First:I second ann berget's caution when it comes to using nrp dollars for what out to be standard operating expenses in a well managed city. oh excuse me, we are a well managed city! this is the same issue as spending nrp dollars for police buybacks. we spend nrp dollars for police protection we ought to have already. at an hourly rate of 1-1/2 times the normal rate! we set a horrible precedent when we do this. likewise the fact that we put off necessary infrastructure maintenance means that our streets, bridges, retaining walls, stoplights etc will not last as long as they might have were we to maintain them. it's the old FRAM add: pay me now or pay me later, yuk yuk. Second: i was talking to my favorite video guys the other evening. out of curiosity i had asked them if they had begun paying for the new streetlights in front of their shop. "no" they said but they had received the total assessment that would start in may. their property taxes were to jump, shall we say catapult, a paltry 42%. that's a lot of movie rentals! that will occur after two years of decreased sales due to construction in the neighborhood, no lighting on the street except at intersections, etc. what makes the city a desirable place for many of us to live is the proliferation of quirky, one of a kind shops and businesses not to be experienced in mono- chromatic suburban areas and yet we are destroying that fabric of the city with expensive projects like block e, the thetres along hennepin intended to lure downtown people who really don't like the city and who scurry home as quickly as possible all the while casting furtive glances over their shoulders for rapists and muderers. i can hear the sound of door locks even as i type. Third: though R.T. is right about the computer lab at hosmer a far greater crime is that both roosevelt and sumner are closed all day saturday. perhaps others as well. and when you hearken back to previous postings that talk about shortfalls in library operating budgets in out years the prospects only seem to look bleaker. My, doesn't the emperor have fine new clothes! Tim Connolly Ward 7 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/
