[Mpls] Sly Di offers to negotiate stadium, police funding, transit, etc. deal (Rybak waffling on Stadium? Not here.)

[Dyna]

	My evil twin Sly Di has an incredible skill at bargaining, 
and when the dealing gets serious I let her take over. Granted she 
took months to procure my last new car and made me go to Iowa to get 
my last new motorcycle, but I wouldn't have much of any personal 
wealth without her. Lately she's outdone herself, picking up a twice 
marked down cattle prod on 10% off day at Fleet Supply in 
Paynesville- by the time she gets all the rebate money back she'll 
have made enough on the deal to buy us both dinner at the Asian 
buffet in Willmar next trip.

	I don't let Sly Di near the computer much, she gets people 
all mad and servers crash in the flame wars she starts. But she's got 
that new cattle prod all charged up and she's comin' toward me with 
it. Yooooh!

	"Dyna's a nice lady, but she'd much too nice and has this 
fantasy that people will give you a good deal because their nice too. 
I realize that everything is for sale and deals are everywhere 
whether we see them or not. And nothing is off the market- heck, I'd 
even whore or sell drugs if the market wasn't so saturated with $10 
crack whores. Politics though gives a pretty good return on 
investment, provided you fill out those campaign finance reports 
right and stay outa jail. And when politics moves into the realm of 
big time public works like stadiums, there's billions to be made.

	Now Minneapolis needs some tough negotiators at the table 
(and bar, back alley, etc.). Now Peter McLaughlin does OK with his 
own money, last I remember he was driving a Ford Escort. But last 
time he went shopping for transit for us after a couple decades he 
brought home an oddball short leg of a light rail system for nearly a 
billion dollars. If I were doing it the first commuter train would 
have highballed while Ronnie Regean was still "tracking" and by now 
we'd have a system that covered most of Minnesota. Plus we'd have the 
system turning a profit by charging freight railroads to use our 
tracks during the off hours.

	Clearly we need to keep Peter as far from the negotiations as 
possible- perhaps this would be a good time to send him on a fact 
finding trip somewhere? RT, on the other hand, clearly has potential 
as a dealmaker- he drives an expensive hybrid car, but he got us 
taxpayers to pay for it. And before anybody gets upset about this 
petty "borrowing" from the city fleet, remember that Sharon borrowed 
a fully equipped Crown Vic PI and an officer to chauffer her. That 
"appropriation" pales in comparison to the governors Lincoln and what 
seems like half the State Patrol on overtime protecting him pretty 
much from himself.

>  "But I believe most of them would
>support regional sales taxes for something broader.
>We've got to get into a different discussion in this
>community where we're not just saying 'No new taxes,'
>we're saying, 'How do we pay for great things?' The
>ballpark is one of them, but it's a lower priority
>than schools and roads and police."


	R.T. has potential as a hard bargainer, unlike Peter and 
other politicos who just hand over the taxpayer's charge card and 
never ask the price. But he needs a tougher opening gambit, announced 
at a news conference at maybe a homeless shelter within sight of the 
proposed stadium. Heck, instead of being vague, I'd demand funding 
for public safety, at least two commuter rail lines, and upgrading 
education in a deal that would be at least revenue neutral if not 
profitable for Minneapolis.

	Actually, I'd let R.T. make that offer as I usually play the 
"bad cop" in negotiations... I'd slip up to the mike and in dark 
tones describe the crime wave that would descend on fans without 
adequate police funding. And the gridlock if we don't get commuter 
rail and other transit built and rolling  in all directions from the 
stadium by opening day. If that didn't do the job, I'd hint at 
another Northside riot overrunning the game if the economic 
development weren't spread all the way to the city limits!"

	Fortunately Sly Di has now learned to type with both 
hands**************************************************************************************************** 
and thus let go of the cattle prod...

		regaining control in Hawthorne,

			Dyna Sluyter