At the risk of being buried in protest, I want to support Dean Zimmermann's vote for the access project.
Minneapolis needs jobs to stay in the city and people have to be able to get to them in a timely and safe manner. It is simply unrealistic to believe that all growth in Minneapolis jobs can be filled by Minneapolis residents who will not need to use the Interstate to get to them. Dean is just being practical. If the commerical tax base diminishes it means an increase in property tax for homeowners and other taxes on city services too, probably. Minneapolis has already lost plenty of jobs -- do you really want to lose these jobs too? My understanding is that the employer in question has been a very good neighbor, indeed. Plus, a hospital & its services are good quality, non-polluting jobs. The presence of this employer helps stabilize the neighborhood. IMHO, I think it is in Minneapolis' interest to have some portion of people from outside the immediate city working inside the city limits -- Minneapolis needs the rest of the metro area to patronize its businesses and services and to be comfortable in the city if it is going to be a vital central city. I want suburbanites circulating through the city so that they aren't afraid of it and hostile to Minneapolis' interests. Yes, autos are pollution-belching machines, but they are going to get a lot cleaner and they will remain one part of the overall solution. Changing how big a part of the solution they are is something that is going to happen incrementally over a long time horizon. Right now, Minneapolis needs this business to stay and it needs to make its commercial nodes accessible and attractive for retail traffic. Obviously, we need more transit too -- but - realistically - with the coming increase in the population we need to improve both the road and transit infrastructure. Hooray for Dean for bringing forth an innovative and cleaner addition to Minneapolis' transportation infrastructure. There are many parts to transportation solutions -- roads arejust one of them. While on the topic, I just don't "get" some Mpls residents' opposition to having them dang suburbanites driving into their neighborhoods, even on the main arterials. (I do understand not wanting traffic on neighborhood streets, but that's unrealistic too). Those dang suburbanites stop and spend money at your commerical nodes and that's a GOOD thing. (Not shouting, just for emphasis.) Do people truly believe that neighborhood businesses don't need the traffic from outside the immediate neighborhood and indeed, from outside the city? Barbara Nelson Burnsville formerly of Seward and planning to move back to 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. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ 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
