approach doesn”'t work! We have a spectacular list of tried and failed approaches to the sex industry. For decades, Lake St., as well as Bloomington Ave., have been the sex tourist [...]
