For example Focus Minneapolis was passed in a gutted version and since the Mayor sent a letter in May of this year letting employees no there will be no worker cuts, we know there will be no savings.
Minneapolis is ignoring it's infrastructure. Public works has been cut till there isn't any more to cut. Cities that ignore their infrastructure do so at their own peril. Detroit is a prime example.
Lisa McDonald
East Harriet
From: Andy Driscoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Minneapolis Forum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Mpls] Heart of the Beast Lost?
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 10:12:01 -0600
Apparently no accounting for disgruntled Republicans (and a few others) who
will never be satisfied until every public service is privatized and
unavailable to everyone but the affluent and their property tax bills
disappear.
You don't get something for nothing. You can't expect taxes to disappear
without watching little things like your streets going unplowed, street
lighting go dark, schools shut down, criminals freed, cops disappear,
buildings burn to the ground, water stop flowing, sewers back up.
If you're wealthy or think you are, you're lucky you pay property taxes,
because in a decent world, you'd be paying far more in income taxes -
perhaps in some proportion to your ability to pay than you do now - and the
city would need less revenue from property owners. Thank your lucky stars
that it's property taxes you have the luxury of complaining about because
the property tax burden falls least on you and heavier on your less-heeled
fellow residents.
You want more patrols, better patrolling, fewer gangs, less violence?
Pay up. And shut up.
You want kids off the street and in classrooms and gymnasiums and football
fields? Pay up and shut up. And go into those neighborhoods and offer your
services as teachers, coaches, mentors. Give them some hope that life will
not be as brutal and dead-ended as it's been for their families.
Try to stop blaming the victims.
You think if all those city services were privately operated they'd be
cheaper and better and less bureaucratic?
Gaze around at the wonderful corporations who represent not only
privatization of public services but also have a monopoly on most of them:
Xcel/NSP. Qwest. Tried dealing with those people lately? Watched their
management all but indicted?
Don't you love those gas bills? Those electric bills? Those telephone
statements? And the great service they give in return?
Now look around and talk with your friends who work for Dayton's (or
whatever they call themselves these days). Wells Fargo. Minnegasco. ADC
Telecommunications.
How about the Twins? The Vikings? They pretty much want not only your money
but your property, too - free. They want your tax dollars to pay their
millionaire children.
Then a few others grab our attention; NRG (NSP's debunked division),
WorldCom, Enron, Andersen. Major models of corporate ethics there, right?
Now, I wonder who will be paying the bills for their rip-offs. Surely not
the taxpayers. What's that, you say? Costs of investigations and
prosecutions and civil suits getting you down? Well, I guess we live with
it. It's the price we pay for this wonderful system of privatizing public
services.
Do the people listed below as wanting their very own mayor think this is all
OK?
I have never understood is why so many of you place so much faith in the
private sector as if the private sector is run by angels while the public
sector is seen as Satan's realm. I fear there is nothing that would satisfy
some people. People who chronically complain about anything public would do
so no matter the mayor.
Best thing to do in these cases: ignore them.
Andy Driscoll
Saint Paul
--------
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes
my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can
delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.
--Mahatma Gandhi
> From: mel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 08:38:56 -0600
> To: "'Andy Driscoll'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Rybak, R.T."
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Diane Wiley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Minneapolis
> Forum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: "Takeshita, Erik M" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: RE: [Mpls] Heart of the Beast Lost?
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andy Driscoll [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 10:03 PM
> To: Rybak, R.T.; Diane Wiley; Minneapolis Forum
> Cc: Takeshita, Erik M
> Subject: Re: [Mpls] Heart of the Beast Lost?
>
>
> Mel's reply
> Many of us are also waiting for our elected Mayor to tune in the
> important and informative posts warning about the decline of our
> city....Jim Graham, Penn Bro Keith, Dyra, Barb L., myself and others
> have all made repeated attempts to get his attention about all
> the OPEN AIR DRUG/SEX MARKETS THAT exist and the
> disorder that results from them.
>
> Vickie Heller's posts, warning about the city's waste of taxpayers dollars
> is one other thing our good mayor needs to tune into and act on.
> The best place to begin is to read Ron Feldman's (Fed economist)
> report "The Affordable Housing Shortage: Considering the Problem,
> Causes and Solutions."
> Peace
> Mel Gregerson
> Whittier
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------------------------------
> I'd like to know where else in the world the mayor of a major city is so
> tuned into an online list and responds one-on-one viz. issues of this sort.
> RT is one amazing dude, people. Wallow in something St. Paul cannot imagine
> having.
> Andy Driscoll
> Saint Paul
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------------------------------
>> The Heart of the Beast project has been up and down many times in the last
>> weeks....and I will ask Erik Takeshita from my office to give a more complete
>> update when the office opens tomorrow...But I do want to say Erik and others
>> in my office have been working very very hard on this project for weeks now
>> because we think this is so important. The numbers on this make it a very
>> difficult deal that has had an exceptional amount of assistance from my
>> office. If there is any way to keep it alive we will do it because it would
>> be a great addition.
>> R.T. Rybak
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------------------
>> I just heard that the deal fell through for the old Antiques Minnesota
>> building that Heart of the Beast was set to buy. Does anyone know if this is
>> true, and why did it happen? I heard that the city messed it up because the
>> bank that was going to do the financing felt that the city didn't have their
>> ducks lined up. It seems so unfair -- we are trying to keep a neighborhood
>> together here.
>> Diane Wiley
>> Powderhorn Park
>>
>> _______________________________________
>>
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>
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