I am going to quote black people I heard after the first Rodney King Beating
verdict, and Women after the Clarence Thomas Hearings.
YOU SOUTHSIDERS DON'T GET IT!!!!!!!
The city could spend 90 % of it's discretionary funds for 30 years and still
not catch up to the long running imbalance. You don't get it! You don't
understand it. And comments like Mr. Connolly's just make it even harder.
Craig Miller
Former Camdenite Born and Raised
-----Original Message-----
From: timothy connolly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thursday, September 14, 2000 4:07 PM
Subject: light rail, etc continued
>Another voice of opposition to "Avenue of the Arts" in
>the ways and means committee was Councilmember Barbara
>Johnson of the 4th ward who seemed less concerned with
>the cost than with the priority, seeming to prefer we
>build a bikeway from the northern part of town into
>downtown. I shudder to think what that might entail!
>
>Though I am a bicyclist myself though less so now that
>my lightweight Gary Fisher was replaced by a heavier
>than god knows what Huffy by an opportunist cruising
>my wife's alley in the tenth ward, I find it difficult
>to justify the expense related to bikeways given the
>nasty Minnesota climate. Call me a wuss but I stop
>riding when winds start whipping and the snow falls
>and I am willing to make a small wager that many of us
>do the same. There are hearty souls. More power to
>them.
>
>In a perfect world we would all ride bicycles, use
>only solar energy, eat only organic food, love one
>another, and never utter a cross word. Someday!
>Perhaps if I were a parent I might feel differently
>but as I am not I need to say that dedicated bicycle
>paths for commuters or occasional users, though a
>desirable want are not a necessity.
>
>And if we are going to set priorities in the city we
>need to focus first on necessities and then next on
>wants and what their relative merits are vis a vis
>return on investment and the common good. My problem
>with Barb Johnson's objection to "Avenue of the Arts"
>is her narrow parochialism.
>
>I am still angry at the hue and cry raised by
>opponents of The Guthrie Theatre expansion, led by
>some members of the city and Park Board who turned it
>into a North/South, bluecollar/whitecollar, battle
>that made more sense in the 30's than it does in the
>late 90's. Barb Johnson was among the most vocal
>critics of the Guthrie expansion. So now we have
>chewed up a big piece of land over near the river that
>someone at sometime saw as a perfect site for a
>ballpark or new stadium. The Guthrie Theatre expansion
>at their present site should have happened, could have
>happened if we had decent leadership on the issue.
>
>Ballparks with a view of downtown could have been
>built in another location and land that the city owned
>of equal value could have been transferred to the Park
>Board to administer. Given the amount of noise and
>traffic at the Parade Grounds site, I would hardly
>typify it as the best location. Even a litlle farther
>north toward Olson Highway in the Sumner Olson area
>would have worked well.
>
>My wife and i had some time to kill on the 4th of July
>and being up Northeast I drove her around a few spots
>she had never seen or had seen and forgot. She kept
>saying, "Wow, is this nnice" or "what a view" speaking
>of the view of downtown from Ridgeway Road and all the
>time we heard no airplanes roaring overhead. My only
>comment to her at the time was remember all this when
>you hear Barb Johnson, Walt Dziedzic, etc talk about
>all the amenities in south Minneapolis.
>
>As we drove through portions of the 1st and 4th, even
>past Walt's house, I pointed out the nice concrete
>streets. No wonder the citizens of those wards named
>streets after Walt Dziedzic and Alice Rainville. Mean-
>while there are already decent sized divots in Eat
>Street which was repaved only a couple years ago. I
>don't want to go too far with this line because I
>kinda like Walt and Alice, how little I know them, and
>Barb seems nice enough as well.
>
>Just thought to add this afterthought. Hope I haven't
>pissed off too many people. Is my new regimen working?
>
>
>
>Tim Connolly
>Ward 7
>D.T. resident
>
>
>
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