The real issue of the moment, which was the subject of my original post, is Diane Loeffler's record. It is past time for her to directly address the concerns many people have over her record with the Jackson Square proposal. To summarize, she is running on what a great record of community involvement and experience she has. Her long list of accomplishments seems to me to suffer from some "resume inflation." But the signature issue for which has been best known in Northeast, and really did have a major involvement in, is the Jackson Square Community Center. Somehow, that fact is completely missing from her list of involvements in NE. And with good reason: her involvement with that proposal demonstrated exceedingly poor judgement and calls into question what kind of vision, (despite the nice rhetoric in her campaign literature), she really has for Northeast.
I'm sorry, but not too surprised, that she has so far avoided responding directly to this issue. As I mentioned in my original post, this is not a new issue. I outlined these concerns in my July, 2002 paper which was widely distributed. At that time the task force was continuing to make empty promises about the funding that would be right around the corner. Dozens of area residents were fed up with living with the uncertainty of possibly having their homes expropriated while the task force continued to stumble along. Long overdue and sorely needed money for improvements to Jackson Square was being held up. Buildable vacant property in the "disinvestment zone" couldn't be developed. NRP funds were being squandered to promote an inappropriate facility based on a design from Shoreview and other suburban locations for which there was just no way funding was going to be found or the loss of affordable housing and park land justified. Yet Loeffler's task force was almost irrationally clinging to their proposal and refusing to accept how out of touch with reality they were.
After finally realizing that "the emperor had no clothes," the neighborhood withdrew its support and local institutions were able to proceed with realistic planning for the area. Loeffler's task force never admitted any mistakes or responsiblity for the problems they caused to local residents and institutions--nor ever provided any substantive response of any kind to our concerns. Vague statements have been made by task force members that people with concerns "didn't understand the long history" with their proposal or that the green space would have been "rearranged."
Ideally, we would have had this debate in the Northeaster newspaper but, for whatever reason, they have chosen not to publish any letters to the editor bringing up concerns with candidates (or endorsing them for that matter).
I hope that Ms. Loeffler can respond more directly to these issues so that we have some time to go back and forth a little before the election.
Bruce Shoemaker
Holland neighborhood
Message: 12 Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:28:01 -0500 From: "Jeremy Wieland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [Mpls] Re: Loeffler and the Community Center Fiasco
I cannot speak for other Northeast neighborhoods, but the Board of Saint Anthony East, as well as those residents in attendance when the Kroc idea was floated, are supportive of this plan. So at the very least you must retract the small circle remark. It becomes a false statement when endorsed by neighborhood organizations.
Jeremy Wieland Northeast Member of the SAENA board
-----Original Message-----
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
