For the record, my post never accused Mr. Johnson of being a racist, which I define as discriminating against people on the basis of race. I did write that anyone who suggests that the patrons mistreated at the restaurant by the waitress and the manager should have taken their concerns to the
The lack of empathy on this list for the family who attended Market Bar-B-Que, and the urge to rationalize and otherwise excuse the behavior of the people who "served" them, is appalling. These people are not lodging their complaint anonymously; they signed their name to their post. They obviously
I think it is time for Jordan Kushner to consider not paying his city taxes. After all, if Jordan is *truly* committed to ensuring that there is no war, and the city councilpeople truly have a chance to do something about our war prospects, and refuse to do so, despite being our elected officials,
All the contextual rationalizations in the world can't obscure the discrepancy between what Mr. Graham posted about Mr. Takeshita's comments and what Mr. Takeshita posted that he actually said. Mr. Graham can say he "editorialized" and "shined a little light" on Mr. Takeshita's words, but that's
I get it that Dave Piehl doesn't like Tom Johnson or the project he is working on. And then I get it again. I am certain of it now. I suggest to Mr. Piehl that further bleating on the matter will make him more enemies than friends in the forum of public opinion.
Britt Robson
Lyndale
I hate to rain on peoples' imaginary parades, but Sharon Sayles Belton and her two closest allies on the city council were unceremoniously drummed out of office less than a year ago, a fairly compelling repudiation of her (at least recent) performance. It's not really the time to be talking
Judging from the responses of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Mann, and the yawning silence from the rest of the list, it is apparent that others don't share my view that in a recent post Mr. Mann was not so subtlely inferring that the MPS has been practicing racist behavior toward its students.
Fair enough.
I'm sure a smart guy like Mr. Mann, who has a long history of chastising the MPS on the basis of ability grouping and other complaints, knows what he is doing when he draws an analogy between Denny's, a service company with one of the most notoriously racist histories in American corporate annals,
Scott McGerik appropriately calls into question a paragraph of a recent City Pages article I wrote on redistricting--specifically a sentence that says the Hawthorne neighborhood has been added to the 5th Ward.
The initial notion that Hawthorne had been added to the 5th Ward was first published in
And why being asked to pay for your research in previous posts chaps the journalists on this list just a tad.
Britt Robson
Lyndale
Mr. Marshall spends a great deal of time snidely rebuking members of the list for not getting more involved in residual LRT planning--many Dairy Queen references are made. Yet, through all the verbiage, the only action he himself says he will make is to walk seven or eight blocks and ride LRT one
Perhaps Mr. Jacobsen is using divisive, abrasive rhetoric to cover his very shaky position. Yeah, anecdotally you can surmise that the stadium looks like it would be a winner, what with all those examples he cites, but in study after study, the economic impacts of a big stadiums and arenas are at
When Ms. Nelson refers to "sans taxpayers monies" for funding a new stadium, I assume she is really saying "sans involuntary taxpayers monies," as the St. Paul proposal is certainly loaded with sales tax revenue.
As for her pat assumption that a stadium will definitely be built, I'd argue that it
We know that special education funding is already woefully inadequate, due to the tens of millions of dollars in difference between what the federal government mandates and what the federal government pays to ensure those mandates are taken care of in Minnesota. Now Mr. Swift blithely assumes that
Kevin Trainor writes, "My point was that Bill [Green] didn't seem to recoignize [sic] that the NAACP is not a `person' and therefore is subject to changes in its position due to changes in its personnel."
I think what Bill Green was pointing out was that a bunch of people, although suing the State
This sort of rhetorical cluster-bombing in lieu of a reply has become all too frequent
on this list. To elucidate what I'm talking about, may I ask Ms. Heller what she does
for a living, what she used to do in her three positions before that, how much money
she currently makes from it, how
Steven Stolarek writes:
"I thought financial integrity of the school district
was the responsibility of the Superintendant. So now
she needs someone to help her do what she is already
overpaid to do? I don't get it. The school district
has to lay-off staff and at the same time hire a
$125,000
Thought it was interesting that Mr. Eisenbeis parades forth the integrity of the New York Times (and curiously bashes the illiteracy of our local burgs, which support more print media per capita than most anywhere in the country--but that's another story) in the same post in which he wonders why
While I believe Ms. Kosnoff was properly chastised for her dismissive post regarding
Mr. Atherton, I, and I daresay other list members, share her frustration with the
gadfly nature of some of Mr. Atherton's (and, to a lesser extent, Mr. Mann's)
education posts. Allow me a few minutes to
In the course of researching my August City Pages profile on RT Rybak, I asked Bob King, the head of the Downtown Council at the time Rybak made the jump from the Strib to the Council, what the circumstances of his job change were, and, specifically, whether Rybak asked for a job or it was offered
Let's apply Ms. Marks' own logic to her candidacy for the library board. I assume she is running as a citywide representative. But all I've heard her talk about is what she has done with the Holman Library. What has Ms. Marks done in other parts of the library system that should make those who do
I respectfully hope that Ms. Sluyter's baiting of Mr. Rybak doesn't continue to be a daily ritual. Otherwise, someone will inevitably start posting messages with headings like:
Constituent service response--SSB, MIA on Mpls list: Day 793.
