On 10/18/03 12:40 AM, "Tim Bonham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> You don't often hear Minneapolis politicians wanting to emulate St. Paul, >> but City Councilmember Dan Niziolek is floating the idea of making alley >> maintenance a private, not city responsibility, to focus spending on city >> streets. >> . . . >> David Brauer >> Kingfield > > Ah -- yet another indirect way for city residents to subsidize suburbanites > (or those neighborhoods that want to look like suburbs). > > And proposed, not by one of the suburban republican legislators who hate > the city, but by a person who is supposedly one of our own, an elected City > Council member! How quickly power corrupts. Given that alley maintenance is covered through property taxes (if I'm reading the article correctly), I'm not sure how making alley maintenance private would subsidize suburbanites. Regardless, I think it's kind of a dumb idea. It sounds like it would save $200K per year, which isn't much given the hassles it would create in many areas of the city. The article referenced that in St. Paul, a household might spend $10-$20 a winter on alley plowing. Compare that to the approximately $2.50 a winter that is being spent now. I figured this by divided $200,000 by the number of houses in Minneapolis (approx. 80,000). This sounds like another one of those cases (like garbage hauling) where the gov'ment mules actually provide a service cheaper than private contractors could, much to the dismay of the fiscal hawks. My hope is that Minneapolis would resist the temptation to follow Norm Coleman and Randy Kelly's leads on how to balance a municipal budget. Mark Snyder Windom Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ 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
