Mr. Raczkowski, Thank you for your letter inquiring about the last time I stopped beating my wife.
I have amended to this response a column we are publishing in all editions of Southside Pride and in Pulse of the Twin Cities. I am confident this will not satisfy you or stop inquiries about the nature of my soul and the state of sanctifying grace. Let me deal with just a few of your comments: Is Basim Sabri an "activist working for the betterment of the community?' That's an easy one. Is the community better after he does one of his redevelopment projects or is it worse? I think the answer is obvious. Take a look at the development from 2nd Avenue to 5th Avenue on Lake Street. Check it out for yourself. Try to remember what it was like before. In the past, Basim Sabri's "tactics" have been abrasive, I guess. In my dealings with him he has always been honest and direct. If he says something, he means it. If he says he will do something, he does it. The Sears building is "clearly a step up in scale for Basim." The first floor of the Sears building is about 175,000 square feet. Basim has developed 175,000 square feet of commercial space on Lake Street. He just finished remodeling almost 40,000 square feet in the Reachout building at 417 East Lake Street. He did it in six months at a cost of over $3.6 million. He got no public monies. There are now over 80 new Somali and Latin American businesses in the Lake Plaza mall. Next, you warn readers that there is a danger in Basim having "control of extremely valuable property on South Minneapolis'[s] most important artery." If the property is valuable now, it is because Basim put time, energy and money into it. It wasn't very valuable before he bought it. And, finally, you wonder about my relationship with Basim Sabri. As the accompanying article states, I was so excited with what he had done with Lake Plaza that I wanted him to do the same thing with the Sears building. What he has been doing is very similar to what I proposed doing with the Sears building in 1987. I talked about it. Basim did it. He agreed to make a proposal for Sears if I would help with the paper work and deal with government agencies and community groups. I'm the flak catcher (and, in this case, you're the flak). I do not get a salary. Sabri Properties does advertise in my newspapers. We are partners in the development of Sears, although I am a very minor partner with no capital and no responsibility for the renovation. And, you're wrong when you say, "It is my right to doubt the truth of what he publishes." It's not just your right. It's your responsibility. You should doubt the "truth" of everything you read. You should question authority. And, while you're at it, you should at some point come to the understanding that there is no such thing as truth. As Bob Dylan says, "You are right from your side, and I am right from mine. We're just one too many mornings and a thousand miles behind." Your personal perspective is valid. My personal perspective is valid. I have always tried to be honest about where I'm coming from. I would never pretend Southside Pride or Pulse of the Twin Cities are objective newspapers. There's no such thing. Any paper that pretends to objectivity is lying. All news is presented from a point of view. Papers and people should just be honest about where they're coming from. This has gone on too long. Ed Felien Powderhorn -----Original Message----- From: Ed Felien [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 1:07 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: column for Nokomis What's happening with the Sears building? By Ed Felien Some of you may have read Steve Brandt's article in the Star Tribune on June 14 noting there are now four proposals for the renovation of the Sears building at Lake and Chicago. These four proposals will go to the City Council sitting as the Board of the Minneapolis Community Development Agency sometime in September, and one developer will be selected. I am associated with Basim Sabri of Sabri Properties in presenting one of the proposals. Most readers of Southside Pride will remember my passionate pleas to save the Sears building in 1987 when a former City Council Member at that time was threatening to tear it down for a Chicago developer who wanted to put a strip mall in its place. The building actually saved itself. It turned out that it would cost almost $5 million to tear it down and haul it away, and no development on that site could pay for that kind of demolition. The main building was the largest amount of floor space in one building in the entire state before the construction of the Mall of America. Like most people born and raised in South Minneapolis, the Sears building was always a big part of my life. As a kid I got sweaters from Sears for Christmas (I hated them). My dad bought Craftsman tools there, and my mother worked in the Catalog Department for a while. I felt comfortable buying a home on 10th Avenue just two blocks from Sears in 1970, and I've lived in its comforting shadow ever since. Chicago and Lake have fallen on hard times, and the renovation and reutilization of the Sears building is probably the key to turning that corner around. Some of the most dramatic rehabilitation on Lake Street is happening with Sabri Properties' renovation of the area from 2nd Avenue to 5th Avenue, a strip that most people had given up on. Basim Sabri has financed this development on his own, and he has created business spaces for many hundreds of Somali and Latin American immigrants. With the Reachout building at 417 East Lake, he spent $3.2 million and renovated a warehouse into a sparkling shopping mall in six months. I was so excited with the results of his renovation that I convinced him to submit a proposal to do much of the same thing to the Sears building. 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, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
