Mark Snyder says: "Just look at all the new development that has gotten underway during the Rybak administration. You've got the Sears project, the not one, but three grocery stores scheduled to open downtown and without subsidies for any of them (for how long did we hear that was impossible?) and numerous other projects that add up to $2.5 billion in construction that is underway in our city. Now, I'm not saying that Rybak is personally responsible for all of this."
He most certainly was not responsible for most of it, IMHO. Rybak has had an extremely narrow focus on developments in the city and almost a phobia about Tax Increment Financing (TIF); TIF was overused and sometimes inappropriately before Rybak, but a number of worthy projects have been stymied during his term in favor of high profile ones like the Sears building on Lake. TIF and Eminent Domain are tools that not enough folks understand or appreciate, and when you use them correctly, you generate revenue for the city, not the kind of overblown obligations incurred pre-RT. Projects like the industrial area surrounded by my neighborhood, SE Como, Marcy Holmes and the U got short shrift for quite some time because of a narrow, perhaps a lack, of focus on anything else but pet RT projects. Minneapolis is a pretty big city and a mayor must see the big picture or we're going to miss opportunities. I think we all suffer as a result of Rybak's short comings. We can throw around figures of $2.5 billion, but much of that happened in spite of the Rybak Administration. While we're talking about focus though, I'd like to relate a little first hand experience of Rybak's lack of it. This past spring, I attended a meeting of the Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee (CEAC, now called by the more sexy name of Environmental Coordinating Team, I think) at the request of a neighborhood organizer. One of the agenda items was whether and/or how to integrate a slate of "sustainibility indicators," a result of a winnowing down of a much larger list created by our neighbors in an ongoing city wide project, to the Minneapolis Plan. (I dropped out of this project fairly early on and was both shocked and pleased to see what I thought was a very workable set of indicators). While Rybak liked some of them, he dismissed a number of them because he saw no role for the City in monitoring them, something that might be true, but irrelevant. To be against something because it might involve plugging data collected by other individuals or organizations into a city database is stupid. Of course, he can still change his mind and adopt the complete slate. But the man lost me then and there because he was so dismissive and narrowly focused. You can shout "show me the money" all you want, Mark, but the fact is that the money is in the kind of sustainible projects and programs that I see RT's X-ray vision pass right through to see Rybak's very own arbitrary and dismal limits on our potential as a sustainible city that aren't really there. Bill Kahn supporting Peter McLaughlin in 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
