T H E M I N N E A P O L I S O B S E R V E R A Weekly Digest of All Things Minneapolitan www.mplsobserver.com Vol. 2, No. 20 December 30, 2002
To subscribe ($12/yr.), just hit 'reply' and state your intentions. We'll be happy to set you up. ********************************************************** THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER: * City Seeks to Block Cable Transfer Plan * Expanding Block E? * Vegetarian Institution Will Become Blue-Collar Bar * Right-Wing Think Tank too Partisan? * Segregation City * Local NAACP Head Resigns Plus: Honeywell and the Axis of Evil, in search of the perfect steamer, Chief Olson's next job, cushions on Minnehaha, waking the gardener within, and a New Year's greeting from 1932. ********************************************************** CITY SEEKS TO BLOCK CABLE TRANSFER PLAN Time Warner Cable, already in hot water with the city over alleged franchise violations, now finds itself stymied locally in its bid to consolidate its holdings nationally. City officials are blocking a request from the cable giant to transfer the city's cable franchise to a new company about to be created by the merger of Time Warner Entertainment and Comcast. They say Time Warner has failed to convince them that the as-yet unformed corporation is capable of managing the operation. In a December 18 letter to Ways and Means Committee chair Barbara Johnson, chief information officer Karl Kaiser and city coordinator John Moir counseled the committee and the City Council to deny the request, which they said could lead to "dire consequences" for city cable subscribers. Time Warner has not proven that the still-unformed company is "financially qualified" to manage the city's cable franchise, Kaiser and Moir argue. And because Time Warner continues to balk at fulfilling current conditions of its contract with the city, there is little reason to rely on the company's assurances that the transfer will be painless. The city has been wrangling with Time Warner on this request since September, claiming the company has provided insufficient and inaccurate information about the transfer, has refused to pay the city's costs to study the proposal, and has refused to clean up current franchise violations. The move came as a result of a recent restructuring of AOL Time Warner in which the company's cable unit, Time Warner Entertainment, was merged with Comcast, another major cable provider. To consolidate the two companies' cable franchises, the federal government requires city approval. But if the city does not act by January 4, 2003, federal regulators will consider it a done deal. EXPANDING BLOCK E? Block E developer Dan McCaffery, whose chain-heavy retail fortress on Hennepin has been blamed for the continued suburbanization of downtown, is looking for new territory. VEGETARIAN INSTITUTION WILL BECOME BLUE-COLLAR BAR One of the city's first vegetarian restaurants will close in February and be replaced by a Chicago-style bar and restaurant, reports Scott Russell in the Southwest Journal (http://www.swjournal.com). AXIS OF EVIL Rank of Honeywell among U.S. arms dealers that have illegally sold weapons to Iraq: 1 --Source: the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER Center of the American Experiment (CAE), the thriving local right-wing think tank from which Governor-elect Tim Pawlenty selected 5 of his 13 transition advisors, should be required to surrender its tax-exempt status, writes Rob Levine in City Pages (http://www.citypages.com). SEGREGATION CITY The Twin Cities area now boasts the third-largest income gap between whites and blacks in the nation. ********************************************************** The Minneapolis Observer is published 48 times/year by Independent Media, L.L.C. �2003 Independent Media, 4152 Snelling Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55406; www.mplsobserver.com. No part of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Independent Media. Subscriptions: $12/yr. To unsubscribe, send us an e-mail ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and we'll get you off the list and refund the unused portion of your subscription. Editor: Craig Cox Deputy Assistant Senior Executive Editor: Sharon Parker Contributing writers: Chris Dodge, Leo Mezzrow Equine consultant and coffee shop correspondent: Nora Cox Perspective: Martin Cox Thanks to: Katharine Krueger and Kevin Lynch ******************************************************* Fight media consolidation! Support the independent press! Pick up your neighborhood newspaper! ******************************************************* _______________________________________ 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
