Dean Carlson writes: "Coleman's article also highlighted another absurdity with stormwatergate and that is the information on how to reduce the amount of drainage from your lot.� The information is appropriate for a developer of a new subdivision or a large lot apartment building but I'm sorry, an owner of a single family home, duplex or fourplex on a 5,000 square foot lot with best "green" intentions is not going to be constructing rain gardens, drainage swales, green roofs, or any of the other suggestions listed.� To think otherwise is just plain silliness."
I know that old saw "the road to hell is paved with good intentions," so I'm not going to argue that folks did not screw up in writing and implementing the storm water additions to our water/sewer/solid waste billing system; but to say residents/property owners are not capable of putting in rain gardens, drainage swales, green roofs, or any of the other suggestions listed" really is silliness or more correctly, ignorance. All the home improvement chains sell cheap systems to capture and use run off from roof gutters in landscaping. It may be beyond the Colemans, Carlsons, and Grahams of the world; but a "rain garden" can be made by simply digging a hole at a place in a yard where water pools and mulching it (you may want to go further for aesthetic reasons). Retaining storm water is an important way of limiting the major capital expenditures involved in controlling it without folks doing something about it on their own. Why should we pay for a major sewer project that would be unnecessary if individual properties could retain a small amount of storm water run off for a short time and make our present system adequate for the job? I suppose these folks also think that energy conservation to limit power plant construction is a bad idea too? The notion that we are not responsible for controlling storm run off, individually or as a city, is pretty silly. As for Jim Graham's and Nick Coleman's screeds, I read them all and find them factually inaccurate and full of false bravado on a regular basis. Is it unreasonable for senior citizens to have problems keeping a house up? Heck, I have sometimes have problems keeping my house up; I'm giving serious thought to moving into different sorts of digs. The mayor's office screwed up this well intended new billing system, so vote'm out in November if this is a big deal for ya; but don't tell me that the idea wasn't the most economical way of approaching the problem of handling storm water run off beyond the peak capacity of our sewer systems. Don't tell me the average property owner is incapable of digging a few holes or installing barrels under gutter downspouts. The thing to do is to help those who need help and fine tune this new system until it works properly. Belly aching from our geezer crowd may be a part of all that, but don't even pretend it is anything else but that. 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
