I regret to inform Mr. Snyder that he is, unfortunately, indeed incorrect. In his own words he stated: "It's actually a use restriction (not a complete ban because there are exceptions for new lawns, etc.)."
My specific point on phosphorus lawn chemicals has been that there is no ban on them, just a use restriction & ban on city sales -- which can be avoided by those who wish to. But we do digress...my intention was never to get caught up in the details of examples, but to express that Mayor R.T. Rybak has simply not been the "people's champion" he campaigned as. Chris Allison Lyndale Neighborhood Mark Snyder wrote: >> >>I regret to inform Mr. Allison that he is, unfortunately, indeed incorrect. While the city ordinance does deal with the sale of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus, I made a mistake yesterday when I wrote that the state statute dealing with phosphorus in fertilizer was also a ban on sales. It's actually a use restriction (not a complete ban because there are exceptions for new lawns, etc.). This restriction essentially bans the use of phosphorus in lawn fertilizers in the Twin Cities metro area in established lawns, since few will meet the test for insufficient phosphorus content. It doesn't matter whether the fertilizer is applied by a do-it-yourselfer or by a lawn service, it's still not allowed. Here's a link to the language: http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/stats/18C/60.html In addition, I pasted the text of the statute at the end of my post. I'm not sure why Mr. Allison was given incorrect information by the lawn service he called, but it certainly doesn't back up his argument that Rybak broke a campaign promise regarding this issue. It merely shows that he either spoke with someone who is incompetent or that the lawn service hasn't gotten wind of the new rules they're supposed to follow, which just went into effect as of January 1, 2004. Hopefully they will get that squared away before they start breaking the law in a few months by applying an illegal fertilizer. As for why it's a big deal in the context of his writings, it's because we should expect our local journalists to meet some standard of accuracy in their work if they expect to be taken seriously. Mr. Allison's errors are no different from the one made in the Strib editorial where Rybak was chided for "Fuzzy math in trying to pad his affordable housing production totals." when anybody who spent more than five minutes following that story knows that Rybak's administration was not responsible for that "fuzzy math" - they're the ones who fixed it. It's certainly anyone's right to criticize the mayor or any other elected official they disagree with. Just try and get it right when you do. It's really not that hard to check your facts. If you don't bother to do that, don't be surprised when someone criticizes your criticism... Mark Snyder Windom Park ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! 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
