Well, the names of the neighborhoods may be "artificial", but at least they are documented somewhere that is easily reachable (city web site for one). My understanding is that the list just wants some idea of where the participant lives (short of a street address). Apparently the thought is that this indicates the living experience the person is presently having. I think that's valid. I live in Cooper, and that's not like living in Loring or Hawthorne or Ventura Village. But I could just say Ward 9 and get the same result. Which reminds me, there is a Maricle in Bruno who had a letter published today in the Strib, not named Susan. Wondering if that is just coincidence.
SPE's
If Sherman Associates, Inc is Enronizing the Minneapolis housing business, then I suggest getting Mike Hatch involved to indict them for fraud. The threat that someone is "suffering harm" because the city is doubtful that the taxpayers' true interest is being sesrved reminds me of LSGI. I don't know if we have a judge problem involved in private businesses turning the legitimate exercise of government power into an actionable wrong. Seems to me a fair judge wouldn't look at it this way. But correspondent Heller's claims about SAI strike me as something more, as criminal behavior by a for-profit business. That has been Mike Hatch's personal grievance during his career as AG. I think he should be looking into SAI and perhaps other contractors. Actually, so should Pat Awada, but I'm sure her sympathy is with the businesses, no matter how criminal they are.
Check Cashing
I would throw correspondent Bernstein's question back: What gives HIM the right to question what neighborhoods do or do not do with their political power? What gives any business a "right" to pick a location and move there? Who owns the Unbank? Where do THEY live? Why do they not live in Tangletown, in which case they would BE a neighbor. In short, what Bernstein has to realize is that very little in this is about rights. In FACT, the actions of the neighborhood involve sacred rights preserved in the constitution. The actions of Unbank aren't sanctified ANYWHERE. By the way, there are one, maybe two banks very near to that intersection. Now tell me again WHY the projected customers of Unbank can't do business there? I mean, it is obvious that Bernstein doesn't know the territory because the branches located there obviously DIDNT abandon the neighborhood or retail business. So, if it isn't a result of LACK of banking services, what IS it? And who that lives in Tangletown NEEDS Unbanks? It would be nice if the process allowed taking depositions under oath from the business trying to move in. Maybe THEN we'd get past the PR to the real reason. Face it, Tangletown residents have a LOT at stake, financially, in what happens to their neighborhood. They have to have radar that picks up signals of someone trying to degrade the neighborhood and fire counterstrikes. If the business isn't NEEDED and if it would cause a troublesome clientele to get used to hanging around far from where they live, the real estate owners HAVE to object. Most neighborhoods that are still in good shape do much the same thing.
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Jim Mork
Cooper Neighborhood
"The most abject slave is allowed to wave the imperial flag and cry "Hail Caesar" as the tyrant passes by." Anonymous
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