On 7/2/03 3:31 PM, "Scott Persons" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> While I am always impressed to hear how many classes and experience people > have I wonder how David reconciles his study and real world experience with > all the small business and corporate support for this project in the > affected areas. Why do businesses want this infrastructure investment and > the learned and experienced Mr. Piehl rejects it? Businesses want this > project because it brings more customers to the area so they can grow and > invest in their businesses, they believe it will make their business better. > Please find me a business owner who wants the status quo who isn't just > saying that to appease residents who are hostile to the project. Someone told me that speculation was the lifeblood of this forum, so here goes: Those businesses that reportedly want the Access project might simply believe what they've been told by Smith-Parker, et al about how the increased traffic would include customers coming to visit their businesses, regardless of whether that's actually true. Maybe they're just na�ve. Or, some have said that many of the businesses along Lake are owned by immigrants. Perhaps they may be saying they favor the project out of fear of any repercussions from disagreeing with "authority figures" who support it. Many immigrants come from nations where disagreeing with authority figures comes with quite severe consequences. Isn't that why it's often hard to get immigrants to speak up about harms that have been inflicted upon them through police brutality and so forth? Or, since Scott Persons doesn't cite any sort of record showing that businesses actually support the Access project, maybe he's just making all that stuff up. After all, others have said the opposite, that many small business owners fear losing their their businesses due to Lake St being widened or from the impact the construction would have on local traffic. The latter is certainly an understandable fear. Prolonged road construction was blamed for the loss of several businesses in the Dinkytown area while I was attending the U back in the early to mid-90's. It's just recently starting to become a more vibrant area again in the last year or two. This is just off the top of my head. I'm sure others can also come up with good possibilities to discuss. Mark Snyder Windom Park TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ 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
