Shawne Fitzgerald talks about some projects she thinks are all subsidized. Well, Shawne, maybe that helps to explain why we CAN'T do subsidies any more. Too many hands out in a rotten economy. Some of those projects may well have made SENSE at the time. The Quarry occupies space that nearing its end of usefulness for the businesses located there. The Lake-Minnehaha store sits on former Moline land. And I don't know about the others.
The point is not "they didn't ever make any sense", it is "they have multiplied beyond our ability to really afford them and we must stop". We need to look for other models for carrying out development. One might be "opportunity zones" where we alter the rules in the same way China did in Canton. One might be a mighty effort to trim down red tape to the minimum required. That DOES require city employees with an improved attitude, but on the other hand, if that proves impossible, they could consider doing what Information and Technology Services did and do a public-private partnership to design development processes. I'm sure there are developers (Vicky?) who'd LOVE to be on that task force. Of course, a public accounting of the product would be necessary, but it could be this would be the CHEAPEST way to get development. After all, if the development process is too costly, that ultimately works its way into the size of the subsidies and, ultimately, into taxes to pay off those subsidies. So, it is really just a way of burying and disguising the cost of regulations. As to the Lake Street stores, I have experience with four: Uptown Lunds and Rainbow; and Longfellow Cub and Rainbow. Of the three, I would only characterize the Longfellow Cub as perhaps a little below the standard. But the fact is they stock BETTER than the Midway Cub that I also go to. And now worse than the Uptown and Longfellow Rainbows. It is true that the bathroom in that Cub is more abused than the Midway stores. I guess its the clientele that includes more shiftless young boys. That's probably how they treat their homes, too. I don't expect as much as some. I shop them all pretty happily. I grant that I like some aspects of Lunds in Uptown and Highland Park better, but the prices ARE higher and they are both further away, so I find the Longfellow stores the cheapest and easiest to use. ============================ Regarding suing City Hall, Barb Lickness says: "In closing Jim, the decisions rendered in the lawsuits filed by the people in Whittier and Phillips are unique to these neighborhoods. Other neighborhoods in the city do not have the issues that prompted these lawsuits. That is the whole point!" I didn't SAY the individual lawsuits are about issues of the whole city. I said they attempt to solve circumscribed issues at the EXPENSE of everybody in the city. When I talked about wholesale solutions (instead of these retail solutions), I meant in devising lawsuit-PREVENTING measures. You say they "chose to ignore the law". OK, explain to me why they did that? Were you there at the time with city legal advisers, explaining that this was in violation of laws which would necessitate a lawsuit the expense of which the citizenry would not like to incur? Was there a process for diffusing this to more than the small number involved with the ramifications? I get bulletins from CCP/SAFE on crime trends. Why shouldn't there be similar notification for actions of elected officials that threaten to incur unproductive expense? I know we can't really count on some of these CM's to do that job. But why rely on them? And why rely on the commercial media who only want to make a buck? Have we truly exhausted all possibilities to deter our elected officials from digging holes we ALL fall in? Are the legal advisers for our city government SO inane they never utter a word to caution against plans that are lawsuit bait? I want someone, especially CM Schiff who represents my neighborhood to give an answer on this. Surely by now we have answers why the Mike Sauro, LSGI and other lawsuits happened. Seems obvious to me there was lack of coherent thought and foresight. But that is less useful to know than what has changed since those costly mistakes OCCURRED. I think our council and mayor should be prompt in answer that question. Either the answer is "Yes, we now do..." or it is "No, we haven't thought of anything yet." Voters want to KNOW! __________________________________________________ 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
