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. 27 February 17, 2003
This is a preview issue of The Observer. To subscribe to the full-meal deal ($12/yr.; see sample issue at www.mplsobserver.com), just hit 'reply' and state your intentions. We'll be happy to set you up. Thanks. ********************************************************** THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER: * R.T. Rybak: Part-Time Crime-Fighter * Awada's World: How Minneapolis Would Fare * Air Cargo Facility Won't Be a Problem, MAC Rep Says * Feds Arrest Local Student-Loan Slackers * Car-Sharing, Anyone? * Dispatch from the Front Plus: The quarter-million dollar meeting room, gagged by the NAACP, the real enemy in the Third Ward, shamelessly misquoting Tom Heffelfinger, a proper Orange Alert, and thinking outside the box on LGA. ********************************************************** R.T. RYBAK: PART-TIME CRIME-FIGHTER Last week, the city council passed a resolution that would allow the city's Bomb Disposal Unit to provide services to other cities around the state, the latest in a series of moves by city officials to push public safety to the forefront of the city's agenda. As G.R. Anderson notes in City Pages (http://www.citypages.com), Mayor Rybak and city council members have shifted the city's priorities in a very public way at the capitol, and have found common cause with suburban and outstate Republicans who dominate the legislature. Early in the session, a city delegation visited a House Judiciary Committee hearing to lobby in favor of continued funding for the Minnesota Gang Strike Force. In his testimony, Rybak said the city was "focused, first and foremost, on public safety." This may come as a surprise to advocates of affordable housing or transportation or neighborhood economic development, who sent Rybak to City Hall to champion their views. But, according to State Senator Larry Pogemiller, this shift in priorities is nothing but a last-ditch attempt to boost the city's stock among conservative power brokers at the capitol and save Local Government Aid to the city. "It's a strategy right out of the Republican playbook," Pogemiller said. "Show you can streamline government. Then make fighting terrorism on a local level a political priority because it's in vogue. How prepared can you be? Is that the major issue for the city? Heavens, no." Rybak conceded as much after the hearing, saying affordable housing continued to be a high priority for his administration. But the sales job was clear: "We have to do these things, to make some recognize we're here to make our state safer. With a different group, in a different climate, would our emphasis be different? Sure." And, indeed, back at City Hall, the mayor is now intent on slicing $12 million out of the police department's budget and shutting down the popular Community Crime Prevention/SAFE program. "I think there is fat in the police budget, and I am going to go after that hard," Rybak told Ellen Nigon and Robyn Repya in the Skyway News (http://www.skywaynews.net). He argues that CCP/SAFE's work overlaps similar community work done by the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. But he may get an argument from neighborhood groups and police officials, who believe the program is one of the most effective in the city. "No one wants to cut SAFE," said Deputy Chief Rick Schultz. "It's crime prevention. How we define that service may change. No one wants to see SAFE disappear in its entirety." Nobody, that is, except our crime-fighting mayor. AWADA'S WORLD: HOW MINNEAPOLIS WOULD FARE State auditor Pat Awada's proposed cuts to Local Government Aid would severely hamper fundamental city operations, according to a statement released last week by the city. AIR CARGO FACILITY WON'T BE A PROBLEM A major international air cargo facility currently being studied by the Metropolitan Airports Commission and other agencies is more than a decade away and should not pose a noise problem, according to the city's MAC representative. FEDS CRACKING DOWN ON STUDENT-LOAN SLACKERS Federal marshalls last Thursday arrested four people as part of a local crackdown on student-loan delinquency. ********************************************************** 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 ******************************************************* Fight media consolidation! Support the independent press! Pick up your neighborhood newspaper! ******************************************************* TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ 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
