I apologize in my delay for replying to Craig's post. I decided to do some
research as he suggested.
> CM: New urbanist want to align everyone to their Borg like thinking.
> Observe, above. "developers, city councils, neighborhoods", all must do
as
> we say. Go ahead and ridicule them along the way to making your point.
> Such as comparing them to ostriches.
Again with the colorful euphemisms - what exactly is a Borg?
CM: Pop culture reference to a nemesis on Star Trek. Oh man I am really
blowing my credibility with this explanation.
We
see housing developments proposed in Eagan or perhaps in Windom Park,
Minneapolis and think that the only affected people are those nearby when in
fact that's often not true. Met Council provides a framework for
considering the bigger picture, so to speak, and ensure that decisions made
at the local level consider broader issues such as transportation
congestion, affordability and access to jobs. Things that are easier to
overlook when we only think about our little neck of the woods.
CM: The Met Council would be great tool if it stuck to it's brief. When
strong consensus can't be arrived at, The Met Council should back off and
quietly work to get consensus. Mr. Mondale and his supporters have been on
frontal assault mode since the day he took office. Light rail and housing
policy views from the suburbs and the city have little to agree about, in
the last 3 years. Instead of working to consensus, we have open warfare on
the political front over these issues.
One of my earlier posts, was responded to by Terrell Brown. I asked the
rhetorical question of: what if the suburbs spent as much time scrutinizing
city decisions. TB's answer went something like this. " Stadium, Guthrie
etc. Suburbanites do question city spending". He was right. I asked a
sloppy question. Now I'll try again.
What if the suburbs scrutinized, criticized, all of the housing decisions
made by the city? Then demonized all those who made them. And finally,
but most importantly,
1. Made the offending decisions illegal (smart growth laws).
2. Removed decision making power from local government (squishing local
townships).
3. Used aid money as a club to coerce local governments for acceptable
housing plans
(Egan and multiple others)
What Minneapolitans better watch out for is the following. Mr. Brauer
touched on it or came close to it. The city's dominance is over. The days
of Wes Skoglund or Dee Long setting STATEWIDE policy based on South
Minneapolis Pct Caucus Coffee shop liberalism are over. But the precedent
of demanding the whole state kowtow to your goals has been set.
What happens if every housing decision made by the city ( and you know my
objections) is getting scrutinized by suburban legislators,
suburban-republican-for profit-housing builders with their own
anti-orfieldian studies? What if they determine that the problem is that
you have too many buses and sidewalks and have the votes to back it up?
> CM: They have to make a profit. Or they lose money. Cue the Beachboys.
> Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have profit. McDonalds, Bryant Lake
Bowl,
> Target, Ragstock, TGIF, Kieran's would stop making profits. And they
would
> all stay in business for everafter.
I have no problem with organizations making a profit. I do have a problem
with putting short-term profit ahead of every single other consideration. I
particularly have a problem with the notion that we should be carving up
farmland or prairie for yet more oversized housing plots
CM Very illustrative of New Urbanist thinking. "oversized housing plots".
Using the force of government to decide how much land you can own. Does
anyone have a problem with my uncle who has 221 acres for his homestead?
BTW it's a farm, and someday he'll probably sell to developers. But since
it's over a hundred miles from Mpls, it'll take 2 years before the suburbs
get there.
> CM: Maybe we should charge a demolition tax for every house or unit the
> city of Mpls bulldozes to the ground. Let's see 1,000.00 for all 500
Holman
> wreckings. Say....that's half a million!! We could spend that on a new
> condo and house one family if we put a non-profit in charge.
I'd be fine with a demolition tax. Although I'd use the money to fund Mayor
Rybak's plan to renovate existing housing that currently sits vacant because
it's in disrepair.
CM: I am not sure if Mr. Snyder got my drift. The city has to pay the
demolition tax. So it's a wash for housing money. Big loser for housing
stock.
> CM: Glad we have the New Urbanist admitting in print what the Met Council
> is up to. The word is "Dictate"
Yes, Met Council does indeed dictate. Since they are responsible for
maintaining the sewer lines, they need authority to dictate their use and
protect the public investment. How is that different from a housing
provider dictating behaviors to tenants in order to protect his investment.
The Met Council, as stated earlier,has a limited brief. If they limited
themselves to just sewer lines, we would have no problem. If they charged
suburban growth 3 times as high, we would have no problem. But the Met
Council just can't limit themselves to that. The Met wants to tell people
where to drive, what to drive, how big house, how big a yard, what kind of
neighbors to have, where you should work. They don't want things to occur
naturally or as close to naturally as possible. They want Gosplan.
I pay a property tax levy to Met Council. If any of the state funding
provided to Met Council comes from general revenues (the budget breakdown
wasn't specific), then I pay into that as well. That's my stake. What's
yours, Craig?
Provider of over 300 affordable housing units. That's over 300 families and
households that have depended on me for clean, decent affordable housing for
27 years. I charge less then 95% of the non-profits and I didn't get a dime
from the city taxpayers to do it.
And by all accounts I do a darn good job.
Garbage
continues to be a problem, but that's not restricted to Minneapolis. I see
plenty of garbage along the highways when I drive out on Hwy 10 to visit my
dad (on his five-acre plot) in Andover or up Hwy 65 to visit friends living
in East Bethel.
CM BTW You are all invited to come up to Camden on Saturday morning 9:00AM
GJ's Super Valu. 44th and Humboldt. Cookies, donuts, coffee from Camden
Coffee Company.
Our 6th annual Adopt a Street Clean up. Thrice yearly we clean up the
street. And make a
difference.
Craig Miller
Camden Original
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