[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
RT Ryback got his present job because its previous holder, Sharon Sayles Belton was pro-stadium and was percieved to be in the pocket of developers who benefited from the city's financing of downtown development projects, gentrification, etc.Perceptions are what they are, but the one who came out of the SSB era with the most "favors" was Rebecca Yanish. She's the one who jumped from the MCDA to Ryan Co. to a US Senate bid. SSB did clearly support building lots of razzmatazz in the loop. Turning the warehouses into lofts and building condos seems clearly designed to bring residents into downtown who will support the built industries from what I've seen and news reports. I'd say the condos and lofts are designed some for the wealthy, some for yuppies, buppies and guppies, and some for empty nesters. These people are probably the same ones who will support a Twins Stadium and they won't have to park.
I say this to support the notion that there has been a shift in the demographics, probably begun when Ray Harris did those townhouses just off Loring Park (Green something), if not sooner. It always existed in potential because housing around the loop tends toward lots of very small units, as do those in Loring Heights, Stevens Square, and Elliot Park. That goes back to Fraser as mayor? Maybe further. The bread and butter audience for a stadium is now on-site. Last week's paper did announce someone applying to build a mondo condo land as tall as the IDS or higher.
This is not a new phenomenon. The Colliseum in Rome, the balls fields at Palenque, Chitzen Itza, and tons of other sites, Ascot, the original Olympics were all in cities or city states and were built by the slaves/serfs/peons. Did the wealthy then do their fair share? Highly doubtful. They would not have lifted a stone into place, nor hauled from quarries, nor anything else implying sweat. No matter what we assert as the names of the gods, money is always the first among them.
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