north minneapolis (Marshall: home, neighborhoods, purchases)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Quick story, I decided to hang out in the northside a little bit so a buddy and I went to the Walgreens and then the Cub Foods off of W. Broadway. It was overall a good shopping experience. The people shopping and working in those two stores seemed to overall be much more approachable and kind than in the town center Walgreens/Rainbow in Eagan. However, as my buddy was about to ring up his goods at the Cub a crackhead lady cut in front of him, bought a 50 cent pack of gum on an EBT card and got like $49.50 in change, probably to go buy another 8ball. Is this legal? I hate thinking that my Minnesota state income tax is going towards this woman's crack addiction. Anyways, overall I liked the area and wouldn't mind being there more often if the location was more convenient for me.

[moving123456]

Originally Posted by Slig

Quick story, I decided to hang out in the northside a little bit so a buddy and I went to the Walgreens and then the Cub Foods off of W. Broadway. It was overall a good shopping experience. The people shopping and working in those two stores seemed to overall be much more approachable and kind than in the town center Walgreens/Rainbow in Eagan. However, as my buddy was about to ring up his goods at the Cub a crackhead lady cut in front of him, bought a 50 cent pack of gum on an EBT card and got like $49.50 in change, probably to go buy another 8ball. Is this legal? I hate thinking that my Minnesota state income tax is going towards this woman's crack addiction. Anyways, overall I liked the area and wouldn't mind being there more often if the location was more convenient for me.

I believe food and cash benefits are seperate, but accessed through the same EBT card. I have seen people getting cash with EBT cards at ATMs before. She probably recieves cash benefits and just used a debit transaction with cash back to avoid an ATM fee. It would be very hard to control what people buy with their welfare cash.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

well....that sucks

[muttpapi3]

north minneapolis isnt all bad depending on where you go dictates how bad the neighborhood is, some people just dont got nothing better to do or dont know nothing else

[Camden Northsider]

Muttpapi, read some more recent threads on North Minneapolis - you are correct, many people have no idea what the boundaries/ geographic area of the very large geographic area of North Minneapolis are and think that a few neighborhoods that they've heard news stories about represent all of North Minneapolis.

Like I've said probably hundreds of times before on this board, there are a number of neighborhoods in North/ Camden that outperform many South/ SE/ NE (and in some categories, SW) Mpls neighborhoods viewed as desirable in a number of quality of life indicators - be this crime, schools, green space, % owner occupied homes, upkeep of properties, median incomes, etc. You've dug up a very old thread here and this argument has been hashed out dozens of times on this board, mod can we lock this thread?

[knke0402]

Originally Posted by moving123456

I believe food and cash benefits are seperate, but accessed through the same EBT card. I have seen people getting cash with EBT cards at ATMs before. She probably recieves cash benefits and just used a debit transaction with cash back to avoid an ATM fee. It would be very hard to control what people buy with their welfare cash.

That, my friend, is the State of Minnesota in a nutshell.. Everyone knows this is the state of handouts. The highest emmigrant(not immigrant) state is Illinois. Why? Because low income leaches in Chicago are having a hard time getting free money, so they move to TC or Duluth where they will have no problem collecting their checks on the first of the month. Actually if you hang out at the bus depot in DT Minneapolis, watch the people. Seriously, they get off the FROM CHICAGO bus at 9 am, stand in line, collect thier check, and hop onto the TO CHICAGO bus at 6 pm. All to collect their check. A day of work to get free money. Its better than working 40 hrs a week.

The state of Minnesota really has to cut down on public and welfare programs and funding. Everyone believs that there should be hand outs to help the disqualified, but not to the point where it becomes abused.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by knke0402

That, my friend, is the State of Minnesota in a nutshell.. Everyone knows this is the state of handouts. The highest emmigrant(not immigrant) state is Illinois. Why? Because low income leaches in Chicago are having a hard time getting free money, so they move to TC or Duluth where they will have no problem collecting their checks on the first of the month. Actually if you hang out at the bus depot in DT Minneapolis, watch the people. Seriously, they get off the FROM CHICAGO bus at 9 am, stand in line, collect thier check, and hop onto the TO CHICAGO bus at 6 pm. All to collect their check. A day of work to get free money. Its better than working 40 hrs a week.

