Steve Marchese wrote:
But, I find McLaughlin's dire characterizations of this city to be way overThere are some things to remember before labeling McLaughlin's words as "dire characterizations:"
the top. Minneapolis has many problems -- fiscally, socially and otherwise
-- but this is not a place on the brink of destruction. ( I grew up in New
York City in the 1970's and know first hand what cities on the brink look
like.)
You can never compare Minneapolis to NYC in any logical, fair way for more reasons than there is room to recite.
We're at day one of the countdown before the DFL convention so the political hyperbola has been building all week.
Vis-a-vis the NRP and public safety we are in dire straights and the burden is on RT because we had, with very hard work from the inception of CCP/SAFE, finally learned some things about each other to make cooperation possible between inner city residents and police officers.. That, in turn, engendered real momentum in addressing safety issues for residents. Coupled with NRP we have been addressing human infrastructural issues and housing issues for the inner city which has had a major, positive effect on the city's income. All of that work was done by Mayors Fraser and Sayles Belton (and SSB while she was CM) with yeoman service by other DFL politicians in various offices. McLaughlin was there from the beginning and pulled his weight throughout.
We contracted for 20 years of funding at $20 million/year to the NRP Process. RT, using the excuse and the excuses of Gov.. Pawlenty, et. al., has worked to dismantle the NRP to fill holes in his budgets that result both from paying down the credit and by very deep and very stupid LGA cuts. The city cannot afford not to meet the commitment of $20 for 20 without a consequence of lessening the improving revenue stream. That consequence is fairly dire.
RT rode into office by trashing SSB, accusing SSB and her supporters of being tax and spend liberals, basically, and of running up the bills. However, the tax base is very much improved in several key areas of the city (a city which cannot expand it's geographic borders to improve the tax base). The stuff already in the pipeline when RT took office came to fruition and he is now taking credit for work we did. The improvements in the bottom line may have resulted from his belt tightening but the belt tightening would not have served us without the work of Fraser and SSB and McLaughlin.
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