I've never met Russell Peterson; wouldn't know him from a stick of wood unless it were one of those small town Mpls run in concentric circles sort of things where I'd seen him over the years. I managed to piss him off some time ago. I vaguely remember him thinking me rude; oh yeah, I did a real no-no and brought a private matter into public view without his consent. Fair enough, I can apologize for that now though at the time what we were discussing seemed so important to me that I frankly didn't care if someone's feelings were offended and being the rude overbearing asshole (can I say that about I myself?) that I can be at times I certainly was not going to publicly apologize at the time. Let me say that Russell is one person whose input I will miss when he moves to St.Michael(not a bad name for a town). A couple things he's said to me stand out. We got into a conversation about a new public works building over on Currie and I wondered aloud why they thought they might need six benches in their lobby. Why not two, say, or three? thinking the city could have saved a few bucks (always my inclination). Russell response, as an architect I presumed, was "Why have a lobby?" Ca-ching! I was amazed at my own timidity and humbled once again realizing how important professional advice could be. Another time on this forum we got talking of baseball stadiums when there was some story in the Strib to prompt us and the talk went to neighborhood stadia. At the same time there was a story of MCDA and Ray Harris falling out with each other and people were wondering once again what to do with the Sears site and Russell, offhandedly, threw out the idea of that location as a site for a new ballpark. I've had real interest in that location and at one time wrote a piece in Southside Pride on the building. My grandfather had been the excavating contractor on the construction of the building and it was a piece of lore passed from my father to me. I've loved that building for years but when it lost its green sign it has come to mean a little less to me. Funny how a little thing like that can affect you. A little (aside) here. For those unfamiliar with theatre an aside is a clever little way to impart relevant information that may not easily be conveyed in the context of the dialogue: Why didn't the City Council work into the Grain Belt brewery deal a way to relight the sign on Hennepin. For all the sweetheart kisses we've bestowed on Ryan Companies you would have thought we could have made them pony up some bucks to at least get the ball rolling. I like to think of myself as a preservationist and yet I have not been able to get the idea of a ballpark on that site out of my head and that would necessitate demolition. For my bona fides I'll tell you the story about me and Alan Greenspan and the new Fed sometime. That's also about the only place in town I would support such a project. I am so sick of hearing about a ballpark on the river or downtown that I want to scream. Could we pack anymore into downtown. In a neighborhood like Chicago-Lake I think we could be talking about positive urban redevelopment and I would be willing to fight for something like that. I understand I'm sailing against the wind here, vis a vis, Progressive Minnesota, but I take heart in the fact that their stated position is that any amount over $10 million spent by the city to help a stadium effort must go before the voters in a referendum. Fair enough. Since representative democracy seems to have had its problems here (my opinion) some direct democracy is in order. There are so many reasons why i think this might work and be a plus for our city; too many to go into right now so consider this my first pitch. So to speak. Obviously a lot of things would have to happen for it to work. So I thank Russell for that idea and for his obvious love for this city and the desire to see it work in a way he perceives it has not under the present lead- ership and I suspect other as well. I wish you well, Russell. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices! http://auctions.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
