Two terrific articles in this week's New Yorker. (I'm not sure if they're on-line.) The first ( by Hendrik Hertzberg in the Talk of the Town entitled , "Bloomberg Butts In," details the strong steps NYC is about to pass to curtail public smoking. I have been trying to pass even milder steps at the state level without success, but the article points out that the tobacco lobby is much less powerful at the local level. I , along with many others, would like to see someone in Mpls city government take this on. The tax has been raised significantly, but a local city tax which makes sense with the geography of NYC would not work here. The final line: "Smokers, as much or more than nonsmokers, are the true beneficiaries of the Mayor's crusade. All they have to do is quit, and he'll leave them in peace." The second (also in Talk of the Town), is yet another project I would like undertaken in Mpls, reports the actions of a NYC guerilla swimming lobby determined to get New Yorkers into the City's rivers, particularly the Hudson. It has been declared swimmable by their Dept. of Environmental Conservation, so I would guess that our stretch of the Mississippi is also. The interviewee suggests floating pools and some riverside beaches and gives as the best example of City/River interface, the Ganges (admittedly not clean) in India.
Phyllis Kahn State Rep. 59B _______________________________________ 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
