35 W Bridge- Appalled! (Minneapolis, Prior Lake, Medina: for sale, high crime, safe area)

[Minnehahapolitan]

That is true for Hennepin County. The Western suburbs are classic conservatives. The income is high and they are well-educated. This is not the same demographic as Scott, Dakota and Anoka Counties. They are middle-class people, but they are more bubba conservatives. They have good jobs, but not the Ph.D types as much. There are Minnesota Minnesotans with our traditional pregressive spirit that are still conserative, but they are the Wayzata conservatives, not the Lakeville ones.

[nick is rulz]

west suburbs are old money conservatives, north suburbs are "we like pickup trucks and Jesus" conservatives, south suburbs are an interesting mix of the two.

About the only place you can find bubba democrats anymore is in far north Minnesota. When it boils right down to it the difference between a republican and democrat is pretty marginal anyway.

[Minnehahapolitan]

Go tell a guy in Eveleth he is a Republican, then you will see the difference
I am actually quite fond of the bubba Democrats. The party could laern something from their support.

[nick is rulz]

Well from the standpoint of the politicans in MN, neither one is very effective currently.

Pawlenty, besides the fact that he looks like the kind of guy that always keeps a zip drive full of pornography on his person on all times, wants the state to be run like a business and privatize every square inch of land for profit. The whole no new taxation policy promise certainly did not add anything to the states crumbling infrastructure.

Rybak although he means well, is kind of a pansy. Hes too concerned with being "all things to all people" and I think its corny. As a politician you have to affirm your stance on things regardless of whether or not it will anger someone in the process.

[Minnehahapolitan]

Yeah. Rybak kinda signifies pesky government. The "Don't plant trees on 2nd Street as to retain its 'industrial past'" and the "Your sidewalk cafe extends three inches beyoud your property" people. Those are annoyances, though. he never caused any harm.

[Downtown]

Originally Posted by lukeache

Nothing angered me more than watching the local news and seeing all those people hurt during the bridge collapse having to go to the State to pledge their case. Some people are $300 K in debt and ready to file bankruptcy because of all the medical bills(something that was not even their fault) and some have the audacity to say that they should have had better health insurance. What kind of crazy state are we living in? I have been losing all the respect I used to have for this state. I mean, should not these people be our #1 priority after everything they went through? Paying all their medical bills should be the very least the state can do for these people.Sad!!

I agree. The bridge collapse has made me angry and far less proud to be a Minneapolis native.

As a general guidline the victims have not been treated as well as they should have. The state and its people seems more intent and focused on building a new bridge as soon as reasonably possible, and less interested on dealing with the effects the bridge had on the people who were injured and the family members of people effected.

Personally I feel all Twin Cities residents should be ashamed, even if they didn't have anything to do with the collapse. The bridge is just getting started to be rebuilt, and I haven't heard any specific plans for a memorial. So much for Minnesota nice. If this is Minnesota nice, then something is messed up.

Why the rush to build the bridge by the end of 2008? Yeah, it is an inconvenience, but it hasn't shut down the city or the metro area. I would rather wait longer to make sure we build a quality bridge that will not fall down again.

I wouldn't mind waiting longer to build the bridge or even wait 13 years of 6.5 years so we could set up a specific amount of time to remember the people who died. Maybe the bridge should never be rebuilt. It would punish Minnesotans for electing Pawlenty and Molnau, and would teach Minnesotans a lesson. I am not saying that I want to wait that long to rebuild it, it is just an idea. The bridge can be rebuilt whenever, but the people who died won't be coming back.

Speaking of the local news does anyone else hate Paul Douglas from WCCO? To me Douglas is an extremely arrogant, stuck-up, and a whiny little baby. This guys love to complain about the weather even when it is nice. Also in his weather column the day after the collapse, he said he had never been more proud to be a Minnesotan. Are you ****ing kidding me? How can you be proud of that happening? Sure, the rescue crews did a good job, but did you expect differently? It is their job to respond to situations like this, and they did their job, and they did it well.

Anyone who is proud of this happening or thinks it is a good thing deserves to get beat up badly. How can you proud of what happened? I am glad that more people didn't die, and that neither I nor my family, or anyone I knew died when the bridge collapsed. Imagine if that school bus carrying kids from the Phillips neighborhood had fallen into the river? How many of those people would have died? What if the bus driver in the Tastee truck who died hadn't moved over to give the bus room (I saw someone say that somehere, but there is obviously no way to prove what he was thinking at the time because he is dead). Did that bus driver sacrifice his life to save the kids on the bus? If I remember correct, that guy was trapped in his truck and burned to death. Talk about a bad way to die.

