Thanks to Jim Graham for addressing Michael Atherton's latest PPERRIA NRP screed, but I feel that I should, at the risk of being corrected again, point out that the primary issue on which Atherton entered the realm of PPERRIA was a property tax assessment for most of the cost of a Phase I sidewalk lighting strategy which slightly less than half of the neighborhood opposed along with a number of absentee landlords. Our CP at the time, Joan Campbell, set the support needed to pass this assessment at a simple majority, so it passed in a door to door canvass of the neighborhood where no response meant no support. The NRP rules were changed in the middle of the process to allow for a greater share of the project cost to be covered by NRP funds--up to 50% I think--for lighting projects, but for a number of reasons project proponents did not want to restart things to take advantage of the lower assessments, most notably because it would probably have killed the project. We have our lights and the neighborhood has become less ambivalent about them with time; I personally don't like them anymore, having initially supported them, because I drive in St. Paul in darkness looking for numbers on street signs that are sometimes mounted on them (glare results in blinding one's eyes at the driver's level). In any case, Atherton and one other member of a large group of Prospect Park neighbors remain fixtures at PPERRIA and PPERRIA NRP meetings arguing mostly the same points on which they opposed the original Safety and Security Committee lighting strategy. I wrote a song about the long episode entitled "The Ballad of Sidewalk Lighting" that I will gladly share off-list for those interested, if I can remember all the lyrics that is. PPERRIA minutes are a new issue for these two men.
These minutes are taken by our long serving, dedicated, and paternalistic secretary in a sort of folksy style that I feel may favor good appearances over accuracy; I must admit that when I am called upon to take the minutes of any group with whom I'm associated, they read like soap opera or farce. For accuracy's sake then, I prefer a bare bones style that identifies people, points, and actions taken. It is all about memory and perception after all and to let a certain personal or group theme creep into a writing style for minutes can lead to the kind of assessment that Atherton has made about PPERRIA many times in many venues. It might be of interest or at least amusement to list members that PPERRIA may have approved the last meeting minutes having neither seen nor read them. I did not vote to do so since I could nnot remember reading them, but the newsletter containing them did not come to me in the mail until a day or so after the meeting. As Graham points out, no one is quite as perfect as Atherton who did in fact start a new Prospect Park neighborhood association; I don't know what happened to it in the end. Now, as to my Minneapolis Childrens Museum error, I have apologized for my ignorance; I moved here in 1993 and as far as I was concerned, the Bandana Square site was the original for me until I was corrected. I think that Atherton should start a new Childrens Museum in Prospect Park at the site of the recently closed Tower Grocery, Bedford near University Ave., SE. He could have displays of plasticized human bodies so kids may examine the human condition inside and out and he could have interactive displays demonstrating the fundamentally violent nature of Homo sapiens sapiens to children too. The developmental influence over SE Minneapolis kids and beyond that he could have is truly something to think about. Bill Kahn Prospect Park 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
