It was a perfect day for the MAP project. The weather was beautiful, the crowd at Lake Orono Park was diverse and talkative; not a single person said no when we approached them. Most of the people we met had lived in the area a long time, some for 40+ years. The Independence Day celebration was a tradition, with something for everyone: carnival rides, bingo, a lumberjack show, petting zoo, and the firing of a real cannon every half hour.

Kelly Gaspard (center) with family and friends. Education is No.1

Oldtimers and newcomers wanted to talk about the pace of development. The traffic is terrible, they said, even just through town. They are eager for completion of the rail line and they advocate investment in both roads and mass transit.

Blake Commutes 1 1/2 hours to Burnsville

Developing more and better jobs in the area would keep Elk River and surrounding towns from continuing as bedroom communtieis for the Twin Cities . But some people fear that local competition to offer incentives to prospective new businesses may be defeating one purpose of increased development, that of easing the property tax burden on homeowners. Long-time residents especially are disturbed by the rising property taxes, and we talked to some young people who would like to stay in the area, but fear they can’t afford to. Many people say crime has become commonplace. A retired couple told us their expensive lawn furniture was stolen in the night, and a young couple said their cars were broken into right in their driveway.

Holly Pendergrass and Matthew Salk. Can they afford a house?

We are hearing some familiar refrains everywhere we go. People say they’d pay more taxes if they had more say in how the money was spent. Education is a priority everyone seems to agree on. A unanimous concern is a perceived lack of respect among young people. When we ask why this is happening, many people say because parents are too busy to properly discipline their kids. In Elk River, long commutes contribute to the problem.

Carey Moschau. Enjoying retirement.

People also had good things to say about the rapid pace of development. Some celebrated the new diversity in the population of the old towns, and some like having more conveniences and big stores in the neighborhood.

Ramona Doebler Development is a double-edged sword

One couple said they were giving up on Minnesota They have a toddler and part-time jobs that don’t pay well. In order to get aheard, they’d need help with day care, rent or food, help that has not been forthcoming despite numerous appeals to Sherburne County. So they’re headed for Florida where they hope jobs are plentiful, rent is cheaper and winters, at least, are easier.

Nichole Englund and family. Moving on.

We were invited to Jordan New Life Community Church this morning. It’s on 25th and Logan, the neighborhood where there are supposed to be gun shots and drug deals day and night. It was tranquil this morning, the service uplifting, and the building air conditioned. The congregation was multiracial, with many young people from the suburbs on a mission to show their support.

Rev. La Andriamihaja

We spoke to the pastor outside. He knows problems in the neighborhood are deep and intractable, but he wants to start by building bridges with people who should be allies. For instance, Rev. La Andriamihaja is frustrated by the tension and animosity between African-Americans and African immigrants. He’s working with the Council of Churchs an two-way cultural education that would build up both communities.

Adrian Kemp

Adrian Kemp is a parishioner and another community leader. An executive with a telecommunications company downtown, he chooses to stay in the neighborhood and confront directly anything he sees as threatening behavior. He speaks with contempt of sound-bite politicians who show up only for TV cameras. He knows the problems are systemic and acts on his belief that they can’t be solved unless two populations get more hope and more leadership; young people and their fathers, many of whom are incarcerated. So he takes it upon himself to go to schools and prisons and talk to people about how to be proud and aware of the pitfalls of street life. He says poor women are heroic if they can get their African-American sons educated, keep them out of prison and off drugs. He says his mother is a hero.

Then we hit I-94 and drove to Rogers. Was it ever sleepy on the holiday weekend. Lucky for us the antique stores downtown were open, and the women with booths there were in a mood to talk. Kathy Zegar raised her family in Hanover, along this corridor that’s become the definition of urban sprawl. She’s feels the old lifestyle slipping away and wonders if the traffic jams and pace of development will ever let up. The schools and the social infrastructure arent keeping up, and she says she would pay more taxes if that would help. But she hates the new stadium tax and thinks a lot of the new development deals are good for business and bad for people. She’s fed up with politicians.

Kathy Zegar

Across from the railroad tracks, Jeanine Allen was also open for business on the holiday weekend, but we didn’t see any customers at her garden center, and she had plenty of time to talk to us. High gas prices have hurt her and other small businesses, she says. She’s interested in putting wind farms in Rogers, more teachers in schools, building up personal retirement accounts, exploring single-payer solutions to the health insurance crisis and…running for state representative. She says she has voted for Republicans, Democrats, Independents and Greens, but now that her children are grown, she feels obliged to act on her ideas through the political process.

Jeanine Allen

Well I have to admit it’s getting lonely here on the Voices blog. But we’re giving out lots of business cards, so those who check us out should have something to see, even if it’s just posts from me. We changed congressional districts Thursday. We’ll be back in CD 5 tomorrow, but Thursday we made our first venture into CD 3, the area Jim Ramstad represents. Alan and I live in the East Metro so we drove west with some trepidation about traffic and getting lost. There was some of both, but not a lot.

We visited with a private business consultant, a small-business owner, staff and volunteers at a food shelf, errand-runners and people relaxing with friends. It was a beautiful day and, except for the food shelf group, most people we asked thought life was pretty good.

We always seek people’s personal circumstances and concerns before asking about any of the issues on the list Bill Morris made as a guide. On Thursday, some people had to think hard to find something they wish worked better. Here’s what all three of them came up wishing for: Civility, respect, dialogue (ok, so they called it by different names, but it was basically the same thing.) They feel alienated from policy because politicians have made it so acrimonious. Some people also blamed religious fundamentalists for polarizing issues where common ground might be found.

Chris Amundson with friends and Alan in Wayzata

One of those people was Chris Amundson, who’d taken a day off his executive job with a hi-tech company. He was relaxing with out-of-town friends at a Starbucks. When I went up to introduce myself, I thought I was interrupting a meeting. Chris was checking email on his Blackberry, one of his friends was on a cell phone, and the other was on her laptop. But Chris explained they were just hanging out. Then he said he wished people took more time for their friends and more breaks from their fast-paced lives. He was serious. It was funny. Maybe you had to be there.

He is disturbed not just by the accelerated pace of life, but by the expanding population. He solved his commuting problem by moving into one of the new-construction developments that are ubiquitious in the West Metro, but he is also concerned about their toll on the environment.

He described himself as more conservative than liberal, because he feels an erosion of moral values, and thinks conservatives are more mindful of them. But when he said public education was a mess, and we asked him whether he’d pay more taxes if that would improve it, he didn’t hesitate to say yes.

The people at the food shelf reminded us that more than 20 percent of the population of many West Metro communities live in poverty. Annette Poeschel is the director, and spoke from personal experience about the difference a helping hand can make when people are desperate. She is determined that the food shelf not be an enabler of dependence for clients, but a means to self-sufficiency.

Annette Poeschel, Executive Director of the ICA food shelf

The food shelf is administered by the Intercongregational Community Association, so it was interesting to talk with staff and volunteers about engagement through their faith communities, though they all thought government should be doing more to ease the disparity between rich and poor.

Vernon Benson, food shelf volunteer

We spent nearly an hour with Mike Kelly, the charasmatic baker who, with his wife Ruth, owns the Great Harvest franchise on Minnetonka Boulevard. He is proud of his nutritious product, the relationships he’s built with his customers over 10 years, and also of the good jobs he provides to 16 local residents. He pays health insurance costs, despite 25 percent annual increases in costs. He’s worried about his ability to continue , but is optimistic that the issue has become so serious, a change in the health care sytem is imminent.