OK - so I've read this sale-leaseback idea and I've heard of it being used in practice before. Mississippi Market in St. Paul did something like this with their store on Randolph Ave. and sold the land to a nearby school if I recall correctly.
I've read that the U of MN proposed something like this to the fraternities on University Ave because several of them apparently need extensive capital improvements - though the reception to that idea was cool since there was a fear the U would eventually take that land to use for their own needs and would kick the frats to the curb. Now with regards to doing something like this for the downtown library, Michael H. suggests the county as a possible partner. Has there been any interest expressed by the county for such an idea? Wouldn't this require the county to raise taxes to do? And could such an idea pass the county commission since many "no-new-taxes" folks live in suburban and rural Hennepin County and I'm sure a lot of them would be honked off at the idea of "bailing out" Minneapolis? Also, Carol Becker posted some very good reasons why it might not be in the best interests of Minneapolis to partner with Hennepin County on such a project and why it might not have the cost savings folks dream of. I'd like to see responses to the points she raised with regards to how that would impact a sale-leaseback idea. In particular, I'm concerned that even if MPL were allowed to operate the library, wouldn't there likely be a good deal of pressure from Hennepin County to make "their building" more like the regional libraries that focus on the trendy books and not so much on making sure we have materials for our immigrant populations like we do in Minneapolis? Would there be a way to structure a sale-leaseback agreement to protect MPL from this kind of pressure? Mark Snyder Windom Park 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
