[Mpls] A little media disagreement - A little lack of leadership at the City!

[gemgram]

I am glad the "StormWaterGate" issue was taken up by Nick Coleman. 
Personally I think David Brauer should have specified that he was just 
talking about single-family houses in better-off neighborhoods.  I believe 
in my posts to start "Stormwater Gate I specified that the neighborhoods 
most negatively impacted were those with a lot of duplexes and small foot 
print two story houses and no garage or driveway.

The idea that their is a cap is ridiculous.  I believe I posted that every 
increase letter I looked at was more than $20.00.  Perhaps when such 
information is offered a little more investigation should be done .  Some 
people are trusted to give correct information.  An argument later about who 
was more correct in being wrong is a little silly.

This is just a clear case of the executives of our City NOT thinking through 
a policy, and then refusing to rectify the injustice because it falls mostly 
upon poor people.  It is like much of the programs and "reforms" the City 
has played with in the last few years.  It starts out as a wonderful idea, 
but that goes astray because there is simply not the carry-through and 
good-work to make it succeed.  Something is attempted as flash to look good, 
and then left to drown because it is not "completely thought through".

The  reformation of MCDA into CPED is also a clear example of this.  The 
idea was to simplify the process and make MCDA and Planning MORE open and 
answerable to citizen and neighborhood involvement (and MORE efficient). 
Instead, we have the mess we presently have where layer upon layer of 
bureaucracy have been layered upon all CPED activities, and the citizens and 
neighborhoods have been completely cut out of any, even semi-official, 
oversight capacity.  One stop shopping has become 101 Dalmatians, where 
every time you turn around you have a new puppy with new spots to account 
for.

The real problem is not the staff of the City.  The real problem is the 
management (or lack of it). The real problem is that we continue to elect 
well meaning nice people who simply are incompetent to manage our City.  We 
elect people who will not, or are incapable of, take  the responsibility to 
do the management work to make good ideas successful.  We elect people who 
are slick and glib with promises, but who are not smart enough to realize 
their shortcomings and get the expert advice they need to make the good 
ideas brought to them by residents and civil servants succeed.

Then again perhaps the perceived mistake is not one at all.  Perhaps the 
"StormWaterGate" is simply an attempt to raise extra revenue on the backs of 
those least likely to scream (or vote), the poor neighborhoods of the City. 
My question is where the extra money, being fraudulently (and now knowingly) 
stolen from poor neighborhoods and poor people, going?  Is it to subsidize 
the more affluent neighborhoods or is it being used as a hidden means of 
raising revenue without having it raise the taxes of those same more 
affluent voters?

The stormwater matter should be immediately fixed by the Mayor and Council; 
or they should admit that they have imposed an extra tax upon poor 
neighborhood people where small duplexes abound.  The grocery stores give us 
poorer quality produce and service, the gas stations charge us ten to 
fifteen cents extra for a gallon of gas, and now the Mayor and Council is 
charging us more for less service.  Yes, it is expensive to live in a poor 
neighborhood in this Minneapolis.

David Brauer's coining of the term "Stormwatergate" is appropriate in this 
case.  Haven't our politicians learned anything from national politics and 
the original Watergate.  The ignoring of the problem and attempts to cover 
up bungling causes the real  damage and scandal.  Simply fix the 
"StormWaterGate", admit you were wrong, and pay the unfairly taxed people 
back.

Where are these extra property taxes and hidden "taxes" and fees going?  I 
am being charged so much more, for so much less, in the last few years that 
I can not believe it.  My street is like driving down a lunar landscape, my 
streets are filthy, the Third Precinct police was stacked up with sometimes 
twenty unanswered calls at a time last night because there are not enough 
police officers to handle them, and I am getting charged more each day.  In 
the last three years I seem to pay 10% more each year for taxes and fees and 
get 10% less in services each year.

Like the old lady said, "Where's the beef".  I'm tired of the bull. The 
"Promise Bun" has gotten larger and the beef patty has become smaller.  So 
we settle for the bull-ogna sandwich, cause a flashy person says it is a 
porterhouse?  We need a whole lot less bull and a lot more beef!

Now you folks stop reading this and get out there and enjoy this soft, warm, 
mellow morning.  (It could be cold and snow) It will make the sunny day 
tomorrow even better.  May the joy of love be with each of us.

Jim Graham,
complaining from the porch steps in Ventura Village.



>" The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our 
>liberty. We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."
- Thomas Jefferson

>“We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be” – A Cherokee Feast 
>of Days