BrokenNails

I’ve heard all this shit before. Nothing changes. Everyone spews the same blah blah blah. (No it didn’t get rezoned, Bostrom and Montgomery were the only supporters.)

The only thing that changed is the even more juvenile tactics of some of the bridges supporters who were treating the public hearing like a 5th grade class election. Seriously? It would have been more mature if they had run up and kicked the speaker in the nuts. During one speaker there was a mass coughing fit until the speaker stopped and looked at them, which merely deterred the massive illness to the next speaker. This doesn’t impress anyone, it makes you look juvenile jugar video poquer webjuegos instantaneos portales webganar dinero real pagina internetplay free baccaratroulette softwarebest bonus casinojuegos casino on lineganar premio pagina internetmaquinas tragaperras portales webjuego de la ruleta gratisjugar slots gratisjuegos apuestas portalestragaperra paginas weball slots casinocasinos descargas portalesjuegos interactivos onlinecomo ganar en el casinoalquiler ruletasjugar apostar portalesapuesta dinero internetcasinos espana pagina internetroulette grand jeujugar gratis portalesmebelijuegos azar portales internetjuegue casino gratistragamonedas lineapremio dinero portalescasino internacional portalapuesta dinero onlinevideo poker portalcasino online spielencasino online slotcpayscom2 casino onlineparty casino bonusspielen sie kostenlos kasinospiele onlineкомпютри втора употребаinternet spielbankcasino on linegratis casino spieleonline casino bonus ohne einzahlungall slotscasino games 2007online spiel automatblack jack strategiencasino online liveonline casino deutschroulette kostenlosglucksspiele onlinekasino websitebestes casino onlinedas beste online casino and like you have nothing actually good to say. Keep your thoughts to yourself when someone else is talking, this isn’t a comedy club. The anti-bridges folks keep their thoughts to themselves and this alone makes them seem like the better side to go with. Jerry’s side seems really well organized until this bullshit comes up, really Jerry, tighten the leash on these idiotic tactics. Either stand on your merits if you think they are good enough or take your ball and go home.
*coughidiotscough*

That is all until things change.

A press confrence is being held for Bridges by supporters today. (I won’t be there, if you do go and want to let everyone know what happened I’ll be happy to share your account here.)

I’ll update you as I get any information on what exactly is happening, but I have to say I’d probably fall right out of the sky if they made any really significant changes to the project. I’m guessing this is a rally the troops and try to get a bit of support aiming toward the City Council.

Mayor Coleman’s latest budget address called for “structural balance” known to the rest of us as a tax increase. Either through the state in the reimplimentation of the LGA ($4.9 million increase in 2008 with “similar increases” called for 2009 and 2010 rounding to about $15 million) or through $10.2 million between an increase in levy and service cuts. This would make up for a $17 million deficit (not sure how 17=10.2 but hey fuzzy math is still the rage right?).

Coleman cited St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington as saying that the city would need 650 police officer by 2010. “Despite the budget challenges, we will not compromise on the public safety,” Coleman said saying that he hoped to add 25 new officers next year.

A big step in asking the schools to take over some of the physical rec centers to cut costs was also proposed. Shared locations will be turned over to partners with money invested in staff not buildings. Projects under construction will continue. The city will be looking toward outside funds (foundations? private money? partnerships? I’m sure all will be asked, along with you….you know, not taxes…) The building at Orchard that needs extensive repairs won’t be maintained at all, although the grounds will be kept up.

Once again St. Paul will try to not cut library hours, trying to push savings in self-checkout machines and other cuts.

As far as actual property tax increases go? Coleman addressed those who will find the jumps most shocking and painful.

I want to speak directly to homeowners who are retired and living on modest incomes. I believe that you should be able to live in your home for as long as you want to. It is good for you. It is good for your neighborhood. You made significant sacrifices for your families and your community. You deserve our respect.

I know you understand why I can’t let our libraries and recreation centers wither on the vine. I know you understand that we share a responsibility to pass on the blessings we have received to the next generation. You, for whom higher property taxes are especially difficult, are the people who taught us about taking care of each other.

So he feels bad for them. But what is he going to do? There have been many proposals about how you could keep these people in the communities and not drive them out but he didn’t mention any of these. It would be very suprising if any of these proposals did come forward for the city. (I’m not even sure they could be effectively or legally put in place at a city level). So he feels bad.

He only briefly mentioned the new Invest St. Paul program. He also briefly talked about the partnerships created and hopes for bringing money into the city through those means.

What he did talk about was the reason we have government. Now there is a topic that doesn’t get addressed very often. Granted it was in the context of the I35 bridge collapse.

As we stand at the crossroads, we face a monumental choice brought starkly into focus two weeks ago. We could each try to go it alone, but at some point, we know we need each other. None of us could get across the Mississippi River by ourselves. So we came together and built a bridge. As we stand at the crossroads, we need to think carefully about all those things that we build together.

We pay taxes so we can have police so no one breaks into our house. We pay taxes so we can mediate a dispute when Joe doesn’t pay Sally for her work. We pay taxes so that when the Jones’s big house next door starts on fire it gets put out before it devastates the whole block. We pay taxes so we don’t have to own every book ever written. We pay taxes so when we are old and feeble the young punk who is telling us we have some disease knows what she’s talking about and can tell us about the fabulous new cure for it. We pay taxes so we can cross the big mighty muddy. Because I can’t afford a personal bridge to cross every river I might want to traverse in my travels, but I can pay for a tiny bit of one to share.

The Minnesota DFL (of course MN is the only DFL) is joining the rest of the country in at least talking about moving up the date of the precinct caucuses for 2008 (or in the potential case of Iowa…2007). The potential date being talked about is the First Tuesday in February (one month sooner). The DFL State Central Committee, which will voting with results expected by the end of August.

