The flurry of message traffic about the Park Board's purchase
of a new headquarters property on the Mississippi and their
override of Mayor Rybak's veto thereof has interested me
greatly. To summarize what I have seen: the Mayor's veto
message made a credible case for evaluating the merits of
the purchase within the context of the City's entire
finances. There were notes from two dissenting Park Board
members and from the Park Board's legal representative and
lobbyist, and then a Star Tribune editorial from the Park
Board President. And a long debate about the particulars of
real estate transactions punctuated by much ingracious
invective.
Now the dust seems to have settled, but I don't think that
I've learned very much. It's certainly clear to me that
owning property is better than renting it, all other things
being equal. The Mayor's case asserted that buying the
new headquarters didn't make sense now for the City, and
I didn't see a credible rebuttal of that assertion.
In the court of public opinion, I'm left sitting in the jury
box feeling somewhat confused and annoyed that the attorney
for one side has yelled at us and questioned our intelligence
instead of explaining the Board's position as clearly as the
Mayor expressed his. I don't think that the Park Board has
been well represented here and that makes it too easy to
conclude that the veto override was not good for the City
of Minneapolis. I'm not a real estate expert and I do not
understand all of the advantages and disadvantages of the
purchase for the City as a whole, so in the absence of
a clear and calm response to the points of Mayor's veto
message, I'm left with the assumption that one is not possible.
--
Peter Klausler, Linden Hills, Minneapolis, Minnesota ',.PY FGCRL
Principal Engineer, Cray Inc. AOEUI DHTNS
pmk@visi,com, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.visi.com/~pmk ;QJKX BMWVZ
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