> First it's London and now a San Francisco proposal. Does a downtown drivers > tax have merit in Minneapolis? Here is the link to the SF story. > (http://sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/15/news/20050215_ne01_toll.txt)
NO! Absolutely not! First off, at it's worst, traffic downtown Minneapolis still moves along pretty well. Our downtown congestion is obviously not even comparable to SF's. Want to find some money in the budget, and improve traffic downtown? Get rid of the traffic cops set out to mirror traffic lights downtown during rush hour. They do nothing more than tell you to go when the light turns green. Minneapolis is supposed to be the smartest city in the country. I think we can figure out green means go, and red means stop without further direction. All these officers accomplish is slowing down traffic. People live downtown these days. Alot of them. Are we to penalize them if they decide to drive out of town? Pay to leave your home? The article in the SF Examiner didn't have anything to say about commercial vehicles. Taxis, courriers and limos are already paying massive fees for licensing, permits, and insurance. Would this congestion tax be applied to them as well? Our city, county and state governments are already sucking too much money out of our pockets. Keep your hands off my wallet! Remember when our tax dollars supporting the parks was enough? Now we have to pay to park at parks we already paid for with taxes. Our taxes pay for roads, and now you suggest we pay to use the roads our taxes already paid for!? Dan McGrath Longfellow http://www.smokeoutgary.org REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact 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 Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