I suspect Ms. Sluyter, an ardent supporter of the
Most everyone on this list knows that I am a close personal friend of Mr. Brauer's, so my seconding of Mr. Wilde's "thank you" will not come as a great surprise. However, what list members don't know is that the nasty tone and non-Minneapolis focus this list has taken in recent weeks has weighed
As my previous posts have indicated, I'm no particular fan of the performance of Mayor Sayles Belton, but to imply that she wouldn't act with sufficient compassion and nobility if 5000 people in Minneapolis were buried under tons of debris is theoretical character assassination and way out of
Mark Wilde writes, "Eric's (and others) opinions about what is worthwhile should never be considered when funding arts organizations, and choosing public art."
I almost didn't bother to post a reply, since the rebuttal seems so obvious. But maybe not to some, so here goes:
What is the purpose
Wow, the list is really buzzing with lots of provocative topics. Leaving aside my feelings about our national tragedy and Mark Knapp's Green without grassroots rationalizations, let me focus on two local political races.
First, the school board. Dennis Schapiro received some heat for his comments
This is inappropriate in so many ways. Inappropriate to the "Mpls List" of
course, but also unfair to peace and progressive groups who get so easily
misrepresented by the naivete and utter, self-righteous callousness
exhibited by people such as Ms.Carlson.
I respectfully suggest to her that it
This is an excellent post. I do not otherwise know Mr. Rozentals and am not
eligible to vote in his ward, but this is the kind of leadership and forward
thinking that I look for in my elected representatives.
Britt Robson
Lyndale
It's true that in my last post I was critical of Mike Atherton's generalized
attitude toward the MPS (not him personally, I don't know the man) rather
than specific proposals he has made. Partly this was because I suspect he
relishes the attention, but even moreso it was because I'm not sure
The extreme defensiveness and hurtful language (white middle-class parents
who send their kids to public schools in the belief that it benefits their
children and society at large are called "arrogant") of Ms. Smith's post
indicate that someone struck a nerve with this issue.
And maybe I am
Just curious: Was Rebecca Yanisch at the Mayor's press conference? Yanisch
participated in the Million Mom March and made handgun control a key
component of her campaign for the US Senate--a campaign very much supported
by the Mayor. Now she is a member of Ventura's cabinet and the Gov has been
I don't know how I feel about a new stadium. I do think the latest proposal
is pretty good, and a great tribute to those who have held the line on
previous, more onerous, baseball stadium proposals. Are the tax-free loan and
the inevitable infrastructure costs worth putting out the kind of
Here's a concept that I'm sure has occurred to many others: What about the
DFL basing its endorsement more on the competency and overall quality of the
prospective candidate more than on fidelity to the party? If the party
allowed serious consideration of candidates who said they weren't going
David Brauer is too much of a class act to say this, but he puts in
incredible time and energy on this list, despite a freelance writing career
that requires a lot of scutwork to get assignments, let alone write them, and
primary responsibility for two small children during many workdays. If
Contrary to what Mr. Atherton believes, I do not think "science is worthless"
nor is my skepticism over tests to gauge the effectiveness of reduced class
size "anti-intellectual." My point is that measuring achievement within the
Mpls public schools right now is probably specious because the
A simple request. At the risk of having it happen to me somewhere down the
road, I'd like to politely ask for a moratorium on the list for this East
Lake Hotel pissing match. I'm sure everybody has gotten the full gist of what
both sides think on this issue, and quite frankly at this point it's
Oh how I wish that other parts of the state and city budget were scrutinized
as carefully as education. Can someone provide a compelling argument on how a
greater teacher-to-pupil ratio might somehow be damaging to the education of
students? The measurements and methodologies used to determine
I second the idea of Nellie Stone Johnson over Mary Richards for a Mall
statue.
Britt Robson
Lyndale
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