On density (or is it destiny?), planning & St. Paul:
Having returned from a visit to Staples, Minnesota (in a JOBZone) with a
side trip to Fergus Falls, I think that leaders such as the mayor and the
council members MUST take a leadership role in visioning, if not actively
planning out what their city could look like. By virtue of an astute
Humphrey grad serving as the Regional Ec Dev Coordinator in Staples, new
things are happening but it is slow-going because the pace of actual bricks
& mortar development does not always zoom alongside great ideas.
We GenX/Millennials need to calm down and wait sometimes & learn how to
build consensus before storming ahead...
Even Minneapolis, with its faltering downtown zone a couple of years ago
(not unlike the state and national economies) is a-buzz with new
construction activity these days. Recall how Norm Coleman (aka - "Turncoat
Norm" or "Bush Boy") used to claim that Saint Paul had done very well under
his watch when the city actually under-performed the national averages for
comparable cities during that time period due to his subsidies to
corporations (the booming 90's) and possibly small business could have
thrived - a main source of jobs for our economy. It was a telling sign that
Norm lost EVERY precinct he had previously served in his Senate race, as
though we knew something about his record, but I digress.
It's no mystery that the Twin Cities will grow tremendously in the next
10-20 years. In my humble opinion, it is a mayor's job to make the choices
that allow us to anticipate these changes and attract new people while
keeping our current residents (actually quite predictable - look at Dr.
Gillaspy's Strib analysis from this morning on MN out-pacing WI in growth).
It is fortunate for Saint Paul-ites that a Progressive majority on the
council has at least gotten in Kelly's way when he's tried to steamroll over
them in favor of promoting his own corporate welfare agenda.
Cheers,
Cristy
--
Cristy A. De La Cruz
Highland Park resident democratic agitator
[EMAIL PROTECTED] OR [EMAIL PROTECTED] (new & improved
alternative to msn mail)
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