In its pilot period, Minneapolis Advantage gave out approximately 50 grants to low-income, first-time home buyers in foreclosure-impacted neighborhoods in the North, Northeast and South Minneapolis neighborhoods. Buyers receive up to $10,000 to help with down payment and closing costs so long as they buy a home on the same block as a foreclosed or vacant home.

In its pilot period, 62 percent of the properties purchased were foreclosures and 9 percent were boarded up and vacant. The program encouraged more owner-occupied homes, as 62 percent that were rental units became homestead properties. The majority of the new home owners bought in North Minneapolis, had incomes under the median and bought homes priced under $150,000.

Seventy-eight percent where first-time home buyers.

The FHLB of Des Moines grant will triple the amount of grant awards for the program.

“The key to rebuilding neighborhoods overwhelmed by foreclosures is to get solid, responsible homeowners into these neighborhoods,” Mayor R.T. Rybak said in a statement Wednesday. “The success of the Minneapolis Advantage program has shown us that there are great homes to be had and that people are ready to move into these neighborhoods. Our job is to help make that happen and this funding just made our job a whole lot easier.”

But today’s double-dipping at the wire-service trough is also an ominous and ironic way to begin January — a month in which editors will try merging sections of the newspaper to cut costs and when Strib death-watchers say the paper’s owners could finally file for bankruptcy. The headline over the AP story on page A11 reads like a Strib warning to itself: “New year is shaping up as ‘very, very ugly’ for some well-known brands.”

Dessa of Doomtree. Photo courtesy of Bo Hakala

Whenever Dessa, perhaps best known as part of the Minneapolis-based hip-hop crew Doomtree, finishes a big project, she cuts her hair and makes a donation to Locks of Love, an organization that makes hairpieces for kids dealing with long-term medical problems.

Given how big 2008 was for Dessa and Doomtree, this writer, emcee and singer probably ought to be bald: Doomtree released its first “official” record featuring the entire crew, the group’s annual December “Blowout” at First Avenue was just that, and — the reason her hair was recently lopped off — Dessa completed a book of essays and poems, due for an early ‘09 release (all while keeping a teaching job at McNally Smith College and hosting the occasional trivia night at the Nomad Pub). I caught up with her via e-mail to see what kind of year she hopes 2009 will be.

Doomtree has never shied away from “politics,” but (aside from playing at an Obama fundraiser at the Turf Club) you haven’t been particularly focused on electoral politics. How will you or the group be “political” in the (mostly) non-electoral year of 2009?

Doomtree is a collective of solo musicians who’ve founded a business to promote their art. Politics sometimes appear in our music because political issues and policy effect in our lives. But we certainly don’t have an explicitly political agenda. In 2009, as in all the years before, we’ll make songs about the stuff that moves us.

You’ve been known to donate your hair to Locks of Love every time you finish a big project, giving some four feet to mark the publication of your new book. Do you believe the political is personal — and, if so, how will you continue enacting it in ‘09? Also, any big hair-cut plans/projects expected in the coming year?

With any luck, my hair won’t be long enough to cut by the time my next project is released. I cut it this month to mark the release of my book, Spiral Bound.  Next up: my full length album. I’ve been recording for what feels like years (because it was).

To answer your question about the potential intersect between ‘the personal’ and ‘the political’… Yes, they seem related to me. The political arena often seems to determine what kind of institutional support we give to pretty personal choices. We give tax breaks to support some kinds of behavior and we use regulation as a disincentive for other behaviors. Gay marriage and small farms come to mind.

My favorite art blog, C-Monster, lists Things from ‘08 that we don’t want to deal with in ‘09 (stories about the death of print, Obama art, art about excrement, etc.). If you were to create such a list, what might a few items on it be? Or, since you’re a poet, what words/phrases would you like to see go away in the next 12 months? (For me: “Go rogue” and “Lulz.”)

Words I’d love to lose:

Brah (from the San Diego school of talk)

Boomers (as slang for mushrooms–what was wrong with ’shrooms’?)

