> From: Jim Mork > Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 11:31 PM > I've never considered the > River-Lake tabernacle as a particularly memorable > building. It has always stricken me as a shabby > relic that wouldnt die. Now that I read that > someone DEMANDS a plaque be put up to memorialize > it
EXACTLY. As much as I lament historic anti-Semitism, I can't help but resent anything that slows down the revitilization of my end of Lake Street. I've been here for 11 years now, and each one of those years I've looked at this pathetic collection of stolen-car chop-shops and used-car sales lots and said "When is some savvy developer going to notice that the local demographics would support some real businesses along here??" A lot of the commercial space on East Lake is simply being wasted by owners with no brains and no vision. The old Clinton Electric building has sat empty for two years. A storefront across the street from it has been papered up for a decade -- its owner is retired in Arizona and uses it for storing stuff. This shouldn't be legal. A lot of these owners are simply sitting on their properties, waiting for some white knight developer to come along and offer them a million dollars for their ramshackle buildings. And what is anyone at the Longfellow or Minneapolis level doing about it? Not much. Everything's focused on Lake and Hiawatha as if the light rail is going to debouch crowds of wealthy but confused megamall tourists onto the street, mistaking the Rainbow for the Rainforest Cafe. I'm happy to see development at Lake and Hiawatha, but if its success hinges upon the light rail line, then there are going to be a lot of disappointed investors in a couple of years. Light rail is a necessity for a growing city, but not a direct profit center for each stop. > the new construction going up > there at 47th and Lake is a long overdue > improvement of the neighborhood. No longer will > we see "Prepare To Meet Your God" as we enter > Minneapolis. Well, just between you and me I was planning on replacing that sign, but mine was going to show RT Rybak... > I think the Jewish people feel about the same way > that I do about that building and are only > insisting on truth because the heritage > commission is insisting on memorializing the > immemorable. All I can say is if the city is going to memorialize racism with plaques, our sidewalks will soon look like those in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood... Bob Alberti, President Sanction, Inc. Data Security http://www.sanction.net Cusp of Longfellow and Seward "A Tempest! Grab the teabag and hang on for your life!" _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
