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. 31 March 17, 2003
This is a preview of this week's Observer. To check out a sample issue of the e-weekly, visit www.mplsobserver.com. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing ($12/yr.). Just hit 'reply' and we'll set you up. Thanks. ********************************************************** THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER: * New Central Library May Not Be Built * University Opens Health Clinic to Uninsured * Scully Returns With Gay Men's Dance Group * Rybak Rallying Opposition to Noise Insulation Cuts * Students Plan Walkout When Bush Invades * Metro Transit Goes Hybrid Plus: Sabo brings home the bacon, library chief takes a pay cut, remembering Ferris Alexander, and disarming the White House ********************************************************** NEW CENTRAL LIBRARY MAY NOT BE BUILT Minneapolis Public Library director Kit Hadley will deliver a set of recommendations designed to salvage plans for a new downtown library when she meets today with the city council's Ways and Means Committee. The meeting comes at a time of mounting pressure to kill the $140 million project because of city budget constraints. As Ellen Nigon and Bob Gilbert note in the Skyway News (http://www.skywaynews.net), the mayor and the city council are contemplating whether to issue the bonds required for the project even as the old library becomes a pile a rubble. The problem, they explain, is that the city and the Library Board may not be able to afford the debt service on the $140 million project. The city council recently approved budget cuts of $55 million and may have to cut another $80 million in the next two years. The Library Board this year faces a $25 million operating shortfall. "Because of the severity of the proposed LGA cuts to the city, everything has to be on the table, including the library," said Rybak. In November 2000 city voters overwhelmingly approved a $140 million referendum to build the new library, but that money does not include operating expenses--a key sticking point, according to the mayor. "We cannot build the Central Library and all the community libraries in the way we have envisioned them," Rybak said. "Compromises will have to be made." Among those compromises could be a less ambitious design, no new planetarium, community library cutbacks, or even a merger with the Hennepin County library system. Scrapping the new library altogether is not an option, said Second Ward Council Member Paul Zerby, but he's not sure what the solution might be. "The old library is being demolished, the books are over in the old Federal Reserve Building, we got a $110 million referendum passed, and every year we wait will make it that much more expensive to build," he said. "I cannot conceive that we are in a situation where we are going to stop everything. But how we get out of this I do not know." UNIVERSITY OPENS HEALTH CARE CLINIC TO UNINSURED The University of Minnesota last week opened a new medical clinic in the Phillips Neighborhood designed to meet the health care needs of people without health insurance. SCULLY RETURNS WITH GAY MEN'S DANCE COMPANY The creative force behind Patrick's Cabaret is creating a new dance company. RYBAK RALLYING OPPOSITION TO NOISE INSULATION CUTS Ending a long silence on the airport noise issue, Mayor R.T. Rybak last week encouraged city residents to pack today's Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) meeting and speak against Northwest Airlines' plan to cut the number of homes covered by the MAC's noise insulation plan. ********************************************************** 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: Robert Pickering, Erik Riese ******************************************************* 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
