Denise Tolbert's post is absolutely on the mark, it just does not go far enough.
The closing of Nicollet, the 1st. Avenue diversion, Lyndale property taking, and the Broadway fiasco all have something in common. There at least appears to be City Council collusion to change the City for personal reasons or personal gain. I sat on the Whittier Alliance Board, when it supported doing the 1st Avenue diversion. I fought to stop this for the very reasons Denise mentions. It was a band aide on the skin of a cancer underneath. I attempted to get the Alliance members to instead fight to get Nicolett reopened. Fellow members laughed at the idea as a pipe dream not even worth discussing. I subsequently worked with the Asian businesses people, and especially Hoang Tran, to reopen Nicolett. Again people on the Alliance, and the Councilperson at the time discounted the idea. I thought it was a good enough idea that I made it a campaign issue when I ran against Jim Niland five years ago. We even designed a development that would be large and lucrative enough to motivate the City to action. It was first drawn on a placemat for Martin Sabo sitting at Butler Drug. It presently has a much better drawing and rendering, but it is the same plan. This is essentially the same plan that a "favored" Developer is presently seeking and getting City resources to build. Now pretty much everyone admits the K-Mart fiasco was one of the great mistakes of a City Council wishing to create development opportunities for their buddies. It is similar to the Block E and the tearing down of all those businesses on Lyndale and Lake for Parking lots. I joined Jim Theis, Craig Johnson, and other affected businesses and fought the Lyndale Lake robbery also. Lets remember if we could what Lisa McDonald and Jim Niland said was the reason for taking out those long established businesses (against their wishes). Oh yes, it was because the neighborhood needed all that parking for the future, and simply could not get along with out it. I said it was a land grab, pure and simple, and tried to help the robbed businesses in their fight to keep their land. We Lost! The parking issue was nothing more than a means and way to take land from some, such as Ballentine VFW, Theis Brothers Tires, Rainville-Carlson, etc. Now lets see what occured. The 10th Ward councilperson's buddies at the old Tatters building were able to confiscate and tear down a VFW building for a parking lot to allow a bar and restaurant to be placed in a building where it was not possible before. Making the old Tatters building ten times as valuable. (Donating space in that building for a council person's previous campaign paid big time, if that was all that was paid?) Jungle Theater and It's Greek to me got parking lots and now the parking lot which was so necessary between Lyndale and Aldrich is being turned into a development by a "developer buddy" of the ex-councilperson. I guess it turns out that the prediction of it being nothing more than a way for a City Councilperson to use the "City" to take property for a Developer "Buddy" came true. Law, property rights, or City ordinance may mean nothing when you have a City Government that can be bought by friendship or -???? -. Though political enemies the old Sixth and Tenth Ward Councilpersons worked in a pretty "organized" way to accomplish the grab. (Makes us glad we have some new ones that are less organized) I do not know about the rest of the readers, but it also makes me glad the FBI probe is still going on. I hope law enforcement will explore more in depth the entire goings on of the former Mayor and City Council. I have long maintained that Brian Herron and Joe Biernat were two of the more honest City Council members from that group. They just did not know how to cover their tracks well, and allegedly took chump change when there was real graft to be had, (if they had only been as smart as some of their predecessors and contemporaries they would have waited until leaving office to be paid, OR destroyed and "Lost" the records.) While the present Council may seem a little more helter-skelter, they are certainly better than the organized 'ole girl' crew from before. Now the fights are about politics and what is best for the City, (isn't that a novel idea), instead of whose bed partner developer should be the first at the "public trough". Some may disagree, but I will take the present unorganized more honest group. THANK YOU!!! Jim Graham, Ventura Village _______________________________________ 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