Thinking outside the box (to use this phrase is to be stapled into a very tired box)

Photo: Bo Hakala

The Twin Cities played a starring role in the selection of both major-party vice-presidential candidates this year — on stage in the case of Republican Sarah Palin and behind the scenes in the case of Democrat Joe Biden. But just as the grand total of Palin’s purchases on GOP credit cards (which started in Minnesota) was a moving target, the details of Biden’s back-door tete-a-tete with Barack Obama in Minneapolis last August have shifted over time. At issue: Exactly how long did they meet in person at Obama’s hotel, and exactly how many others (and of what gender) was Obama still considering for the veep slot then?

The Wall Street Journal told it this way on Aug 25:

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s selection of Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate reached a pivotal point in a secret meeting on the night of Aug. 6. Sen. Biden was whisked into a Minneapolis hotel room through a back entrance before Sen. Obama left for his Hawaii vacation. They talked one-on-one for 90 minutes. “It was spirited and pragmatic,” says one adviser who was briefed. … None of Sen. Biden’s vulnerabilities was likely a surprise to the Obama team, which conducted a thorough vetting of the candidates. The team, led by Caroline Kennedy and ex-Justice Department official Eric Holder, initially cast a wide net, but in the end focused more on Sens. Biden and [Evan] Bayh and [Virginia] Gov. [Tim] Kaine. Sen. Obama sought private meetings with the three. Sen. Biden’s turn came in Minneapolis in early August, when Sen. Obama was there for a $1,000 a person fund-raiser. He had Sen. Biden sneak into a downtown hotel through the back door. (WSJ)

On Larry King LIve last week (hat tip: Political Animal), Biden said the in-person meeting lasted more than twice as long, and that only one other person was under consideration at that point:

KING: How did you learn — the moment you learned that Senator Obama wanted Senator Biden to be his running mate?

BIDEN: Well, he had called me about a month before he chose me … And I said, “I’ll be vetted, but I — but even if you choose me, I still want to talk to you before that — before I would agree to accept.” And then several — then I got squirreled out to — he was campaigning in Minneapolis-St. Paul. And I got a phone call, would [I] go masquerade myself out there? They provided a plane for me and snuck me into this hotel. And we spent three-and-a-half hours talking about the role of vice president. And he said, “Well, it’s down to you and somebody else.” And he said, “I’ll give you a call later.”

KING: Did you ever know who the other person was?

BIDEN: Well, I think I do, but I don’t want to, you know, speculate on that.

Biden’s Larry King version squares better with what he told the New Yorker (Oct. 20 edition) although Biden lets on that his lone rival is neither man the Wall Street Journal mentioned but a woman — Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sibelius, apparently:

Biden agreed to let Obama’s campaign team consider him, but with a caveat: “I wanted to make sure we understood each other—that, even if I vetted and he wanted me to take the job, I wasn’t committing to do that. When the time was appropriate for him, if I was the guy, I needed to spend at least two or three hours with him to understand what the role would be.” Biden wanted what amounted to an oral contract between him and Obama, spelling out his specific responsibilities in an Obama White House. On August 6th, Biden said, the Obama campaign “smuggled” him into Minneapolis, where Obama was campaigning, and the two senators stayed up late in a suite at the Graves 601 Hotel working out the details of a potential deal. … [Obama] tested Biden’s understanding of how broad his role would be, as opposed to that of another contender — apparently, Kathleen Sebelius, the governor of Kansas and the only woman known to be on Obama’s short list. “He said, ‘Well, you know, if I offered this to somebody’ — he named her, a person — he said, ‘That person would be very happy if I assigned them to reorganize the government.’ And he said, ‘They’d be very happy doing that. How about you?’ ” That didn’t sound like much of a job to Biden. “No,” he told Obama. “That’s not what I want to do.”

I also want to make sure that, as these dollars flow to communities, that they’re ones that represent the values that Barack Obama ran on, and not just things that we want to get done really quickly.

Video after the jump.

Rybak will likely announce his decision about his future plans in time for Christmas, but there’s one factor that could change all that. There’s been light speculation that Obama may tap Rybak for a spot in his new administration, as Rybak was an early friend and supporter.

So who’s interested in replacing him if Rybak moves on? Minneapolis City Council member Ralph Remington, for one. “R.T. has created a healthy and strong foundation for the city to move forward beyond his tenure, whenever that may be,” Remington told the Southwest Journal on Wednesday. “And I’m sure if he stays on he’ll continue further in that vein and if he decides to leave I would welcome the opportunity to pick up the mantle and move that forward.”

