[Mpls] This Week in The Minneapolis Observer

[Craig Cox]

T H E M I N N E A P O L I S O B S E R V E R
A Weekly Digest of All Things Minneapolitan
www.mplsobserver.com
Vol. 1, No. 34
April 8, 2002

Editor's note: The Observer staff will be vacationing next week. Next issue will arrive April 22.

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THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER:
* R.T.'s Big Plan
* Bicycle Protesters Challenge Police Brutality
* Sayles Belton for Congress?
* South High Student Suspended Over Web Site Remarks
* Say Goodbye to "This Old House"
* Rousting 'em at the Crystal Court
Plus: Lisa gets in line, Hmong and Lao art on Lake Street, stifling Gay Pride, Somali charm, and solving the Gophers sports dilemma.

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R.T.'S BIG PLAN
In his State of the City address last week, Mayor R.T. Rybak outlined his administration's plans for the next year in the areas of service delivery, housing, environmental protection, and City Hall access. Along the way, he dropped a few bombshells:
* The city's financial situation is even more dire than we'd been led to believe. "If our spending continued at current levels, we would have to triple property taxes in the City of Minneapolis over the next decade."
* Fire stations will become little City Halls: "We want people to be able to go to their corner fire station and get some of the services they now have to come down to City Hall to get."
* Business will be coddled: "Too many of our businesses have complained to us about myriad different levels they have to go through, the different ordinances, the different inspectors they have to see. We want our businesses to spend as little time in City Hall as possible, so they can go out and put their hard sweat equity into building their business."
* Kowalskis are invading: "Kowalski's, one of the great markets in this metropolitan area, has bought five key markets within the City of Minneapolis, all across the city."
* R.T.'s been to the bunker: "Very quietly, earlier this month, 80 key people from the City of Minneapolis--Council Members, Fire, Police, Public Works, Regulatory Service, Finance, Communications--all went to Mt. Weather, Virginia. It is a FEMA operation, and they simulated a series of extremely significant disasters in the city of Minneapolis."
* McKinsey and Company, the consulting firm working pro bono as it researches city housing options, is running up a huge bill: "This work, when it is done, will total a contribution to the city in excess of $1 million."
* The stadium has moved from an inconvenient distraction to a centerpiece of North side development: "It is important to build a ballpark, but it is important that that ballpark be integrated into transit, into linking the North side Hollman area, in with the Farmer's Market, in the downtown through that ballpark."
* The city may begin buying up privately owned subsidized rental units: "We have partnered with the Housing Preservation Project to draft an ordinance that would give the city the right of first refusal to purchase privately owned subidized rental properties that are in danger of becoming market rate properties."
* The city is working with the state Pollution Control Agency to develop a single citywide air quality standard: "We need to do constant measurement. We need to recognize that air quality is the least visible, but often the most toxic part of the pollution environment, and we need to take it seriously."
* The police force is even whiter than we thought: "Our police department is no more diverse today than it was a decade ago, and that is absolutely unacceptable."
* Next summer will be designated a "multi-cultural festival": "That is all about inviting people into our community to see Somali Independence Day, to see Hispanic art on Lake Street, to begin to see the grassroots art taking place everywhere around this city."


CRITICAL MASS BICYCLISTS MEET WITH MAYOR ON POLICE ABUSE
Outraged by the police response to a March 29 "Critical Mass" bicycle ride near Loring Park, 20 activists last week met with Mayor R.T. Rybak and Sixth Ward Council Member Dean Zimmermann.

SAYLES BELTON FOR CONGRESS?
Last week we reported that former mayor Sharon Sayles Belton was not ruling out another run for political office, and this week we've learned that local African American community leaders are beginning to press her to run for Congress.

SOUTH HIGH OFFICIALS SUSPEND STUDENT FOR WEB SITE REMARKS
In what First Amendment advocates call a chilling attack on privacy, a South High School student has been suspended for publishing offensive remarks on his personal Web site, reports Tom Finkel in City Pages (www.citypages.com).

HOME REHAB PROGRAM THREATENED AT CAPITOL
Property tax breaks for homeowners rehabbing older property may end next year if legislators are unable to push an extension through recalcitrant Republicans in the State House of Representatives.

WELCOME TO THE CRYSTAL COURT; KEEP MOVING
Visitors to the downtown Crystal Court are now prohibited from sitting in one place for more than an hour, reports Ellen Nigon in Skyway News (www.skywaynews.net). And napping will simply not be tolerated.

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AND NOW WE'RE ON TELEVISION, TOO!!!
See firsthand why none of us ever went into TV as a career. Tune in to The Minneapolis Observer on MTN cable channel 17 Sunday nights at 8:30 for TV news, weather, and sports with a Minneapolis perspective.
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The Minneapolis Observer is published 48 times/year by Independent Media, L.L.C. �2002 Independent Media, 4152 Snelling Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55406; www.mplsobserver.com. No part of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Independent Media. Subscriptions: $12/yr. To unsubscribe, send us an e-mail ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and we'll get you off the list and refund the unused portion of your subscription.

Editor: Craig Cox
Associate Editor: Sharon Parker
Contributing writers: Nora Cox, Mark Engebretson, Tim Herwig, Leo Mezzrow, Sarah Wash
Occasional research assistance: Martin and Nora Cox
Online technical assistance: Christopher Pollard
Thanks to: Brett Feldman, Kristine Harley, and Marjorie Kelly

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