I worked for the State of Minnesota for 23.5 years. I have also lived in Ohio and Indiana. Like here, citizens there watched the shenanigans in Illinois and Cook County.
Around the nation, both political parties appear to favor road projects over mass transit. It is much easier to provide a lot of small projects to repay political contributors. Most of the projects are reasonably completed. Occasionally, we find examples like Commissioner Johnson's (Al Quie's administration) construction firm who used double billing and shoddy materials. Usually, the contracts are below the public interest radar. If something doesn't make sense, follow the money. The Cedar Bus Way study in Govenor Pawlenty's area probably won't recommend actually building anything. The maps and terrain information should be public record. A couple of public hearings (paid for by DOT) and a few soil samples with a 200 page report should provide much of the study. How much was that appropriation? $5 very big? Records of campaign contributions would be a good place to start. Of course, being Minnesota, I'm sure no one can find anything untoward. The specific attack on Hennepin County with legislation is bad form. Shame. John O'Neal [EMAIL PROTECTED] Northeast Minneapolis On Thu, 6 Mar 2003 14:04:53 -0800 (PST) Terrell Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Today a long list of state representatives (Adolphson; Paulsen; > Severson; Krinkie; Erhardt; Kuisle; Anderson, B.; Buesgens; Ruth; > Magnus; Holberg; DeLaForest; Nelson, P.; Beard and Sviggum) > introduced > HF745. > > HF745 prohibits "any action or spend(ing) any money for study, > planning, preliminary engineering, final design, or construction > for > light rail transit in the southwest transit corridor." > > Then it goes after bus transportation: "Neither the metropolitan > council, Hennepin county, nor the Hennepin county regional rail > authority may study, plan, engineer, design, or construct a bus > transit > way in any part of the southwest transit corridor that is in the > cities > of Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, or Chanhassen. This prohibition does > not > apply to (1) exclusive bus lanes on existing freeway and expressway > right-of-way between the Eden Prairie transit hub and Hopkins, and > (2) > a bus way from Hopkins to downtown Minneapolis." > > > Anyone wonder why our roads are over crowded when we see this kind > of > "leadership"? > > > > Terrell Brown > Minneapolis > terrell at terrellbrown dot org > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more > http://taxes.yahoo.com/ > _______________________________________________ > Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues Forum > http://www.e-democracy.org/tcmetro > Rules: Sign posts with real name. You may not post more than twice a > day. > > _______________________________________________ Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues Forum http://www.e-democracy.org/tcmetro Rules: Sign posts with real name. You may not post more than twice a day.
