The beginning of a new year, and I do not hear of ANY plans by the Mayor to have community forums where he can realize what the new issues will be. RT' s staff, (being dominated by those with non-profit developer backgrounds), will probably not be as eager to have them this year as last, since a new priority may arise. RT does not seem to be aware that "FOR RENT" and "FOR SALE" signs are all over town. People are yelling that the housing crises has passed, but the non-profit housing industry has its hands over RT's ears, and without neighborhood forums he is missing the next crises and today's issues. But this is a cycle that dominates American political culture.
Our dependence on oil and the enrichment of petty Arab dictators has caused one major recession, and the present minor one, in my memory. The oil embargo staged by the Oil producing Arab world and taken advantage of by unscrupulous multi-national American Oil Corporations robbed the American people of the prosperity that should have come after the Viet-Nam War. The Oil Cartel and predatory American Oil Companies increased inflation to upwards of 18%. This action destroyed the economy of not only America, but also most small oil dependent countries. It created a world depression. Jimmy Carter worked diligently to break that cartel and only succeeded when it was too late for his own presidency. His success would drop oil prices and inflation and create a boom worldwide. Ronald Regan came into office on a mandate to "Balance the Budget" because of the inflation and fix the damaged economy caused by Carter. He immediately took credit for all of Jimmy Carter's hard work and success, and proceeded to give money hand over fist to his rich corporate buddies. He gave away money and spent on defense at such a rate that he created unbelievable deficit rates that the world had never seen. The country was in shambles by the end of five years. Howard Baker came on board and gave some grace and some intelligence to a country being run by a dottering, senile, old fool, (steered by a goofball first lady getting her information from an astrologer). Enter Clinton promising to balance the budget, and low and behold he does. The country has an upturn that lasts for eight years fueled principally by a person who could not have cared less or known less about foreign policy. His attention to the budget and domestic issues allowed the country to reach an unprecedented economic growth. Finally taking advantage of a war dividend, the Cold War's dividend, (which Regan's people orchestrated). However, his inattention to foreign issues allowed for the destruction of our intelligence capability and for the emergence of the "Militant Islamic Arab" threat to the world. This of course set up our present situation nationally. So the assertion of one individual that the problem with the economy is Bushonomics is far fetched. As Democrats we should take blame equally with the praise. This is the result of Clintonomics. We just are giving credit to Bush for something he did not do. We will also give credit to Bush's successor for Bush's successes and for Bush's failure. The sad thing is that the impacts of a leader are only visible, as a rule, after he or she has left office. Now to our Governor Ventura destroying the Minnesota economy and creating this huge deficit. Does anyone remember the Republicans, including the new incoming Governor, and the Democrats first fighting then colluding against Ventura in the last session? Our present state budget woes are not because of Jesse, they are in spite of him. Jesse Ventura was screaming about what was going to happen this year, but the DEM's and Publicans were to busy fixing his little red wagon to pay any attention to the fact that "We" were riding in the damn thing to. The rest of us becoming used to Jesse's screaming did not pay any attention. Now Jesse will get credit for the messed up economy that the people presently coming to power actually orchestrated. Now on to Minneapolis, where I was originally headed before creating the foundation. Sharon Sales Belton comes from a background of City Council politics where selling "Ward Privilege" has become a tradition, she takes over a City administration that has not the faintest clue that the City is being over-run by Drug related criminal gangs who see Sharon's election as the opportunity to come out in the open and do "Real Business". She did not create this situation, her predecessor being asleep at the wheel did. She would get credit for creating Murderapolis and having parts of Minneapolis ask to be declared a "National Disaster Area. Because she was late in addressing the problem Sharon got blamed for it, but truthfully Frazer and Boza deserve most of the credit. Sharon was presented with a housing crisis, and she dragged her feet in addressing it for five or six years. Her people did start working feverishly on the problem, and between them and the Met Council, we have thousands of new "affordable rental housing" units started. (Almost all by Non-Profit cronies seeking to cash in on their political influence, but that is a different story) Sharon is voted out of office, losing to someone who is convinced the real issue for the election is housing. No matter how Sharon pleads she is addressing the problem, it is simply too late. RT wins, and RT will get, and already claims, the credit for the housing just beginning to come on line. Most developers will tell you that housing, particularly large multi-unit non-profit housing, takes three to five years to get accomplished. Any housing that came on line this year, or which will come on line in the next three years is the responsibility of the past Mayor, whether good or bad. The real problem is that RT needs to realize that the rental-housing crisis is over, and stop addressing that issue. RT has allied himself with, (or perhaps they have latched onto him), that group of developers who already had projects through the funding process. Seeking to take advantage of, and credit for, the hot issue in his campaign RT has allowed this group to dominate his administration. These people view affordable home ownership and Neighborhoods as their enemies, so RT is largely kept away from such issues. There is a theory that to attend to anything too greatly one must dis-attend to something else. By keeping RT so attentive to this past issue, the non-profit developers hope to keep him from focusing on, and attending to, any new issue. The new issues are "Affordable Home Ownership" and "Livability" issues in neighborhoods, (such as crime again). By addressing only the past issue RT removes the possibility of addressing the present and future issues until it is too late to take much credit for such. The next Mayor will, of course, take full credit for addressing the issue. An "Issue" that RT will only realize and address with to short a time margin before he leaves office. The new Mayor of course will also run on de-centralizing NRP, de-centralizing City planning, and will promise to give more "critical planning input" to neighborhoods. (Works every time) And the cycle continues---- Jim Graham, Ventura Village, a neighborhood where we hope RT will come back "We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be" - A Cherokee Feast of Days _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
