On Wednesday, June 2, 2004, at 10:17 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I welcome interest and debate concerning the Above the Falls Master Plan.
And debate is badly needed- the plan is clearly the work of an insular group of planners with no budget concerns whatsoever.
The seat I was elected to is as a neighborhood representative of all the
neighborhoods in the Mississippi Watershed (formerly the Middle Mississippi
Watershed). It is the largest geographic area represented, so I really
appreciate this forum as a way of communicating.
So could we Northsiders make these decisions ourselves without the inevitable meddling of the more gentrified neighborhoods who think they know what's best for us?
Major Benefits of Plan Implementation 90 acres of new park
While the Park Board can't afford to maintain what they already have. Sounds like a plan to expand Weed Park upriver...
15 milesof bike lanes and recreational trails
Again, where will the $$$ come to maintain this?
4 miles of restored riverbank
Does your committee even know where the original riverbank is?
5.25 miles of parkway and boulevard
To nowhere...
2,500 housing units in new riverfront neighborhoods
Affordable if you make over $100,000 a year....
2,000 net additional jobs
lost. Where are these new jobs going to come from? If you'd looked at the plan you'd see that it calls for leveling block after block of businesses. Do you have commitments from any business that will move here to replace the jobs your plan will eliminate?
Over $10 million in additional annual tax revenue
Probably lost when we take tax paying property and turn it into park land.
Dyna says: AFCAC doesn't represent, " the thousands of ordinary workingfolks that will lose their
jobs if the plan is ever implemented."
AFCAC is a really interesting group of people that does include the people
that Dyna say are excluded.
For example there are members from American Iron, La Farge Corporation,
Marshall Concrete and Aggregate industries who are representing heavy industry.
They represent business, not workers... sorry, but you're republican platitudes won't fly here.
As for blue collar workers and ordinary working folks they are represented on
the board by myself and others.
The Teamsters, AFSCME, UTU, BLE, IBEW, APWU, LUINA, and several other unions have thousands of members who work along the upper river, Which of these unions and their members do you represent?
The Upper Harbor Terminal has- I think 5 employees- and is a financial drain
on the City.
Because it has been neglected and poorly managed.
There is a current study about what to do when and if the
Harbor Closes. I think that it can be closed if there is a place to dump dredge
spoils.
There is a lot more moving at Port of Minneapolis than dirt- have you ever been there?
Whether it should be closed or not is a much larger question.
Indeed it is- communities all over western Minnesota rely on Port of Minneapolis as an outlet for their crops. We need alliances with those communities at the legislature, and closing the Port will produce such ill will that those outstate legislators will seek revenge against Minneapolis for years to come. BTW, have any of your board members ever followed the river down to the last lock? Or followed the railroads that feed Port of Minneapolis out to the Dakotas? I have, but I'm just a dumb working stiff that needs smart people like your board to decide stuff for me...
Housing-, our metro population is predicted to increase by one million in
the near future.
And they can't afford the luxury condos along the river your plan envisions.
Dyna says: "This plan is years old and that has yet to happen... says something of the interest in said plan." There is interest and funding. To name a few: There is the Grain Belt Complex with a great new library on the river. The wonderful North Interpretive Center and Park.
That was a separate project.
GAF received a grant to implement a more environmentally friendly presence
on the River.
Given that the plan calls for leveling GAF, is this a waste of money or admission that the plan is being abandoned?
Close architects are putting the final touches on plans for trail and park
improvements for Skyline Park and the western shoreline between the Plymouth
and the BN bridge.
As if the Park Board could afford it.
There is funding for major stormwater improvements in the Hawthorne neighborhood.
And if my block is leveled for that where will I and my neighbors find affordable housing? Hopefully your park will at least have some picnic shelters for us to sleep under...
There is a masterplan and a funding for Edgewater Park (Gluek park is an unfunded tragedy)
So how can we afford to develop Edgewater park when we can't even afford to fence off, never mind decontaminate, Gluek Park?
There is an Army Corps Plan for pool one (this area) that would greatly
improve the health of the river.
There is an additional 11.2 million dollars from the Mississippi Watershed
Management Organization 10 year capital improvement plan slated for the Above
the Falls Plan.
There is 1.9 million from the National Park Service MNRRA area which
includes the AFCAC area.
So after years of lobbying you've got 13.1 million dollars allocated for a $1,000,000,000+ plan. Looks like it's time to send that overly ambitious plan back to the drawing board!
From River Mile 856, west bank...
Dyna Sluyter
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