Phyllis is correct about the pension bonding. She sounds like a good fiscal
conservative. Of course you can not be a true liberal without knowing that
we must conserve our resources if we wish to help as many as possible. In
addition to understanding the pitfalls of pension bonding Laura also should
realize that though the roof may not be leaking in her Como neighborhood it
is pouring through in some inner-city neighborhoods. It is a matter of
priorities. As someone who knows something about buildings I can assure
Laura that not spending what is needed to fix the roof means allowing the
house to rot down.
Perhaps for Laura public safety is not a priority, but for those ducking
bullets and watching gang activities take over the lives of their children
it is. The Phillips community had TEN RAPES last month. There was a serial
rapist brutally beating his victims. For those women it was not a leaky
roof, it was a Hurricane Katrina entering their lives. The one attempt to
steal my car and the second successful stealing of my car a week later can
be classified as a leaky roof, but for rape victims and for those with
children killed in Minneapolis it is a world catastrophe! Those that do not
think so should maybe talk to some of the families around Little Earth in
South Minneapolis or around 26th and Penn over North to name only a couple.
It is also a matter of economics. With safe walkable neighborhoods property
vales go up. Minneapolis reaps the benefit of the extra taxes entering its
coffers. Costs of operating the City also go down with safe streets. Since
the leaky roof and hurricane are being symbolically used perhaps we should
look at Katrina as an example. How many millions would it have taken to
actually protect New Orleans from Katrina? Fifty? One hundred million?
The local, state, and federal governments thought it too much. So how does
that compare to the many billions it is costing to rebuild that City.
The same is true in Minneapolis. We spent many millions by Sharon and RT
attempting to get the middle class to stop fleeing and move back to the
City. Yet we scrimp on investing in the one reason most fled in the first
place, PUBLIC SAFETY! RT and his buddies are being penny wise and dollar
stupid. Safe cities and communities bring investment from other sources.
Safe Cites and Neighborhoods pay dividends in tax dollars returned that far
exceed any other investment. Unsafe neighborhoods start a spiral downward
that costs much more to arrest, let alone reverse. Better libraries, better
streets, better parks around RT's buddies' lakes, NONE of it matters if
people are scared to live there. Also those nice things can not be afforded
if you do not have the tax base to support them. Even those needing remedial
courses in economics and business for dummies can figure that out.
We DO need some real fiscal conservatives (true liberals) running the City.
What we have now is a Mayor who is too busy putting in the gazebo and patio
in the back yard. Someone only interested in looking good. While bragging
about saving a little money by not fixing the roof that protects both the
family and the home RT ignores what really impacts the quality of life in
Minneapolis. Don't fix the roof leak and the house rots down. Don't fix
the safety problem and the City rots down from the inside out. The City
then becomes like those houses in Woodbury that looked rich on the outside
but were so rotten on the inside that they became worthless and unhealthy
for those living in them. Lets keep our house in order, and that starts with
a good roof of public safety to protect ALL of our children, and all of our
HOME.
Jim Graham,
Ventura Village, Phillips Community, and Minneapolis
"It is always an utter folly to underestimate the lure and attraction of a
great evil. The whitened bones of their victims litter the highways and
byways of mankind's history. Stopped only by the few willing to pay the
ultimate price and make a stand."
- Toe
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
