Dorie Rae Gallagher wrote:
don't blame RT for the previous mayor and city council's mistakes.
They are the ones who spent like there was no
tomorrow...they are the ones who weaken our bond rating and they are
the ones who dug us into the hole
Actually, we dug ourselves into a hole. The NRP is $20 million/yr. for
20 yrs. We wanted it, we pushed for it, we got it. It was designed for
20 years. From watching it through gestation, to birth, to continuation,
I'd say that the strength of the NRP as an idea probably had less than a
20 year practical shelf life because so much money has been attached to
it. Had the emphasis remained one of teaching neighborhoods how to take
back their power from the bureaucracies, the impact might have been
longer term on the populace. However, to get cooperation all around,
money had to be in the mix in a major way.
By referendum, we voted for $140 million for a new library. It was a
knee jerk vote. Since we are talking NRP era, none of us voters actually
sat down with the library board and considered whether a new downtown
library was entirely in keeping with the mission of the public library,
whether it made sense for the way in which information gets delivered,
whether we could afford it, since $140 million didn't cover the cost of
this new downtown library. I believe the library board originally asked
for $170 mil., but got no support in city hall.
Had we all considered the issue of a new central library in context of
considering the entire library system, the outcome would have been very
different and, in IMO, much more future considerate of the population.
We have now bought ourselves into a very expensive toy which we will use
to centralize, sanitize, and dumb down our library system, just when we
should be decentralizing and reaching out for a larger patron base.
It was SSB, by the way, who insisted that $140 mil was all the traffic
would bear and that of that $140 mil. $30 mil. had to go to community
libraries. Thank you, Sharon. The Library board wanted only a new
central library, they caved to the $30 mil. for community libraries to
get mayoral support.
The pounds on RT sound like they have been written down and passed around.
Yes, they have been written down and passed around--on the Minneapolis
Issues list.
I would also like to bring up....when those of us respond with a
postive post for RT...we get attack off list by Peter's supporters.
The rules of the list are that if you want to get personal, take it off
list. Consider it part of being a poster.
WizardMarks, Central
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