But at least one candidate isn’t waiting to see whether Rybak moves out. DFLer Bob Miller, director of Minneapolis’ Neighborhood Revitalization Program, announced his mayoral candidacay in early November. Miller has been critical of the city’s direction with NRP by centralizing the program and taking some power away from neighborhoods.

Another perennial candidate is throwing his hat in the ring too. Dick Franson, who has made 23 unsuccessful bids for office (and one successful city council bid in 1963) will run for mayor in 2009, the Star Tribune reports.

Rumored entrants into the 2009 race: Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, and City Council members Barb Johnson and Gary Schiff.

City Hall image via La Suprema.

It’s there, in the Dinkytown neighborhood on the edge of the University of Minnesota campus, that poll workers recorded 133 more votes than they have ballots to show for it. It’s also there that students trying to vote via Minnesota’s same-day registration process were turned away in a re-run of a major snafu at another campus polling place during the general election two years ago.

As the Minnesota Independent reported Nov. 25, residents at The Chateau student co-op highrise who tried to register at the polls on Election Day, using proof of residency issued by the building’s management office as a second form of ID, were turned away until as late as 5 p.m. For the MnIndy video accompanying that story, student Jill Stein told of returning to the polling place twice before giving up and voting at her parents’ home precinct in the suburbs. How many of the 290 students who live in The Chateau likewise made honest attempts but were ultimately unable to vote is anyone’s guess.

The Chateau fiasco is a direct descendant of a similar situation that happened nearby during the 2006 election, as Beth Fraser, government affairs director at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, explained in an interview with MnIndy last month. Residents of the Melrose Student Suites, an off-campus housing complex in the nearby Stadium Village area, likewise pay utilities as part of their rent, and poll workers rejected documentation from the building management as a form of ID.

Just as with Chateau residents this year, students from the Melrose who tried to register at the polls in 2006 had to wait until late on Election Day to cast their ballots. That’s when Hennepin County Judge Gary Larson ruled in favor of a petition from Melrose resident and first-year U of M student Greg Shaffer. Larson ordered election officials to accept the Melrose proof of residency and to keep the polling place open an hour later. In doing so, Larson overruled a decision by then-Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer to deny the students ballots.

The case had broader repercussions. The new secretary of state who won election in 2006, Mark Ritchie, wanted to take the office in a voter-positive direction after the Kiffmeyer-era policies that sometimes emphasized voter suppression. In the wake of the Melrose decision, his office “proposed and adopted
 rule changes to allow the use of the itemized rent statement in lieu of a 
utility bill,” Fraser wrote in an e-mail to MnIndy this week. As she tells it:

In 2008, a new proof of residence was authorized specifically to address the 
challenges of registering to vote by those whose utilities are included in 
their rent: a rent statement from a resident’s landlord that itemizes their 
utilities. The statement that the Chateau originally provided did not 
suffice, because it was not addressed to the student and did not itemize 
their utility expenses. Residents of the Chateau later received a revised
statement and used it to register to vote.

But despite Ritchie’s intention to resolve this kind of polling-place problem, the new rule came as a surprise to The Chateau’s management when they found out about it on Election Day, and the result was the same for students who were unable to vote for most of the day.

How does Ritchie’s office plan to avoid yet another repeat of the problem next time? Fraser writes:

This office will work with the Minnesota Multi Housing Association and student organizations to ensure that apartment building owners and students are familiar with what is needed in a rent statement that can be used in combination with a photo ID for the purpose of Election Day Registration.

The Minnesota Daily, in an editorial this week — following a news story that, like MnIndy’s, featured Chateau resident Jill Stein — recommended just such an approach to city election officials, reminding its student readers, “Your vote should count.”

But with the lost and missing votes in Minneapolis Precinct 1, Ward 3 already playing a central role in the current recount drama, more drastic proposals for Minnesota to get its election practices right are sure to be advanced.

Indeed, one already has: Ritchie’s rival for the DFL endorsement in 2006, Christian Sande, wrote an article earlier this year urging the state to consider following Wisconsin’s example and grant responsibility for managing elections to a commission of current and retired judges. It’s a move that could involve doing away with the office of secretary of state altogether.