I'm glad Craig Miller responded to the Good Samaritan situation; I wanted the challenge to our legitimacy in this matter. I'll try to address Craig's points briskly, and cover other members' thoughts in a separate post.
Craig writes: > Many of the said potholes are the neighborhood group and the demands > placed upon the private sector builder. If I was a non-profit I would just > get the city to overlook the rules. Such as the Lydia House project. Damn > the rules, zoning, or ordinance just go get 7 votes. This is a red herring. We have not asked that any rules be broken or laws unobserved. Fundamentally, Mr. Abdul is asking for a variance - literally varying from existing law. Our council grants such variances; in their wisdom they ask for our opinion. Nothing illegal or improper here. I think Craig has the fundamental dynamic exactly backward. It is Mr. Abdul who wants to bend the rules (a variance). If he did the deal within current law with a willing seller, we'd be out of the picture. > CM Who is we? The neighborhood board? Is the Neighborhood acting as > Real Estate Agent? Does an Agency Relationship exist? Kingfield board > members beware. If your group is actively involved, you can be actively > sued. No, not an agent. What the neighborhood board has done for a year and a half is convey interested buyers to the seller...hardly adversarial, increasing their pool of prospects, hardly sue-able. If we were so powerful, Good Sam might never have sold to Mr. Abdul. But they did. That should tell you that Craig is vastly overstating our rule. > CM-True statements or what ever. It sure is nice getting maligned in the > e-press. Makes me want to do business in this city. On the other hand. > Why doesn't our city do this kind of deep personnel searching with it's > employees and larger contractors? Just because others don't do due diligence doesn't mean we shouldn't. (I think Craig would probably support such deep personnel searching for government.) As for e-maligning, Mr. Abdul was asked about his record at a public meeting and denied none of it. It was posted here after we heard his side, and his admission that he made mistakes. [re: the zoning scenarios] > CM-The above 5 paragraphs numb my mind. Yet I read purchase agreements, > draft addendum, etc for a living. Why put up with this stuff from > neighbors? I'd buy and purchase somewhere else. Fair enough. That is the risk of public involvement, I suppose. But there are other sellers waiting in the wings, so I don't think we're that scary. > CM You don't own it. Some one gave you authority you shouldn't have. You > shouldn't be in this artificial position of power. Craig, this is where we do disagree. Again, if Mr. Abdul and Good Sam were doing a straight-up transaction within current laws, we'd be out of this one. However, he is asking for a variance from existing law. Why shouldn't their be public comment about whether that special exemption is granted? And what's wrong with a group leafleting a quarter of the neighborhood to get those views (with a non-inflammatory flier, by the way. I can send anyone a copy of it.) > CM Nothing like forcing building covenants on someone. Well, if you believe Ned, we didn't. He said he can do the project within zoning at market-rate. But he chose to offer the 20 percent affordability to get the variance from existing law. If you believe his claim that he can do the project without it, he didn't have to make any offer. Thus, it couldn't have been forced. > CM: If you read this far. Be afraid. Mr. Brauer wants > to decide who buys your property. Then he wants to decide who will run it. > Damn the state laws. Craig has not proven how or what state laws are violated. Once again: willing buyer, willing seller, within existing zoning, those pesky neighbors are toast. Want to vary from the law, the public gets its say - as they did when the original law was made. Should the public be shut out of a law change? THAT'S chilling. Fundamentally, we only advise the elected officials; they can ignore us. Of course, we may vote against 'em. That's democracy, a review of laws. > BTW Is there anyone from Good Sam who could email me off list? Let me know > how you feel about the neighborhood group. We have nothing to hide, so please check us out all you want. David Brauer King Field - Ward 10 _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
