Bruce Gaarder of Highland Park wrote: "What do you do if someone in the middle of the block doesn't want to pony up for their piece of the action? Lift the plow by their garage and then drop it again?"
Personally, I don't need the alley cleared, I live on the end of the block with a driveway that exits right onto the street. My thought is that people will pay for the whole thing or go without. Refusing to help won't stimulate a lot of friendship from your neighbors. In some cases, a non-plowed alley means nothing since so many people park on the streets (which I call stupidity but it WOULD save you from being marooned after a snowstorm). Block clubs arranging for snow removal might spell an end to the controversy over towing (but it wouldnt be exactly problem-free). One thing that occurs to me now is that paying for plowing is another form of insurance. If emergency vehicles can't reach your house you could die or it could burn down. One thing to remember is that I did specify that the essential functions left to government would be the public safety functions. Bruce Gaarder of St Paul: "As I remember it, this type of thinking used to prevail with respect to firefighting companies. You bought fire coverage and nailed a medallion up that showed you were covered. If a fire company was called to your house and you had no medallion, your house burned. The neighbors with coverage were protected. Peo ple didn't like this idea, so firefighting became a municipal function for all, covered by taxes." JM: I talked early on about narrowing to core public safety activities. In your scenario (and it is YOUR scenario), I doubt a homeowner could GET insurance without protection against fire. In fact, I'm sure the casualty insurers would FIGHT individual choice in this matter. Victoria says: "The way I see it, the current City Council has a very easy course ahead: JUST SAY NO - WE CAN'T AFFORD IT. End of story." Jim says: "You go, girl!" To Jason Goray: Got web space? Maybe write your thoughts and post them on your web site. I know I've read at least one such posting already. Of course, you still have to write pertinently and well, but I think you are ahead to do it this way. And there are various ways to get free web space. One I did was to simply create a Yahoo group. I post useful news links there. Jason Goray: "On the other hand, if people really won't go to non-smoking establishments, an ordinance like this would hurt mpls businesses as people would go elsewhere to have fun." That's how it started. Eventually restaurant owners got concerned about possible litigation for harm to people in what is a public facility. I think that's how the non-smoking restaurants spread. But I know in the early days, we simply didn't go in places that permitted smoking. Because the attempt to create "sections" was almost always ineffective. By going to a non-smoking restaurant, we REALLy got segregated from the smoke. Jason: "Bar employees could start their own bar or organize to pressure management to go non-smoking. How about having some of that law suit money used to create forgivable and/or low interest loans for people who want to start non-smoking clubs?" Here's what I want Jason to tell me. Why don't the 25 percent who DO smoke start clubs for their fellow-smokers. Why should it be the 75 percent who care about their HEALTH enough to avoid addiction who go to the extra effort. I'm not for criminalizing any drug, but I'll be danged if my various governments should do ANYTHING to make the life of an addict softer. Let's try to use some basic reasoning, OK? Jason warms up: "Should we ban strip clubs because they can be psychologically unfriendly? Ban music venues because they can cause hearing loss?" No, but do you want most clubs to accommodate those who want to watch stripping? Shall those who need neither stripping nor deafening music be forced to hunt high and low for a place that doesn't have it? Besides how many millions died of loud music. Hardly a good analogy. I think society in GENERRAL does try to ban stuff that is harmful to public health--part of the reasonable concern of government for health and safety. Bob Velez: "If Minneapolis was to do that by themselves, it would mean flight of business out of the City to places like Maple Grove, Eden Prairie, and the like." Well, as I said, Bob, one solution is simply to convert "free services" to a paying basis. Unbundling is something that FREQUENTLY happens in private business. Government would simply following the lead of private sector business. When PCs started really hurting the big computing compnaies, they did two things: Get into new lines of business and unbundle the packages they had sold before. As far as I can see, government business can do the same thing. The businesses have had over a decade of experience with their vendors. One thing unbundling does is make the components more comparable to what other sources are offering (UPS doesnt deliver personal letters like the USPS). The fact is that when their jobs become more dependent on keeping customers happy, government workers become more motivated. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX And that reminds me of a different topic in the school reform area. I won't get into the whole thing because I think it is a big topic. But just for starters, I think schools could improve by constantly sampling customer satisfaction on a more regular basis. I think the ASSUMPTION is that somehow school administration has a handle on it. But I seriously doubt that's true. Show me a principal who can tell you concretely if his parents are more satisfied than the previous year, with data to prove it. But the industries who do the customer relationship management thing best are in the data collection business constantly. The funny thing is the schools grade the students but don't ask those of us who pay to grade THEM. You may laugh, but my belief is that when I hear them ask, that's when I'll take their concerns seriously. ===== Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood Minneapolis ------------- "Remember, son, this is a country of opportunity. Anyone can grow up to be president....if he doesn't leve any physical evidence." (Arlo 'N Janis by Jimmy Johnson � 1992) __________________________________________________ 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
