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I sent this yesterday but the format was screwed up. I hope it
comes through O.K. this time. JC
Psst. Hey, you. Yes, you. Did you read the Strib last Tuesday?
Did you see that little soundbite tucked into a section called
"Short Slices" or "Quick Jabs" or something snappy like that?
I am referring to the bold announcement that Jon Campbell,
CEO of Wells Fargo, supports something he calls "transportation
mix", a healthy recipe of trains, busses, bikes, roller blades,
and what the heck, a rickshaw or two - oh yeah, and of course,
freeways.
Freeways.
Psst. Lean in a little closer and I'll let you in on a secret. When
Jon Campbell isn't lauding the virtues of public transportation in
the Strib, he busies himself promoting affordable housing, crime
reduction and general happiness and welfare for all the good
people of Phillips. He calls his band of do-gooders the Phillips Partnership and counts among them Allina Healthcare and Fannie
Mae. Their favorite lawyers? Smith Parker - Unbounded by Precendent, Public Scrutiny or Rule of Law.
A case in point: tucked back on page eight of the Phillips
Partnership newsletter is a monthly update on "infrastructure".
This is a code word for freeway access. Flip past the pictures
of Jon Campbell shaking the hands of new Hmong home owners
or picking up litter at Chicago and Lake and you find the raison
d'etre of the Phillips Partnership. Could it be that all the hype
over housing and crime is but a smoke screen designed to shield
these companies from scrutiny over a freeway expansion that
amounts to corporate welfare?
With a deft hand like that of the vantriloquist, Campbell and other
corporate leaders have managed to keep citizens and local councilpersons at bay while federal funds flow copiously into the
coffers of Smith Parker. Like a robust virus, these spinsters pop
up at meetings all over town to convince people that an eight lane
Lake Street isn't really as bad as it sounds, and now we'll turn it
over to Craig with his mitigation package, complete with
round-a-bouts, pocket parks and those nifty purple pavers.
This circus is reminicent of the good ol' 1890's when William
Washburn and company, living large on the profits of flour milling,
held the reins to virtually any public project. Government did the
bidding of the millers and the railroaders. If infrastructure projects
got done, it was in the name of business - from the Stone Arch
Bridge to the apron holding up St. Anthony Falls.
One hundred years later, and under the euphemism of the
"public/private partnership" this profiteering goes something
like this: form a limited liability corporation including the wealthiest companies in the neighborhood, and reserve two slots for the
mayor and county commissioner. Design a freeway exit cum
driveway-into- your-parking-ramp, christen it "The Flyover" and
hire the most well-connected public relations firm in the city to
trumpet your cause. Hope that tax-payers won't notice that the behemoth costs $12 million at little or no value to the general
public. Then sit back, sip martinis, and behold the spectacle of bulldozers reducing homes to rubble to clear the way for
progress. No matter that the republicans in the House slashed
the mitigation dollars, and with the project running over budget,
the "highest and best use" for the land under the ramp turns out
to be a parking lot. Go figure. At least we saved three minutes
and a little anxiety for the telemarketers beaming their way into the mothership.
Jeff Carlson, Whittier |
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