I agree with David Brauer that Council Members are open for questioning for
their votes on individual projects whether the projects are in their own
ward, in the downtown, or in other parts of the City. My comments were
aimed at the broad brush stroke of branding a politician as not caring about
neighborhoods because they also work on downtown projects. My comments were
also not specifically aimed at Ms. Lee, but at how I have seen this theme
across the city from many "neighborhood" people in many different wards and
how I think it ignores the synergy that exists among different parts of the
city. Working on downtown issues are not antithetical to working on
neighborhoods. Our politicians need to do both.
Carol Becker
Longfellow
----- Original Message -----
From: David Brauer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Mpls list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2001 9:03 AM
Subject: RE: [Mpls] Fifth ward race
> 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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