Carol writes:
>I get very tired of the old story about the "neighborhood" person sold out
>to the evil downtown developers. It is an easy, simple line that
>"neighborhood" people throw around in whisper campaigns to try to hurt
>incumbents.
This works both ways; I also think incumbent-defenders unfairly erect a
straw man of "neighborhood" people who want to pillage and sack downtown.
Look, it's NOT downtown-bashing to criticize a mega-million Target Store
subsidy (when the office towers would have been built for no public
subsidy), or the desperate move of the Shubert Theater to create a
mega-subsidized prefab entertainment zone on Block E, or the prospect of
subsidizing City Center while the same owners try to skate on their Gaviidae
loans (part of the previous decade's attempt at neighborhood uplift.) The
ballpark is also on this list.
These are legitimate things to criticize, and does not render said critic a
"downtown basher." They, too, view downtown as an economic necessity and a
cultural hot spot, albeit a more organic place better able to prosper with
public investment limited to public infrastructure, private businesses built
with private dollars, and a more laissez-faire attitude about culture that
lets it spring up rather than directing it like a crazed traffic cop. This
may be a vision you can pick apart, but "downtown-bashing" it is not.
Having plunked Jackie Cherryhomes on the cover of the Twin Cities Reader in
1989, I can tell you she would not have been elected in the 5th supporting
everything she does today. True, the 5th ward voters have re-elected her -
perhaps their vision has changed with her. But I do think Natalie Johnson
Lee is within her rights to question Jackie's evolution, without being
branded as destructive. (Also, while I have heard the whisper campaigns
Carol refers to, Ms. Lee is hardly whispering these days).
David Brauer
King Field - Ward 10
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