Re: [Mpls] Airport strategy and no progress on the Pealing Paint

[Dyna]

	First off, my daily update on the peeling paint crime scene. I took a 
look at it again and indeed the eaves are at least 20 feet above the 
ground so unless the city loans me one of there bucket trucks there's 
no way I can reach there. Some of the lower stuff I can reach, but with 
continuing gang activity in the 'hood the only part I can safely work 
on is the quarter or so of my house that's fenced off. The windows and 
doors were all slated for replacement until Hawthorne neighborhood 
group somehow ran out of money in their deferred loan program, though 
they still have funds available for absentee landlords! So essentually 
about 90% of the trim would have been permanently replaced with 
maintence free materials if this NRP funded neighborhood group had not 
dropped the ball. The remaining trim (the eaves) would have been 
replaced with aluminum when the roof needs doing in 10 years or so. In 
conclusion, it doesn't look like there's much I can do but paint some 
of the first floor window frames that really should be replaced and are 
hidden from public view behind a fence anyway..

On Friday, August 22, 2003, at 01:03 PM, Chris Johnson wrote:

Terrell Brown is imagining a false situation.  We are not shipping 
freight via air from the Minneapolis airport; we are shipping it via 
truck to Chicago and then via air freight from there.  So if a company 
in Minneapolis wanted to ship something to say Munich, Germany, it 
would be a choice of an hour or two to Rochester, or 6 to 8 hours to 
Chicago via truck.  Note that we already have more than 2 airports.  
Note that there are 2 major airports in Chicago, likewise in 
Washington DC, and more than 2 in many large metro areas, such as San 
Francisco.  It's entirely possible to support multiple airports -- in 
fact, I'd argue it's more a case of multiple airports supporting 
surrounding industry; they are an advantage, not a cost center.
	We're not shipping foreign freight from MSP because they're isn't 
enough volume here to justify a multi-million dollar automated sorting 
facility and to fill cargo planes to every world destination. For that 
reason even if you built the finest possible air freight hub in 
Rochester most of the overseas air freight would get trucked right past 
it to Chicago. Chicago is within a day by road of most of the eastern 
U.S. and centrally located, Rochester is not.

Let's also make it clear that a most of this freight is not 
originating in Minneapolis.  I chose Munich as the example city in the 
previous paragraph because a company called FSI International in 
Chaska does exactly this.  There are lots of companies all over the 
state of Minnesota that ship via air freight internationally.
	The biggest chunk of the international air freight market here is 
taken by UPS, and they truck much of it to a giant hub in Louisville. 
The Postal Service moves most foreign parcels through O'Hare. Do you 
see a pattern here? And no, they're not going to move to Rochester.

As for focusing on Hawthorne and Jordan, instead of doing this -- 
well, if Minnesota and Minneapolis become has-beens in the world of 
commerce, we won't have any money or jobs to fix those problems in 
north Minneapolis.  That guns are being fired in neighborhoods in no 
way relegates all other problems to the trash bin, to be ignored until 
the "gun problem" is solved.
	Building a big empty air freight hub in Rochester will do nothing to 
solve the problems of the affected neighborhoods. If our mayor wants to 
improve our connections to the rest of the world he should support high 
speed rail links to Chicago and other major markets instead.

	In continued criminal possession of peeling paint in Hawthorne,

		Dyna Sluyter

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.)
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