On Sunday, September 5, 2004, at 09:55 AM, Eva Young wrote:
Gotta hand it to the Taxpayer's League. They are good at getting their goofy ideas covered in the media.
And when a member in good standing of the Taxpayer's League's favorite political party says their outa line, she's probably right.
Tongue in cheek I'm tempted to support the renaming Minnesota Truck Highway 55 for Ronald Reagan- the republicans would get all carried away and make it Interstate 92 and make a decent freeway of it clear past the Missouri River. Once the taxpayer had their fill of that and booted the republicans from office we DFLers would put the Olson Memorial Highway signs back up, and the tribal casino on the other side of the river would do a roaring business what with the new freeway to funnel busloads of gamblers their way.
Quite seriously, we DFLers being better transportation planners would get the Olson Memorial Highway designated as part of the National Highway System, opening the door to some much needed rebuilding and safety improvements to this neglected highway. From Hastings to Minneapolis the Olson Memorial highway is already 4 laned, and upgrading the stretch from Hastings to Pine Bend makes a lot more sense than a billion dollar bridge across the Mississippi and bypass of Hastings. To the west upgrading the Olson Memorial Highway to expressway standards would strengthen rural economies and provide an alternative to increasingly overcrowded Interstate 94.
On to other issues of current import-
The red light cameras have one problem not yet mentioned- what if those "caught" don't bother paying the fine? Sure, we can virtually pull their licenses in absentia, but since it's MPD policy not to arrest people for driving without a license there's no teeth in the law. Consider also that a lot of red light runners may simply find new and creative ways to make their license plates unreadable.
Another grand example of the failure of "law enforcement by remote control" is MPD's new blue bus. It's been parked for a couple days now a block from my most humble home in the 'hood, but it only took about a day for the local criminals to figure out that the lights were on but no cops were home. Sure enough, yesterday morning a carload from the 'burbs was enjoying their crack in a blind spot of the less than block away blue bus. Later that day a car was stolen from nearly the same spot. The moral here is that there's no point in our city buying pricey toys- "mobile command units" run upwards of $100,000- unless we have the officers to staff them. Consider also that an unstaffed "Mobile Command Unit" is a tempting target for gangbangers- whoever steals or torches the blue bus will gain considerable street cred... So if we can't staff it let's sell it and use the proceeds to put some officers on the street!
As for wireless internet access, the Ricochet system is still up on our light poles and ready to be turned back on, all we need to do is cut a deal with the new owners like Denver and San Diego did. However, I've been told that our city fathers and mothers are scared of offending Qwest, even though Qwest has no competing wireless internet service, so don't expect Minneapolis wide wireless access anytime soon.
wired down in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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