I have just vented my anger so I feel better now. I could go on and on, but I think people get the idea that the victims are not being treated properly. The bridge collapse made me angry, and shameful. Minneapolis has a lot of great things going for it, but from now on it will be remembered as the city where the bridge fell down. To me, Minneapolis will never be the same again. Nick Coleman from the Star Tribune has written good articles about the bridge collapse. I am a college student going to school outside of Minnesota, and I am happy that I don't have deal with the bridge collapse stuff and all the other garbage going on in Minnesota.

[AVguy]

Allow me.

I'm not going to stick up for Paul Douglas because I didn't read his column, but how can you claim to be a humanitarian and not acknowledge the outpouring of help and support offered by bystanders at the scene of the bridge collapse? The emergency response was incredible--no Katrina-like lag. The authorities said that they were receiving more offers for help than they needed. People came together from all walks of life during an emergency, no questions asked, and that made me proud to be a Minnesotan. Since then I have become a little disenfranchised by the slow response, which is quite typical of large government bodies, but that does not distract from the fact that everyday people immediately helped the bridge victims.

"Anyone who is proud of this happening or thinks it is a good thing deserves to get beat up badly." Get a clue.

[doublesuited77]

Originally Posted by Minnehahapolitan

That is very true, I also see more people moving in from completely different regions. Apparently, some of these people are under the mistaken assumption that they can leech off our generous state, and still pay the same taxes they did in Texas/Tennessee/South Dakota. Most newcomers, I feel, live in the suburbs. Especially the Maple Groves, Woodburys and Eden Prairies. In that way, Nick is right. Even those who are Minnesotans trend crimson politically when they live in the suburbs. Minneapolis didn't elect Pawlenty and Molneau, Anoka County did. Land of the Free, and home to Michelle Bachmann. I think that Minnesota is, for the better, a "closed society". You can be born here, but unless you understand our culture, you can't really be from here. That isn't to say that we are unwelcoming, but it is a truism of Minnesota. People who just move here are libel to scoff at our rather socialist traditions. They have built a great state, and now it is being siphoned by transients who are just looking for a prosperous place, they then disregard what made that place. Minnesota was built on union miners, Scandinavian farmers, Minneapolis liberals and even Loring Park gays. Minnesota was not built, my state was not built, on Conservative bubbas from Coon Rapids. They created Kansas and Arkansas.

didn't know there was such a strong minnesota secession movement... if that doesn't work, maybe canada would take the state in.

[PortieOwner]

Legally, I bet the government doesn't have to pay anyone anything. The government has sovreign immunity in these cases. If they start paying whenever there is an accident, well, the next big Califorinia earthquake will bankrupt that state's government.

Regarding some of the other radical kook posts, you people make me wonder whether I should move back to Minnesota. I grew up in Minnesota and went to college there. I was very liberal until I moved to Washington DC and saw the failure of the welfare state, and encountered affirmative action in a big way. Between high school, college, and all my other friends and family in Minnesota I can probably think of three or four people who fit the "progressive" label.

Let's face it, the "progressive" thing sort of worked for a while because everyone in Minnesota worked--Protestant work ethic--so even though there was a welfare state most people worked too hard or had too much pride to take advantage of it. That sort of system begins to fall apart when a permanent welfare class moves in to exploit the system. It happened in New York in the 1950s and Minnesota in the 1970s.

Some of the "Minnesota progressive" stuff is just an invention, or perhaps fantasy of the left, not reality. My Scandinavian relatives are more conservative, and Republican, than my Irish relatives. The Germans seem to be the most conservative of all. Although all of my family grew up very poor, the one or two "progressive" types in my big extended family were also clinically mentally ill.

By the way, I am very well educated, have a PhD and work for a elite east coast university. I have lived overseas, have travelled to about 25 foreign countries, and spend a lot of my vacation time in the 3rd world. I am married to a non-white immigrant who is a university professor. She is in many ways more conservative than me.

I also love Tim Pawlenty. Hope he is President one day.

Portie

[Minnehahapolitan]

Originally Posted by doublesuited77

didn't know there was such a strong minnesota secession movement... if that doesn't work, maybe canada would take the state in.

I love America. I love my state more. If Canada has bridges that are structurally sound, I would consider that.