Kevin Trainor: "As for your assertion that Republicans favor higher residential property taxes, this makes sense only if you accept as a given that if commercial property taxes come down then residential rates have to go up. This isn't even true in SimCity, much less real life. In point of fact, since rental properties are considered commerical under the sick & twisted property tax system in effect here, any time that commerical property taces are lowered, the tax on rental properties drops as well. So you actually get a twofer: small businesses benefit from a lowered tax rate and renters also have to pay less."
Well, a list member CONFESSING to Republicanism. Anyway, I'm going on the basis of what always happens. In the time I've lived here, there have been Republicans on the city council. In the time I've lived here there HASN'T been what you claim is possible. I guess maybe that's why Republican CM's are an extinct species. People have learned. Fool me once, your fault etc. I don't call it mythology when it is based on many decades of experience, Kevin. You can claim "we have reformed" but I know drunks "reform", too. So I'm knda skeptical. We're entitled to a tiny bit of hope that folks like Dean Zimmerman are there as an antidote to the kind of DFLer which departed. Plus, if city residents don't take the bad stuff lying down, some of the DFLers in there may be trainable. But Republicans? Since when? If DFLers will do handouts, what could we possibly expect of Republicans? Hostility to business? Come on! And while I'm on this, what do you think of the pressure from sports to build facilities? Do you think we should build for them but NOT for normal businesspeople? If we spend $500 million for the Twins, how much should we spend for Cargill or General Mills who have a much better record of paying benefits by their presence? Michael Atherton: " hope that our current representatives will take note of this example. Profitable business don't need government subsidies." And may Mr. Taylor, Mr. Pohlad, and Mr. McCombs listen up, too. Tom Berthiaume: "Affordable and supportive housing needs to be built and fast. But if the mayor's housing solutions are predicated on further oncentration, further segregation, and further unequal protection, no one should be surprised that suits proliferate. Will no one confront the fortress neighborhoods? Why do they get a pass?" Good question. I wish someone had asked the decisionmakers. And when they answered, retained a record of their answer so they could replay it here. Heck, maybe I will? Maybe I'll write or call Gary Schiff and say "What about this?" They don't have an infinite number of choices for response. They can ignore me. They can promise an answer and then never give it. They can give a meaningless response. They can give a meaningful response. That pretty much defines the options. And which ever option they choose, it can be reported. It is simple common sense, and it often is the last thing people do. And the record of the process is often missing. Which I think is a big flaw in grass roots action. -------------------------------------- After a brief time: Well, I wrote my CM. I told him I thought the Republican changes were bunk, that he was a new kind of Mpls pol, that I had faith he would take a stand that we voters could bank on. Now, we'll see and record what comes of that. ===== Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood ------------ Progressive Minnesotans, get together at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MN_progressive_tradition/ __________________________________________________ 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
