Speaking of false economies, remember when there was a mailbox every few corners in every neighborhood? Not any more. Now, instead of one government vehicle driven to each mailbox, there are hundreds of cars driven the miles to the closest post office. Saves the government a little time and gas, and cost all the rest of us collectivley much more time and gas. What false economist dreamed this one up?
Privatizing plowing is just about as stupid. Both are capitalist individualism and shortsightedness run amok. --David Shove Roseville On Sat, 18 Oct 2003, Mark Snyder wrote: > 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 > 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