The state of Minnesota really has to cut down on public and welfare programs and funding. Everyone believs that there should be hand outs to help the disqualified, but not to the point where it becomes abused.

This little scenario is simply untrue and it would be possible to even do such a thing. A family's TANF (temporary assistance to needy families) monies/ grants are tracked on a national level, the financial worker assisting someone to apply for benefits here in Hennepin County would be able to tell how many months and how long someone was on welfare in the state in which they came from and how much time they are eligible to continue receiving it after relocating to MN (time limits are the same throughout the nation, and the formulas used as to how much a person gets vary only based on the local cost of living - welfare reform limited the amount of time a person can receive welfare to a 5 year lifetime limit). Plus, anyone receiving welfare (and we're talking about assistance to families/ single moms, not SSI or anything in which case you have to have a documented disability and go through generally a years-long process to be accepted) has to pretty much work a full-time job, be this in looking for employment, volunteering, working, getting basic education, etc. to receive benefits (and believe me, proof has to get turned in on a WEEKLY basis in and it has to be verified by the caseworker).

There are so many urban legends about all of the people from Chicago 'emigrating' from Chicago to come capitalize off of Mpls' "loose" welfare system - we don't have a loose welfare system in MN because these monies are regulated on both a federal and state level and there have not been increases to cash grant amounts to families in I believe decades now. There may be people moving here from Chicago but it's generally because people hear there is a lot of opportunity here. What MSP does have that's the model for the nation is an excellent high-performing network of human services agencies that act as a better safety net (not in benefits/ cash but with caseworkers and services that will help someone out) in MSP than in other areas of the country and we probably spend less money than other states doing so. Yet there are still way too many - thousands - of people that fall through the cracks here than, IMO, should be tolerated by a state that prides itself on its wealth, progressiveness, compassion, and acceptance of everyone).

It amazes me that people still believe this tired argument about being so welfare-friendly and "too much taxpayer dollars being spent on welfare programs" - it's BS and the ignorance actually offends me. I can vouch for the fact that the state has steadily cut programs and services year after year throughout the Bush administration and you can see the results everywhere you look in this city.

And for the record, every penny a govt/ nonprofit org spends has to have an audit trail a mile long and be on a list of approved items as mandated by its funders, and it's never enough to cover their actual expenses - the nonprofit industry scrapes by on so little it's unbelievable that a number are still able to keep their doors open in this economy. People are fine with the $750 billion Wall Street bailout where execs get to cash in after decades of paying themselves millions upon millions of dollars and then take the staff out to celebrate on lavish 400K and above staff retreats, etc. Or how about the weapon order for Iraq where people just seemed to misplace or couldn't account for millions of dollars of weapons that had been purchased - whoops, our bad! But allocate funding to pay a well-educated job counselor or human services worker $25 - 35K a year to work full-time (and usually way overtime) jobs helping hundreds of people to become self-sufficient, create a better quality of life for individuals/ families, and work to eliminate social ills like unemployment, violent crime, homelessness, illiteracy, foreclosures, etc. each and every day of the year?? - how intolerable. Go volunteer with an agency - see if your worldview changes a little....

[mk10063955]

Originally Posted by newulm

i heard its dangerous, tell me about it...

The northern part of Minneapolis is very dangerous. My aunt lives up there in a trashy neighborhood. There are drive-by shootings practically every week or so. My aunt has borded up all of her windows and can't even use the front room of her home because of all the gunfire. There are many dangerous gangs up there that fight with each other regularly. The neighborhoods appear on the news at least every week. It is not a good place to live at all.

[Veridian]

Originally Posted by knke0402

That, my friend, is the State of Minnesota in a nutshell.. Everyone knows this is the state of handouts. The highest emmigrant(not immigrant) state is Illinois. Why? Because low income leaches in Chicago are having a hard time getting free money, so they move to TC or Duluth where they will have no problem collecting their checks on the first of the month. ...

As has already been pointed out, this is an urban legend. There is no empirical data to back it up. It is a talking point generated by anti-welfare/anti-tax groups to push their political agenda. I'm not accusing you of pushing such an agenda, but they certainly did sell you on something that is simply not true.

[MRNorthSide]

Has anyone seen this 2008 study on welfare reform?

Minnesota has been awarded a D-.

Heartland Institute - Article (http://www.heartland.org/policybot/results.html?artId=23498 - broken link)