St. Paul E-Democracy Links http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/links.html _________________________________________
At 8:51 PM -0600 1/27/04, John Mannillo wrote:
It's interesting that when the numbers of dollars in question get smaller there is an inverse relationship to the time spent discussing the issue.
Several people have expressed surprise at the volume of discussion on this "small" issue. I would like to make a couple of points about this discussion.
1) This discussion still pales in comparison to the volume of traffic that has been devoted to the stadium or GSE.
2) Much of this discussion has been about the principal of using public funds to "bail-out" private businesses. In a sense, this discussion about Ruminator is about the entire issue of public subsidies. I saw the issue of Ruminator as an OPPORTUNITY to discuss some broader issues.
3) This discussion has become an outlet to bring up other projects, like the "Bound to Read" deal, Kinkaids, Marshall Fields, Lawson, and others....
4) Finally, Ruminator books is a topic that many of us "connect" with. We all love a good book store and most of us have shopped at Ruminator, which makes debating Ruminator far more interesting than debating Lawson software. Its also much closer to home - as John already said, most of us can imagine what its like to work with $150,000 dollars. But, we can't relate to the millions that are sometimes a part of city projects.
FINALLY: I've been generally impressed with the quality of this discussion. I feel like I've learned something AND questioned my own "gut" reaction to this issue. I hope that others have as well.
I would like for this forum to be an opportunity to learn about public policy, ask questions, and challenge ones own assumptions. I think that this discussion did all three of those.
(I predict, that this discussion has about run its course - we're all just waiting for something new to pop up).
Best wishes,
Tim Erickson Hamline Midway [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Tim Erickson http://www.politalk.com St. Paul, MN - USA 651-643-0722
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