I know a little bit about this story in City Pages by Meleah Maynard. She has been following the Near Northside Redevelopment for some time and does a good job. She is a reporter though and needs to steer as unbiased a course as possible. I, on the other hand, am under no such restraint. I'm tempted to use capital letters. I'll leave it to you, the reader, to imagine the biggest, boldest type you've ever seen on a banner headline. The whole project is a mess. The attempt to squeeze out Summit is just the tip of the iceberg. This project is so far behind schedule and so shakily funded at this point that it will be a minor miracle if we see housing on this site by Summer 2002. If any is built before then it is not likely to be more than models. Right now, every contractor in town is either digging in the ground or chomping at the bit. Meanwhile Mpls. Public Works which is responsible for infrastructure doesn't even have final plans, as of the last Construction oversight Committee meeting, in order to put out RFP's. Go figure. Meanwhile people at City Hall, despite what it might say in the City Pages article, are talking about exercising eminent domain to remove Summit Academy at a time when the city doesn't even have the money to buy the property. This is classic MCDA tactics. In this case I don't think Summit Academy pays taxes but it is SOP for the MCDA to buy property for goodly sums, demolish structures, and then sit with the property for years without a penny of property tax coming in. When they don't pay goodly sums, the property owners are forced to pay lawyers to take them to court and in the end they usually end up paying up. Right now I'm looking at a number of contiguous parcels MCDA bought in 1996 for $460,000 and just sold for around $150,000. I understand economic development and I know all about incentives but this is ridiculous. Tim Connolly Ward 7 P.S. I can hardly wait for tomorrow's meeting. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
