[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
So everyone that opposes your plan or votes against your wishes is doing so NOT
because they think it is best, but because they are corrupt?
That's a pretty self-serving way to place the question, Mr. Thompson.
The issue revolves around what is the MPRB's responsibility, in this
instance, to take care of Nicollet Island, a Mpls. park. Nowhere in the
MPRB role could you conceivably connect conveying Nicollet Island park
land to a private school as filling the role of taking care of Nicollet
Island.
I don't have much sympathy either for the Islanders or for deLaSalle:
two groups of highly privileged people going at it hammer and tongs does
not move me to side with the one or the other. But the island itself,
now that's another story. It's a pretty delicate piece of property which
has been much abused for a century and a half. (Funny how the Indians
could live with it for thousands of years and it looked absolutely
pristine when Hennepin and Nicollet paddled up to it--or so their
diaries and letters would indicate.)
I think the term 'conflict of interest' is very fuzzy and fails to plumb
the depths of the real problem. To wit: why is the park board giving
away an eco-delicate park to deLaSalle who says it will bring in
hundreds more cars and the people in them, put down astroturf, build
bleachers, put in screaming big lights, concession stands, locker rooms,
and, in general, torture the environment. That is the first concern in
this issue and neither the MPRB nor deLaSalle has addressed it. People
on this list (and elsewhere, no doubt) have jumped up and down on
conflict of interest in the legal sense of the term, but not in either
the ecological sense of the term or the political sense of the term as
it relates to the MPRB.
Political sense of conflict of mission as it relates to the MPRB's
interest: Though we be deep in the heart of Denial, MN, the park board
still proposes to give away a chunk of land to a religious institution
in a country that makes a lotta noise about the righteousness of the
separation of church and state. I doubt there could be a clearer
instance of offending that principle around at the moment.
Ecological conflict of interest: From the position of the MPRB, the
ecobest they can do is to say a pox on both the islanders and the
school. This is park land, this is a very delicate piece of land, this
is a part of MN history for eons (probably since the glaciers), and both
the residents and the school can keep their grubby mitts off it! It
already has more pressure than it should have to endure. Head races and
tail races that no longer operate, miles of defunct tunnel, a lock and
dam, a hydropower plant, a restaurant, a school, a hulking replacement
bridge, a small bridge, a railroad bridge, and a foot bridge, and
whatever else. It's a little island with a tough history and an already
tough job to do.
There are lots of parks in Mpls. and a case can be made for the unique
qualities of every one of them; but this one, this little island in the
stream, is so precious that the idea of putting a football
stadium/field/whoopie ground with Astroturf on it (Astroturf! of all the
ignorant &%*#+&^% !) is outrageous on its face.
We have no business giving up even an inch of land on the islands in the
Mississippi to any private entity and certainly not if it offends a
founding principle of this nation state.
So, no, Mr. Thompson, it may be that various posters have missed the
bull's eye here, but conveying land to deLaSalle is a conflict of
interest on a couple of very important levels.
WizardMarks, Central
________________________________
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
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
