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RT is a three-term, not a two-term mayor. But I, like others, don't see what exactly you're ranting against. The title references the downtown (a "sky is falling" downtown crime spree?), but instead it's a rant against Rybak and Coleman with no solution.
On another note, should the DFL not be "business-friendly"? I realize you'd likely throw out a few catchprases (WILFARE!), but other than a few instances, being "business-friendly" is a good thing. Should we be unfriendly to business?
I've noticed this attitude with a lot of Minnesotans. You can say it's the cold or whatever... but folks are generally pissy.
I had a women refuse to let me into the left lane when there was a Garbage Truck picking up trash in DT STP today... come on lady, are you seriously in THAT much of a rush that you can't let me over...you need to speed up so MAYBE, just maybe the next person behind you isn't such a jerk and actually lets me in.
Just sayin...
People like that woman exists in every state in the USA. One rude person does not make a state of over 5 million pissy. I grew up in Minnesota and have traveled to a number of states and to Minnesota as well. I did not notice that attitude. It is certainly not as friendly as it was in 1972 when I was 12 and our family moved to California. That is probably true almost everywhere else, too. It is certainly true in California.
I really think Minnesota is among the friendliest states. Colorado probably comes closest to matching it. California does not match Minnesota, but I think our Central Coast area where I live is reasonably close.
I was refused jumper cable assistance by 14 people in a row when my car would not start one day in a fast food parking lot on my work lunch break when I worked in Silicon Valley in the late 90's. I finally decided to call a co-worker who arrived to assist me. That would never happen in Minnesota.
Our two-term mayor handed out lots of goodies to all sorts of business interests and then notified us "I'm outa here". Now Chris Coleman announces he'll run for another term, his agenda seems sort of a copy of what Minneapolis government did. One thing is certain. The projections and promises will be fulfilled or turn out to be vaporware. And then we will all revisit these mayoral "visions" (what some of us might call "hallucinations") and all the enthusiastic boosterism for them. Kinda like those visions of easy money in real estate that turned out to be based on outdated notions of profit in real estate as a certainty. Many of us were predicting the recent panic even as Alan Greenspan was blessing them in total confidence.
You're posts are a little confusing and rambling. But I'm guessing you're referring to some of the big ticket goodies like the Vikings and Saints stadiums? If so I think your overstating their financial impact. I can't speak to Minneapolis' financial budget with authority. But St. Paul's is doing pretty darn good.
I'd like to showcase just a small sampling of data that I think paints a revealing bit of information about St. Paul's financial stability and what Mayor Coleman has done since he took over,
In 2005, St. Paul's Housing and Redevelopment Authority carried $261.6 million in total outstanding debt City of St. Paul, MN - Official Website - Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. In 2011 (the most recent report available) had the amount of debt down to $200.8 million. In six years that is about a 25% reduction in total debt. Now there are new projects St. Paul has taken on, like the Penfield and the Saints that will increase that amount. But what I'm trying to show is that the city has done a pretty good job in paying down a lot of debt in recent years and can now afford some major capital expenditures. And projects like the city-owned Penfield/Lunds will assuredly be sold off to a private company at some point.
Another thing worth mentioning is the Xcel Center. The city's original $48 million loan from the state will be fully paid off in 2020. It's currently at ~$30 million. And most of it's cost is covered by the Wild and Xcel Energy's naming rights money. So my point is while people maybe seeing the city spending a whole lot of money, it has a good track record of managing it.
I don't know if it's ever....ever...ever a good thing when a city must take over as developer for a housing project like the penfield when no private developers will touch it. Especially when just across the river there are thousands of units being built in Minneapolis by private developers. Love mpls or hate it, but we all need to realize that amazing things are heppening in Minneapolis right now.....amazing things that are not govt projects.
While I don't advocate the government getting into the development business either, I seem to remember (and correct me if I'm wrong) that there were unusual circumstances that led to the city taking the project over.
In this case, I don't particularly mind as I am sure someone will snatch the project up sooner or later. But it shouldn't become a habit of the city to be doing these things.
In general, I think the core cities have done a pretty decent job of handling their budgets over time. Minneapolis has restored its credit to a top-notch rating, paid down debt, has fewer employees than when RT took office, and a smaller budget when adjusted for inflation. Certainly there are still a lot of issues and no doubt largesse that needs to be cut (as with any government or business budget), but I think overall the city is doing pretty well.
By living is a large city in the midwest, having DFL in control of your city goes with the territory. Minneapolis is plagued by high property taxes for DFL pet projects ($10,000 water fountains - remember that). If you don't like it, move to the suburbs that offer lower property taxes, better schools, and city councils and mayors that believe more government and higher taxes isn't the answer to every problem. Yes mpls and st. paul have some wonderful amenities, but I can get in my car and 15 minutes later I can enjoy those amenities that YOU paid for and then drive back home to my quiet, safe, and low tax suburb. (yes I realize i do pay for some mpls and st. paul amenities through state bonding and LGA through my mn income taxes.)
By living is a large city in the midwest, having DFL in control of your city goes with the territory. Minneapolis is plagued by high property taxes for DFL pet projects ($10,000 water fountains - remember that). If you don't like it, move to the suburbs that offer lower property taxes, better schools, and city councils and mayors that believe more government and higher taxes isn't the answer to every problem. Yes mpls and st. paul have some wonderful amenities, but I can get in my car and 15 minutes later I can enjoy those amenities that YOU paid for and then drive back home to my quiet, safe, and low tax suburb. (yes I realize i do pay for some mpls and st. paul amenities through state bonding and LGA through my mn income taxes.)
Ah, living off someone else's dime. Isn't it nice? I'm so happy we can pay for your amenities. Meanwhile, you probably complain about all those people living on welfare, right?
