Brooklyn Park (apartment complex, crime, how much)

[missannie]

I am a homeower in Brooklyn Park and wish they would get rid of all of the low income apartments. I won't even go into Walgreens on Zane,because everytime I do there are people getting loud or stealing.
I love my neighborhood and the fact that we are close to so much,but someone needs to do something before Brooklyn Park turns into a ghetto.

[lisajewela]

missannie, I totally agree with you and will no longer shop at Walgreen's on Zane unless absolutely necessary. I voted for the reduction of the 1 and 2 bedroom apartments concentrated in Brooklyn Park when this came up during voting time awhile ago...I had hoped then that the city knew that we had WAY TOO MANY APTMTS in this city...However, the talk is not the walk. BP continues to diminish and become overpopulated with mutliple apartment complexes and the corresponding problems that come with them. It is a circular problem as more decent working people leave the more housing is put up for subsidy and section 8 creating an ongoing and growing problem. The police have not put their efforts into properly monitoring the apartment complexes so the crime becomes uncontrolled. In my opinion at the least the apartments need to hire security to patrol and monitor their grounds. This would be helpful to all of the other inhabitants of this city.

[Chucker44]

I agree with you about Walgreens on Zane. I find myself traveling more and more out of the area to shop - which is disappointing when you don't feel comfortable shopping in your own community.

When I moved to B Pk almost 30 years ago most of these apartments were here then. Its not the apartments...its the type of people that have moved into our area that rent them out now.

I guess I will be like all of my friends and neighbors. Pack up and move to Wright County.

[lisajewela]

Just got relocated. Bye Brooklyn Park! I will keep my neighbors in my thoughts and pray for the best however my family must go.

[Dingler]

The general thinking by Planning Experts is that every City should have a good mixture of Apartments, Townhouses, Condo and Single Family Homes. The days of Edina or North Oaks type suburban communities is dead. The new suburbs have a large number of low income people living in apartments. That way poor people live everywhere so they can ruin every community, not just a few towns.

[nick is rulz]

80% of the responses in this thread are idiotic

[Zeebers]

Dear Fellow Brooklyn Parkers

My attempt at humor in this opening line is only to let you know that I share your concerns and indignance and I am not a home owner. Wish I could be.
When we arrived homeless to Minnesota in 1990 ( from Chicago) I was overwhelmed with the help that we got.
I will even define this situation so that you will not begin to sigh and say, "Yeah, another out of town freeloader". Well, that was not the case.
We are black. A whole family and though I was born and raised in Chicago in simpler times and did not have the usual sob story that some people have, I wanted better for the remaining two children in my brood of five and for myself as well.
I came for work. I had no idea about money-appolis, knew no one and had no relatives here. I read an article in Family Circle that told about Elim Transitional Housing helping people make new starts.
The situations in Chicago for un-skilled and low income people would frighten the toughest people and I had little violin playing kids who wanted something out of life. So we came.
After living in a shelter for three weeks, I found housing in South Mpls...went back to school, obtained my GED, attended Minneapolis Community College and began working as an advocate for battered women and their children.

My adult children from several other states followed and each one searched for and found lucrative work. We all work. All five children ( well, adults) are working, home owners and follow the law. Due to a take over by the Nico company in South Minneapolis, our entire block was demolished and we were handed a few hundred dollars and a Section 8 certificate.
Someone told me that Brooklyn Park was an oasis and from my viewpoint, it was much prettier than South Mpls, so we moved to a housing complex on Zane Avenue.
We minded our business. I raised my grandson and he has attended all of his school years in district 279. I gave back to the city and state that gave so much to us by volunteering, becoming community involved and serving on the board of one of the same organizations that helped me with my bootstrap philosophy.
I won awards at the Loft for my writing, speak out publicly and feel the same pain for home owners along the way that I walk ( I do not drive) to Cub Foods, since moving here on Jersey Avenue five years ago.
My grandson works in Finlayson in the Summers for The Salvation Army and has just graduated from Maranatha Christian Academy and plans to attend North Hennepin College in the Fall.
My family comes with a naturally strong work ethic. My mother and father made us live in small Jewish communities in Chicago to keep us from what they termed, "The riff raff".
Well, now I am nearly sixty and unable to work due to illness.
I love Brooklyn Park but I am appalled at the activities that go on around me.
Summer is terrible. People fighting. Police getting called and after that no action!
I passed a little row of privately owned homes where I know I cannot afford but just walking by used to give me great pleasure and hope for a home of our own...even a rental.
The men play horse shoes down there and people smile and wave.
Even the guy with the motorcycle who looks at me as if I am a bug under
a microscope, has taken to at least saying hello.
I passed through my little fantasy area the other day, and lo and behold,
there were people who unfortunately look like ME....car stereos blasting, multiple children running amok, beer cans in hand, foul language to each other and each person they were speaking with on their cell phones.
I felt my heart sink.
The guy on the motorcycle glared and the horse shoe people had to keep
looking at the kids who were wandering, unsupervised into their yards, while the mothers, aunts, whomever, of these kids glared defiantly as if to say, "You better not touch my baby".

No, I do not like going into Walgreens because I am considered a potential thief ( thats not my fault, but I have the color that is associated with bad stuff) if they only knew that my youngest son has worked as a floor manager at Saks. They have no idea that I spoke to Maya Angelou on Mothers Day in '05, or that I love classical music and even a little Reggae but I know that it is for my enjoyment and do not have to turn the bass up to TILT in order to hear it. This is the way that I was raised and this is the way that I raised my children.

I wish I could leave Brooklyn Park. My grandson for all of his goodness, is not safe. He was raised in peace and could get his head blown off for simply looking decent. I worry, but I had to try to contribute to this site because I hear and understand what you are saying. If I had planned better, not married so young and listened to my family, I would possibly have been a disgruntled home owner. As it is, I am a disgruntled Section 8 renter.
As much as I hate the growing problem of drugs, murder, and you name it in Brooklyn Park, if you tear down all of the low inclome housing, someone...like me...will have no place to go.
I know that sounds silly, because I am simply ONE.
I wish there was better screening as far as tenants are concerned, because as I write this, I got up to hear a commotion from my bedroom window.
There are about five police cars out front. A regular sight. There was a big disturbance. Bet ya dollars to donuts, no one will be arrested.
They get a good talking to and thats it.

Yet, my youngest son, running to catch a bus to go to WORK....was cornered and questioned by our finest and when he was cleared as not being the guy who somebody fingered, was given a ride to his job in a police car so he would not be late. Imagine that!
Peace to all
Zee

[Lindenin]

You are free to choose. Take your family and move to a different area of town. There is no reason not to.

I feel for the police. They are out there walking on eggshells... trying to match people they see with descriptions they've been given, all the while attempting to not offend anyone. It is a tough job, and while I also feel for your son, Zee, I know that nobody likes having to question innocent people, but it is part of the process of their job, part of finding the truth.

[Zeebers]

The whole point is that I do not have money to move and live within the strictures of Section 8 which does not allow for moving to fancier digs.
I will say no more. It is hard to be understood. I am not free to choose. Why would I want to live here? If I could still work, we would be gone.
Peace
Zee

[Slig]

yeah, well I would have to agree that the only thing that sucks worse than working is not working.