Bruce Shoemaker wrote: "No figures are yet available on how much of a public subsidy this all will require. Given the high acquisition costs and the need to build a parking ramp--and the tight margins in the grocery business--this figure is likely to be considerable"
THIS is where I'd love to see Victoria Heller ranting. "Public subsidy"? How about "the city learning to live within its means"? We have all this debt from past public sugar to private recipients. We have Republican-sponsored funding cuts coming reliably down the pipe. And we're STILL talking about building a Cub within walking distance from available grocery stores? It is an outrage, but maybe it's the kind of outrage Republican taxpayers aren't able to react to (don't want to look too hypocritical when they come with their hands out later). And this seems like a really good time to expand further on my vision of "fiscal responsibility in Minneapolis". Seems to me that we could shrink the city's functions to enforcing laws and other forms of public safety. Most of the remaining functions could be left for residents to buy on a sliding-scale basis. Sort of the "cafeteria plan" gone public. I was brainstorming this and figured that even police work could be included. People could buy insurance policies that would include whatever police protection that was important to them. Some people care a LOT about burglaries. So they could choose the "respond on burglary" option. Laws that refer to public functions, such as fraud or street violence would be provided to all without charge, but all the other categories would really depend on what you chose to pay for. You'd get a customer code that you could dial in when you make your report. Then the computers could verify coverage and dispatch the police. People could buy alley plowing or not. Heck, this could be a BLOCK CLUB function. I have to admit I LIKE that idea. I have a co-op with Cooper neighbors for snow removal on our private property. I'd be more than will to promote the same thing for what the city trucks now do. Same with the library: Sliding scale basis. It is in society's interest to build IQ in the poorer classes, so it would be suicidal to gouge them. But for people who we know are college-bound no matter what we do, why give them help FREE? And with computers we could provide service in income brackets with the ability to validate the chosen bracket before providing the service. This is only the beginning of my vision of a new society. We can retain our city values while we also get on a firmer fiscal basis. But we have to think in new and flexible ways. Remembering always that it is the REPUBLICANS who are forcing these choices on us. Later: Having read Ms. Heller's comment on the Cub project, I can only add: Can we get the Strib or any of the I-teams interested on the history of projects like these? Can we get wider community participation in questioning why we DON'T want to build a publicly-funded stadium but we DO want to build a publicly-funded Cub store? Do all the other retailers in Minneapolis want to see their competition on the dole? I don't think so. Can't THEY generate some heat so the media wakes up and asks the same questions in a somewhat more visible way? "No one drove Honeywell out of town. Honeywell was a very solid company (making them a prime candidate forbuyout). They were bought out by a company in Maryland or Delaware which wanted to move them there. WizardMarks, Central" As I recall, their COMPUTER business was bought by Bull. The controls business was in a process of merger with GE that got shot down by the European Community. I'm not sure how any of this has to do with their not being in Philips anymore. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos http://launch.yahoo.com/u2 _______________________________________ 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
