Though I've been critical of Mayor Rybak myself, and will continue to hold his feet to the fire, I must say I agree with Terrell Brown 100% on this one. Airport noise was one of the issues the brought down the previous Mayor, and at least this one is doing a halfway decent job of keeping one of his promises.
Nevertheless, I understand Dyna's rage and frustration. Compared to gunshots, airport noise is, indeed, small potatoes, and the Mayor could and should be doing more for the Northside so that Councilmember Samuels (whose shaping up as a formidable opponent to R.T. from what people tell me) doesn't end up in the hospital after too many fasts. Also, I very much appreciated Booker Hodges post yesterday. The City Pages cover story "Jordan One Year Later: What's Different, What's The Same" was also an excellent read. And I thought it was interesting that the Mayor declined to join the roundtable discussion (that included Michelle Gross, Natalie Lee Johnson, Tim Dolan, Ron Ryan, Steven Oates and Shane Price), claiming that he needed to concentrate on preparing the city's budget when the discussion lasted all of 75 minutes. So even though I disagree with Dyna's implication that the Mayor should do nothing about airplane noise, I feel Rybak is at least projecting the appearance of paying way more attention to the needs of the South over the needs of the North. This may very well cost him the next election should he decide to run again. As for the paint peeling controversy, people do need to keep their property in good repair so that property values don't go down for their neighbors. What many of us fail to realize in this hyper-individualistic nation is that our actions, as well as what we neglect to do, may have a huge impact on the well-being of others. Yesterday evening I was riding my bike through Dinkytown on my way to dinner at Kafe 415 (an excellent new restaurant, by the way) and noticed several run down frat houses. While I'm sympathetic to cutting a little slack for low-income home owners, I think it's outrageous that rich white males are allowed to neglect their property to the detriment of their neighbors. ---------Peter Schmitz CARAG 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
