[Mpls] Renaming Olson Highway to Reagan Highway - how is this a taxes issue?

[Dyna Sluyter]

On Sunday, September 5, 2004, at 09:55 AM, Eva Young wrote:

> Gotta hand it to the Taxpayer's League.  They are good at getting 
> their goofy ideas covered in the media.

	And when a member in good standing of the Taxpayer's League's favorite 
political party says their outa line, she's probably right.

	Tongue in cheek I'm tempted to support the renaming Minnesota Truck 
Highway 55 for Ronald Reagan- the republicans would get all carried 
away and make it Interstate 92 and make a decent freeway of it clear 
past the Missouri River. Once the taxpayer had their fill of that and 
booted the republicans from office we DFLers would put the Olson 
Memorial Highway signs back up, and the tribal casino on the other side 
of the river would do a roaring business what with the new freeway to 
funnel busloads of gamblers their way.

	Quite seriously, we DFLers being better transportation planners would 
get the Olson Memorial Highway designated as part of the National 
Highway System, opening the door to some much needed rebuilding and 
safety improvements to this neglected highway. From Hastings to 
Minneapolis the Olson Memorial highway is already 4 laned, and 
upgrading the stretch from Hastings to Pine Bend makes a lot more sense 
than a billion dollar bridge across the Mississippi and bypass of 
Hastings. To the west upgrading the Olson Memorial Highway to 
expressway standards would strengthen rural economies and provide an 
alternative to increasingly overcrowded Interstate 94.

	On to other issues of current import-

	The red light cameras have one problem not yet mentioned- what if 
those "caught" don't bother paying the fine? Sure, we can virtually 
pull their licenses in absentia, but since it's MPD policy not to 
arrest people for driving without a license there's no teeth in the 
law. Consider also that a lot of red light runners may simply find new 
and creative ways to make their license plates unreadable.

	Another grand example of the failure of "law enforcement by remote 
control" is MPD's new blue bus. It's been parked for a couple days now 
a block from my most humble home in the 'hood, but it only took about a 
day for the local criminals to figure out that the lights were on but 
no cops were home. Sure enough, yesterday morning a carload from the 
'burbs was enjoying their crack in a blind spot of the less than block 
away blue bus. Later that day a car was stolen from nearly the same 
spot. The moral here is that there's no point in our city buying pricey 
toys- "mobile command units" run upwards of $100,000- unless we have 
the officers to staff them. Consider also that an unstaffed "Mobile 
Command Unit" is a tempting target for gangbangers- whoever steals or 
torches the blue bus will gain considerable street cred... So if we 
can't staff it let's sell it and use the proceeds to put some officers 
on the street!

	As for wireless internet access, the Ricochet system is still up on 
our light poles and ready to be turned back on, all we need to do is 
cut a deal with the new owners like Denver and San Diego did. However, 
I've been told that our city fathers and mothers are scared of 
offending Qwest, even though Qwest has no competing wireless internet 
service, so don't expect Minneapolis wide wireless access anytime soon.

	wired down in Hawthorne,

		Dyna Sluyter