In 1933 my grand parents purchased a house in Whittier on 28th and Garfield when they married. My mother resided there until she and my father purchased their first house in (then Whittier now Stevens Square/ Loring Heights) in 1968. Then in 1975 they made the big move (with a growing family) and purchased their current home all the way around the corner. They still live there today, (they have lived in these two neighborhoods for over 100 years combined) all the time remaining residents of what is today Ward 6.  They also are small business owners with a couple of rental properties.  I am the oldest of three children. My sister Mary owns and operates her own business as an independent contractor. My brother Chris is a Minneapolis Firefighter, and a Ward 6 resident I might add.  We all grew up in Minneapolis, and all attended Southwest High school. When we weren’t in school, we’d be somewhere in between our parent’s home, and my grandmother’s house, down on Garfield. We were always somewhere in one of the two neighborhoods.
 
I’m a lifelong resident in Ward 6, living with my parent’s until 1989 then renting in Loring Heights until 2001 when my wife Shannon and I purchased our current home in Whittier. I'm a Master Plumber having completed the Apprentice training through Dunwoody and a member of the Minneapolis Plumbers Union Local 15. I worked full time during the day, going to school at night while still trying to work on our house and help my parent’s family business as time and life allowed. Work was steady and things seemed good, however things change.

We were blessed with twin boys in August of 2007 and life has never been the same or more fun, but then things changed again, for most of us. The economy started to slow down, the real estate market started to plunge, and then Wall Street, and the bailouts. Houses started going into foreclosure, small business started closing their doors and letting their help go.  Work has been very slow for people all across the city; as a plumber I can relate. While work being very slow at best, unemployment had no real appeal to me but it has had great benefits for me getting more involved and meeting more people in our community.

It is time to take back the power of the city council and encourage small business and property ownership instead of discouraging it through higher property taxes, and assessments. People are in trouble and at the same time drinking fountains are being purchased in excess of 50K funded from our water bills and our property taxes with unanimous approval from the city council. Property owners are getting orders to mow their lawns and we’re funding a green roof on Target Center with a price tag over 5 million dollars.  Not to mention the attempts to eliminate our Independent Park Board and the Independent Board of Taxation and Estimation. We already lost our neighborhoods power when they took away the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP), lets not let them continue to take things away. Support Mike Tupper for Minneapolis Ward 6 City Council and let’s restore confidence in our city and our neighborhoods.