Mayor Rybak wrote: "The city now owns it and it strikes me that this can and needs to be a landmark development....
The city originally acquired this as a terminal site for the Nicollet Mall shuttle...but we want it to be more exciting than that... ......it would be a shame to have it be a boring glass bus station." Vicky Heller asks: Why is the City using public money to speculate in real estate? Especially since market/taxable values are plummeting downtown (City Center, Midwest Plaza, Dayton's, Gavidae, etc.) How much property tax revenue has been lost since the City acquired this property? Ditto for Block E which as I recall was dormant for over ten years. Ditto for the Sears site which not only didn't yield tax revenue, but also cost the taxpayers a lot of additional cash to buy out Ray Harris. How about letting the public know how much the operating costs are annually for each of the City owned properties. In 2003, the Minneapolis financial reports showed over $7 billion of "non-taxable" real estate in the City. Minneapolis could balance its budget by getting rid of this stuff. Why not just sell it to the highest bidder and let the experts put their OWN money at risk? Vicky Heller North Oaks and Cedar-Riverside 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
