TECTED]
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2000 9:11 PM
Subject: RE: Charter Commission Dialogue
Great idea. I say we invite a lurker like Dan Boivin of the Charter
Commission to give us some background. Dan?
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Beh
The other is a proposed policy requiring economic-risk studies and an
application fee for new TIF projects. On the face of it, this seems like
good news to those of us who suspect TIF is a hinky way to route public
money to entities that have lots of it already. Any comments?
The way it was
I haven't had a chance to thoroughly review the current charter, but how
about some good old off the top brainstorming for the Charter Commission to
consider:
1 Proportional Representation
2 Instant Runoff Voting
3 An elected Mayor with clearly delineated role in running the
Gerg,
Do you favor proportional representation in any model? If you do, I'd like
to hear more about how you might structure it.
Russ Peterson
Ward 9
Standish Ericsson
R U S S E L L P E T E R S O N D E S I G N
"You can only fly if you stretch your wings."
3857 23rd Avenue South
Well pretty much none of the graffiti we cited in our last tour has been
removed. And new graffiti is blooming all over my neighborhood. Most of
the areas that were removed have new tags. After a year and an entire
summer I think we need to come to the following conclusion: This city does
not
What a difficult topic. There seems to be some very sensible posts about
how to respond or if there even needs to be a response to the Boy Scouts
choice to discriminate against people based on homosexuality. I really
appreciate Catharine Shreves leadership as well as our Superintendent's
How to judge tax value? That is a hard question for the public to
understand. And I don't think you can penalize schools or libraries because
our city administration continues to contribute to wealthfare. That just
isn't appropriate. It seems to me that you need to take each item
separately
Consider...
$120,000 corporate gift to fund a position without a competitive
advertisement
$11 million on top of $30 million? tax diversion to Target Corp
$30 million wealthfare subsidy to Steven Spielberg
subsidized high end market housing with no affordable component
two NRP neighborhood
I appreciate Mr. Minn's challenge to my post about the huge tax subsidy for
50th and France. I also don't have a problem with TIF being used in good
neighborhoods. However, I would have some very specific conditions,
including public space, that this project wouldn't have met. However, I
think
I read in the Star Tribune today that the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis
have been negotiating about placement and operation of paper boxes on our
streets. If you come to the corner of 38th Street and 23rd Ave S you will
see some big offenders. The free boxes are continuously open with
Mr. Wilde said:
i know we have been over this graffiti thing again and
again, but graffiti on a newspaper box is not "part of
what I believe is a culture of 'inner city thinking'
in both government and corporate leadership in our
city," as mr peterson says, it is graffiti on a
newspaper box.
I
The Clinton/Gore administration has been trying to get Europe to accept
Northwest Airlines' noisy old planes. Doesn't bode well for Gore in
fighting noise pollution from airplanes in Minneapolis. As an activist and
real environmentalist, I have more confidence in Ralph Nadar actually
getting
I didn't see anything really inspiring, just a lot of lines and squares on
paper.
Russ Peterson
Ward
R U S S E L L P E T E R S O N D E S I G N
"You can only fly if you stretch your wings."
Russell W. Peterson, RA, CID
Founder
3857 23rd Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
612-724-2331
I live in an area without a guaranteed community school. I have selected a
school in part because a neighbor child attends as well, but unlike most of
the city we are not guaranteed any school. The alternative I understand is
more choice, but at least half or more of those are as much as a
In 9 at 1:15 pm the turnout was still heavy and I was the #814 voter. I
understand this morning's line was out the door, down the stairs, and into
the lower level. Wow! This turnout is even bigger than when my district
helped elect Jesse governor. I got a recorded call from the gov asking me
I think that this and the style of our ballots warrants a new Secretary of
State for the State of Minnesota. I think part of the long lines is due in
part to the extra time it takes to fill in those stupid ovals in just the
right way. This of course discourages voting which is generally an
I understand the argument of what other nations do and I understand chit
chat with neighbors in line to vote. But we shouldn't accept throwing out
even one ballot. Or discouraging one person not to vote because of our
process. We should find a way to ensure that each voice is heard, no matter
Inconveniencing people is not a method to attract people downtown or an
incentive to get them out of their cars. If you want more people walking
around downtown, then build more housing downtown. There are plenty of ugly
parking lots and vacant land all over the core that could accommodate more
Here is the critical quote from the Strib article:
"You do something for us, private sector, and we'll (the city) do something
for you."
It doesn't make any difference if it is cash, TIF financing, land, or some
other transaction. Our city hall is determined to get a new stadium, by
giving the
1 A Finance Director is named after a national search and there was no
mention of process or finalists.
2 A Finance Director is named who has had extensive experience with public
funding of professional sports facilities.
3 It is revealed that the city is indeed considering
First I want to say thank you to Kathy O'Brien for sending relevant data to
this discussion. I'd like to see her become a more regular participant!
Carol's last post just made the argument for transparency. Without it,
citizens will never become educated enough to criticize the process as she
Is this really about the police? Or is it about the inability of our
administration to envision a community that supports both it's citizens and
it's police force? Or is it about the effect of other areas of our
administration that fail to recognize what is not working in our
communities? Or is
Months ago I said that the under-supported NRP system in this city was going
to explode in some additional neighborhoods. We have over worked
volunteers, under trained staff, lack of city hall support, way too much
movement in staff within the system, poor financial controls, and a clear
lack of
How about a year of graffiti and garbage clean up for the offender,
including a winter shift!
Russ
R U S S E L L P E T E R S O N D E S I G N
"You can only fly if you stretch your wings."
Russell W. Peterson, RA, CID
Founder
3857 23rd Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
612-724-2331
Looks like from this morning's Strib that the Sears re-development is going
down, or perhaps it's just posturing. Hard to tell sometimes. If it
doesn't go forward, how about the new baseball ballpark on that site. What
a great addition to the neighborhood and the Greenway!
Russ Peterson
Ward
Once again, I appreciate Carol's answering of our questions online.
However, I am a little confused. Can Carol or someone tell me how our tax
capacity can almost double from $360 million to $770 million in nine years?
And my second question is how much of that decertified TIF money will be
O.k., so I couldn't add last night and I'm not a financial wonk. So, I
still need some clarification. Could someone please explain "NRP
Obligation." And explain how this is different and/or similar to debt
service.
And as far as the increase in tax capacity I'm floored. I'd love my income
to
There is nothing wrong with holding our elected officials to their word and
to what is in print. We have a serious affordable housing crisis in our
city and the current administration and council leadership has spent most of
their time on corporate welfare instead of addressing basic issues such
This continues to be governance from the desert perspective. It seems that
our leadership wants to drive citizens with a hard wind and sand storm to
try and get them to do what they want. Increasing parking meter fees is not
the solution to increasing bus ridership! If the ultimate goal is to
I am surprised that nobody mentioned the pull out from Mill City School by
one of our esteemed local companies. The quote in the paper said it was a
"business decision." I wonder if they weighed that against the huge subsidy
they got from the taxpayers of this city to build their new downtown
Maybe I'm just nuts here, but it seems to me that there IS a link between a
for profit (very for profitable) deciding to discontinue sponsoring a public
school for "business reasons" while they are willing to take our tax dollars
on the other end to build their downtown corporate digs. Perhaps
Steve said (although I think these are the words of the Strib and not
Steve's):
"We rarely report routine beatings of anyone, much less drivers, and if we
did, the newspaper would have room for little else."
The fact that "routine beating" is actually a phrase we use and then say we
don't have
Congratulations to list member Catherine Shreves, the new Chair of our
School Board.
Russ Peterson
Ward 9
Standish
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