Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
Reading the recent article about the continuing cycle of the removal and recreation of camps of unhoused people, and the burden these places on immediate neighbors, the comments of neighbors near the camp at 31st Street and Interstate 35W struck a familiar chord (“Hwy. 55 encampment regroups; ‘We’ve gone around’ in a circle,” Aug. 22).
Neighbors report trying to speak to Mayor Jacob Frey about safety issues when a large number of drug users are camping in close proximity. They report Frey not responding to their concerns.
In 2020 a large, 40-plus tent camp settled on my block. By all appearances, all residents were using intravenous drugs several times a day. The immediate neighborhood was overrun by armed drug dealers, threatening neighbors and campers alike, setting fires. The streets and sidewalks were rife with discarded needles and human waste.
I and other neighbors sent out what must have been several hundred calls for help to the mayor’s office. Not one neighbor received so much as a formulated “thanks for your message” response. This was during an eight-week period of a criminal occupation of a low-income, predominantly BIPOC community with a high number of elderly and differently abled residents.
Frey did come to an event when he was campaigning for re-election. When asked about his lack of response to these calls for help he said he didn’t know there was a problem.
Please think carefully before we elect a new mayor. We cannot continue under the administration of someone who refuses to respond to residents’ calls for basic public safety.
John Richard, Minneapolis
•••
Two days after the Star Tribune published a very clear article about the new Wall of Forgotten Natives, the State Patrol sent 20 troopers to pass out eviction notices to each resident, with the eviction set for Thursday. My friends and I have visited this and other camps many times, bringing what necessities we can through private donations. Of all we’ve seen, this is by far the best run and best maintained camp in Minneapolis.
On a visit Tuesday night to pass out cold drinks, snacks, trash bags and items specifically requested by individuals, including an air mattress for a resident who uses a wheelchair, we saw almost no scattered trash or discarded needles. The Native women leading and managing the camp take no nonsense from anyone and monitor new arrivals. This camp is not adjacent to private residences or businesses. It is fenced already, which helps to keep things orderly. As so many businesses and organizations are saying lately in their acknowledgment statements, we are on Dakota land. This camp is a shining example of mutual aid; the organizers themselves are acting as outreach workers, helping to connect residents with housing and with treatment programs. There is absolutely no reason to evict these good people. Gov. Tim Walz, please stop this process now. And all levels of government, please work with us to establish sanctioned, safe and well-managed camp areas. Stability is the key to moving on to health and housing.
Paul S. McCluskey, Minneapolis
IN-OFFICE WORK
I wholeheartedly agree with the authors of “A compelling reason for returning to in-office work? Serendipity” (Opinion Exchange, Aug. 23). Their emphasis on the importance of serendipitous interactions in the workplace is spot on, as I can attest from my experience both as a Fortune 500 executive and now as a founder of a Minneapolis startup working to reconcile the productivity-serendipity paradox of distributed work.
However, the authors overlook a significant change in the post-pandemic workplace landscape: Teams are no longer centered in a single office. This transformation underscores the crux of the return-to-office dilemma. Informal relationships that once thrived within close physical proximity now span cities and continents, making useful serendipitous moments more elusive.
In today’s world, office-based serendipity often doesn’t happen unless leaders intentionally create mechanisms or events to facilitate them. Consequently, the essential leadership skill of the post-pandemic world is how leaders design activities both in-person and technology-assisted that spark casual serendipitous encounters and expand informal work relationships for all employees — wherever they may be based.
In essence, the return-to-office debate isn’t just about serendipity vs. productivity or flexibility. It’s about adapting to an utterly transformed work landscape where innovation and connections must be cultivated in new ways. Employees are craving more serendipity too. But we must recognize that as the pandemic reshaped the workplace, we must also reshape the means by which creativity and collaboration thrive.
Sean Murphy, Minneapolis
The writer is co-founder and CEO of DemoHop.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Thank you for printing the editorial “Keep pushing on EV two-way charging” from the Los Angeles Times on Monday. Too many articles grumble that the current state of zero-carbon-energy resources aren’t adequate for the future as if the future is constrained by what is available today, so I was glad to see an editorial provide an example of the expanding possibilities of a zero-carbon future.
Our cars waste most of their days doing nothing. But when we buy EVs, we are also buying distributed energy resources (DERs), and rather than worry about what happens when we all plug our EVs in at the same time, two-way charging allows the accumulated energy capacity of plugged-in EVs to operate as a huge energy resource. This is not futuristic; virtual power plants already exist that use DERs to supply power when grid supplies are stretched or store it when there is more solar and wind power than needed.
Legislation requiring EVs to be capable of two-way charging will facilitate the energy transition and benefit everyone who is connected to a power grid, not just EV owners. Of course, it will be nice if our EVs can make us a bit of money when they would otherwise be sitting around doing nothing.
Jim Wolfe Wood, Stillwater
REP. ILHAN OMAR
When asked to defend her trip to Qatar, a country with an abysmal human rights record, to attend the FIFA World Cup and meet with government officials, Rep. Ilhan Omar said that “there are no perfect countries that have a perfect record” (“Omar’s trip to World Cup was funded by Qatar government,” Aug. 23). While this sentiment is obviously true, Omar has never applied it to either the state of Israel or her own country.
Qatar’s record on human rights abuses is well known, and includes violations against migrant workers and gay people — same-sex relationships are made criminal and support of LGBT causes is prohibited; freedom of the press is repressed; and women face discrimination in law and practice, needing permission of a male guardian to marry, travel or work in government.
So why does Omar excuse these abuses, while attacking Israel and the United States, both with human rights records far better than that of Qatar? Maybe some day she will apply her “no country is perfect” defense more broadly.
Ronald Haskvitz, Golden Valley
•••
Before I begin, I want to praise Omar in her support for Joe Biden’s presidential re-election given the concern that some far-left voters and groups like the Democratic Socialists of America could be supporting likely Green Party presidential candidate Cornel West and tilt the election to the Republican candidate as a result. However, her trip to the World Cup in Qatar that was funded by the Qatari government is definitely hypocritical given that the nation has been known to support the terrorist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Additionally, there have been widespread reports of the mistreatment of migrants during the building of those stadiums she was a spectator in (although the Qatari government did build a soccer stadium for an Arab-Israeli soccer club in Israel as well).
Omar had the right to boycott the speech by the Israeli president given the recent decisions made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, making harsh statements on Israel while playing nice with Qatar does seem to show a very concerning bias. Omar needs to apologize for her trip immediately.
William Cory Labovitch, West St. Paul