Funny thing is, Minneapolis (and presumably St. Paul) pays way more to the state than it gets back. So really it seems unlikely that you're actually "paying" for Minneapolis' LGA. Sure, you pay into the bucket, but so do the people in Minneapolis (who have the amenities you visit, nonprofits who don't pay taxes, and largely taking in the homeless and disadvantaged populations that the suburbs shun) and they get back a fairly paltry amount (especially per capita).
I was refused jumper cable assistance by 14 people in a row when my car would not start one day in a fast food parking lot on my work lunch break when I worked in Silicon Valley in the late 90's. I finally decided to call a co-worker who arrived to assist me. That would never happen in Minnesota.
Just yesterday morning my wife and I went for a short Sunday morning drive. We saw a man and lady in their pickup truck with the hood up and as I passed I noted he had his jumper cables already hooded up to his battery. I like to help others so I turned around and pulled up next to his truck and opened the hood on my car with it still running. He got out and I pointed out which of my one month old battery terminals where positive and negative and asked him if he had it right. I'll be darn he put that last connection on my battery and it looked like he was welding an arc on my battery with smoke and sparks flying. His old battery was so dirty you couldn't really see what was positive/negative and instead of cleaning it off and looking, he had made the connection on his old battery backwards! He apologized and said he had never made that mistake before but I am just glad the battery didn't explode and hurt him or me...
I told my wife, this is why so many people are afraid to give you a jump anymore because this could have damaged my battery or alternator and it did melt part of my lead connector at the post. I don't know just yet but next time someone has a battery top covered in grease and dirt that hasn't been wiped off in years I may think twice myself...
So the moral is to keep you battery top clean and slow down when making those cable connections
By living is a large city in the midwest, having DFL in control of your city goes with the territory. Minneapolis is plagued by high property taxes for DFL pet projects ($10,000 water fountains - remember that). If you don't like it, move to the suburbs that offer lower property taxes, better schools, and city councils and mayors that believe more government and higher taxes isn't the answer to every problem. Yes mpls and st. paul have some wonderful amenities, but I can get in my car and 15 minutes later I can enjoy those amenities that YOU paid for and then drive back home to my quiet, safe, and low tax suburb. (yes I realize i do pay for some mpls and st. paul amenities through state bonding and LGA through my mn income taxes.)
yep.......and when I get home after work, I WALK down to lake of the Isles. My wife and I then typically walk over to Barbette, Birdhouse, Burch or one of the other restaurants in the area for a bite tom eat or a glass of wine. We can also grab a bite to eat at Tim Fish which is right on Lake Calhoun. We bikes around the lakes, sometimes taking the trails all the way to Minnehaha falls.
.....we're also convenient to downtown.
The term used in many circles is location, location, location.
When I lived in the suburbs, I would sometimes drive down to the Uptown area for the same reasons.
However, driving down periodically and waiting in traffic on nice days is not the same as living right here.
I use the lake almost every day in the summer for biking around, canoeing, etc. I didn't do that when I lived in the suburbs.
That's why the houses are so damn expensive in this area (go to themlsonline.com and count the million dollar houses). There is a huge demand to live here......even with the high taxes (which I agree are too high).
You may not like it, but there is a large group of affluent people that do.
That doesn't mean poeple like you shoudn't live in the suburbs. It just means there is a demand to live in the city, especially in the Lakes area which encompasses most of SW Minneapolis. A lot of people, if they have the money, choose to live here.
Will the high taxes drive people out? Maybe, but I've seen zero evidence of this in the lake of the Isles, lake calhoun and Lake Harriet areas. The houses, in fact, kept their prices better than most areas during the recession.
yep.......and when I get home after work, I WALK down to lake of the Isles. My wife and I then typically walk over to Barbette, Birdhouse, Burch or one of the other restaurants in the area for a bite tom eat or a glass of wine. We can also grab a bite to eat at Tim Fish which is right on Lake Calhoun. We bikes around the lakes, sometimes taking the trails all the way to Minnehaha falls.
.....we're also convenient to downtown.
The term used in many circles is location, location, location.
When I lived in the suburbs, I would sometimes drive down to the Uptown area for the same reasons.
However, driving down periodically and waiting in traffic on nice days is not the same as living right here.
I use the lake almost every day in the summer for biking around, canoeing, etc. I didn't do that when I lived in the suburbs.
That's why the houses are so damn expensive in this area (go to themlsonline.com and count the million dollar houses). There is a huge demand to live here......even with the high taxes (which I agree are too high).
You may not like it, but there is a large group of affluent people that do.
That doesn't mean poeple like you shoudn't live in the suburbs. It just means there is a demand to live in the city, especially in the Lakes area which encompasses most of SW Minneapolis. A lot of people, if they have the money, choose to live here.
Will the high taxes drive people out? Maybe, but I've seen zero evidence of this in the lake of the Isles, lake calhoun and Lake Harriet areas. The houses, in fact, kept their prices better than most areas during the recession.
There is always going to be a high demand for the trendy areas of the city even with high taxes that come with it. It depends what your priorities are. 20 somethings and baby boomers obviously aren't going to value safety, big houses with yards, and schools as much as someone with a growing family. I used to live in 50th and France area when I was single. But as soon as marriage and kids came along, there was no way I was going to pay $300K for a 1500 sq ft 50 year old rambler in the city (and 4K a year in property taxes) just so I can be close to the action in mpls. If I really want to go bike around lake calhoun, I have no problem driving 15 minutes to do so. Not to mention I despise paying paying property taxes to Minneapolis so they can waste it on stupid wasteful projects (city center...Block E...Ziggy...etc). The suburbs do a much better job being productive with the tax money they are given and aren't afraid to make cuts to keep taxes from increasing every year.
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