For the record, I, Jim Graham, apologize to Tom Johnson for my knee jerk reaction to David Piehl's post about the "harassing" and "bulling" of Dave Harstad. While I am always ready to support residents involvement on "Committees" and am to a certain extent over sensitized by the experiences of past dealings of Corporations trying to run communities, in this case I simply over-reacted. As I stated it would be foolish for a staff person to do such a thing and I am very, very glad this was not the case.
While I do have some issues with the "Quasi" political status the "Partnership" tries to assume, Mr. Johnson is an employee who is doing his job in representing that group. Another miss-perception that Mr. Johnson made me aware of is that some seem to have the belief that I am not in favor of additional access from I-35W. This is also not true.Those who have been around the City for sometime will tell you I have made a crusade of harassing MnDot and political officials about the historical injustice of destroying our neighborhoods by building freeways and then further adding injury to insult by NOT building access ramps so that our communities could use them. I am sure there are MnDOT people who will tell you Jim Graham has been a "Jerk" about this issue. (For which I do not apologize) My first dealings with the I-35 Committee and the Phillips Partnership was demanding that communities be allowed representatives on the committee, and demanding the 5th Ave. access not be closed. In fact I, and many of my fellow resident allies, caused such a fuss that this planned closing was scrapped. I also have lobbied to have an on-ramp added for south bound I-35 at Franklin Avenue. The ramp would serve commercial development we are planning and that is now beginning to be constructed. I have advocated for more access for my community, not less. When the Nicollet Avenue K-Mart development was first being formulated it presumed the additional access at Lake Street in order for it to be financially successful. This was a major selling point for the Chinese and other East Asian businesspeople who were the Principals of that joint venture corporation. Of course a great deal more retail development was involved at that stage. Sherman was brought to the table for housing expertise and the project has since evolved into more of a housing project and less of an "End Destination" retail development, but even so I can not believe they do not need this access to be viable. They certainly need it to justify the cost of the project and the amount of public dollars it will require. This joint venture of Mainland Chinese businesspeople and manufacturers became interested in the "Sears" site and considers the access from I-35 as an even greater necessity for real development of that site. Without the customer base that the improved I-35 access would allow to easily come to this "Dragon Center", it would not be a viable investment. I know the Chinese investors would no longer be interested. Imagine the Mall of America without a freeway access and you might understand their reticence. The Sears site may potentially provide a commercial venue that would employee up to 4000 people. The customer base for such a retail attraction is Metro wide and the only way for the attraction to be perceived as viable for a person to drive to is by providing reasonable freeway access and parking. Minneapolis has financed and seen commercial failures in the past for this very same reason. Anyone remember Riverplace. The Japanese and Minneapolis took a bath because there was not the customer base to support it for more than a local attraction. The Chinese are quit aware of their fellow East Asian neighbors' failure and would not be interested in investing many millions of dollars of "Their" own money in such a venture with out the assurance of such access. The selling point to get them interested in the first place was that same potential traffic. Of course if the City of Minneapolis wishes to provide the millions that were provided to some local corporation in downtown Minneapolis they might change their mind. But seriously, Minneapolis needs developers who wish to invest "real" dollars in "real" commercial development. For the K-Mart site, the Sears or Great Lakes Center site, or even the Hospital and Wells Fargo to reach their potential the freeway infrastructure must be provided. Without that infrastructure these sites are good for local development, but little more. Lake Street and Franklin Avenue were once the centers of Minneapolis commerce, then the freeways cut them off from commercial base, and they withered and almost died. It is time for Minneapolis and MnDOT to mitigate this almost criminal act. The last thirty years have been stolen from these communities, it is time to give them back their futures. We need well planned freeway access to 26th and 28th, and an on-ramp going both ways at Franklin. We were promised the freeway would be decked to repair the torn social fabric of the City. We have the plans for this decking project and are waiting. The Freeways took hundreds of our homes and thirty years of our vitality. We are owed an incredible debt by the Federal Government and Minnesota's MnDOT. Paying that debt will return the future to these communities. "Freeway Mitigation" dollars are owed to Minneapolis and St.Paul Communities, not rural Minnesota. So Tom, if I unfairly used your name, I apologize. Crow is a tasteless, stringy old bird to eat, but sometimes you just have to swallow hard, and do it. Jim Graham, Ventura Village ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Harstad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 1:03 PM Subject: [Mpls] PAC resignation > For the record, Tom Johnson neither "harassed" nor > "bullied" me into quitting the I-35W PAC. In fact, > Tom actually encouraged me to stay on. I quit because > it was taking too much time and because I was getting > too passionate and personal about the issues. > > David, you and I agree on a number of issues, but we > need to stick to the facts, and attempt to avoid > getting personal. I've mistakenly crossed that line > from time to time too. From now on, let's take the > high road and intelligently debate the issues. > > Dave Harstad > Whittier > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free > http://sbc.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 > _______________________________________ 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