There has been much discussion and the members seem to be taking it very seriously. Some want it even sooner than February in order to be more competitive. Some are saying that the focus should be more on Minnesota than the national race. One concern that has been raised several times is the volunteers that a caucus for a national race brings out. Often new people are brought into the DFL during a presidential campaign, plenty only stick around for the single issue or campaign, plenty get fed up with internal difficulties and plenty leave for other reasons but enough stick around to make the presidential volunteers very important to keeping the DFL growing and moving forward.

As fall draws near the St. Paul City Council races will begin to heat up.

In Ward 5 Chris Coleman is asking people to give money to Lee Helgen saying, “I am supporting Lee Helgen for City Council because he is a proven leader on the important issues facing the people of Saint Paul: safe, strong neighborhoods, living wage jobs and clean air and water.”

TC Daily Planet  has an article on the hot race in Ward 1.

Ward 2 has everyone’s favorite perennial candidate Sharon Anderson running against Dave Thune, but other posters have been seen up around town for other possible candidates (more information if you have it would be great, I haven’t been able to get a good look at these due to mostly seeing them while on the bus.)

E-Dem has their site with all the YouTube statements up.

And don’t worry, wards 3, 4 and 7 are still expected to be yawners so you can focus in on your favorite other wards.

Four major bridges in Saint Paul qualify as deficient by the rankings from 2005 (50 or less is deficient, and I35 was a 50)

26.7 Summit Ave over CP Rail Systems and Ayd Mill Rd
40.8 Interstate 35E over BNSF RR, CP Rail Systems & Cayuga St
43.4 Warner Rd EB (Reserve) over BNSF RR, CP Rail Systems, Union Pacific RR
49.5 Hwy 52 (Lafayette Rd) over Mississippi River

I hope everyone out there in blogging land is ok.

E-Dem round up page

There was a question raised about what is the difference between IRV in Minneapolis and St. Paul. There is actually a difference in voting between the twin cities. IRV as both cities are looking at it (and in the context of a local ballot initiative) would only effect city elections. Mayor and council members (if either city had a dog catcher they’d be in thier too) are the only officials who would be elected via any type of run-off ballot that was implemented.

For Minneapolis this means once every four years citizens go to the polls and vote for a mayor and council members with a run-off ballot.

For St. Paul this would mean that every other year citizens would go to the primary and vote for school board members on a current ballot. Then later they would go to the general election and vote for school board members on a current ballot AND right next to it would be a run-off ballot on which they would vote for mayor.  They would get results for school board members nearly immediately. They would wait an uncertain amount of time for the mayoral results. Then two years later they would go to the primary to vote for school board members with a current ballot. Then a couple months later would go to the general election and vote for school board member with a current ballot and right next to it would be a run off ballot for the council members. Again school board results would be quick and council votes would take longer coming in.

Now IRV proponents will say several things “but if’s”, “and when’s”, and “even though’s” all come up. Some with very good responses and some with answers that only work out after it gets investigated more. But the truth is things are fundamentally different between Minneapolis and great St. Paul.

So I asked for something new…and now here it is.

JLT submitted new plans to PED for the Bridges.  Not that the WSCO process is done (unless they gave up on it while I was out of town and didn’t e-mail anyone the information…which I guess is possible) but the JLT meeting marathon is over so they felt like they were ready to rewrap and regift the project. There were some physical changes made to the plans (outlined in the press release below). I’m not entirely sure that any of these were concerns that I heard brought up again and again in the meetings. But I’m not sure the Bridges project could be revamped enough to address all those concerns some of which are just a dislike of the developer and some of which are about the projections for the project and what it will bring (or not bring) to the neighborhood.

Changes not made:

Still asking for TIF.

Unless the “roofline variation” means it’s stories shorter, it’s the same height.

No real changes to the project as to what it will house or who it will cater too.

The Press Release: Continue Reading �

In a moment of pure deja vu I recieved this information from WSCO today…

“Building in a National River Corridor”

West Side Citizens Organization hosts an informational Presentation on Building the Bridges Project in a National River Corridor

Tuesday, May 29th
6-8pm
The Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center 179 E Robie St.
Free Parking in Ramp

Agenda

6:00 p.m. Introduction:  Jerry Lopez (WSCO Board Member)

6:15 p.m. The Bridges Presentation

7:15 p.m. The City of St. Paul (Critical Area Zoning proposal) and Mississippi National River & Recreation Area (MNRRA) (Comprehensive Management Plan)

8:15 p.m. Questions to Presenters

8:45 p.m. Closing remarks and next steps: Jerry Lopez

Call WSCO at (651)293-1708 with questions.

If you looked at this and went….wait, we already had that meeting. Yeah that’s what I felt too. Talk of the plans and the plans and plans and the obligatory Jerry Trooien talking about his plans and plans. (And has he mentioned how out of date and terrible the West Side Flats plan is yet? Why yes! I believe he has.)

How many of these exact same meetings can be held. It’s a good idea to make sure that everyone has a chance to hear what all these people think but it’s not like they are suddenly taking a new tact, holding them at a wildly new time or creating something fun and exciting (or even offering food). This is the same thing. I just don’t think I can go to another 3 hours of the same thing. I’ve sat through this meeting and I care and I got tired and bored.

Say something new. Please.

Less painful. The meeting for tonight regarding the Bridges has been shortened and next week’s canceled.

WSCO Board of Directors, Neighbors and West Side Organizations:

We are having the scheduled meeting tonight regarding JLT and Riverfront Development. It will be cut in half. It will begin at 6:00pm and go until 7:30pm same place, in the performance space at Neighborhood House, 179 East Robie. The session on the 21^st is cancelled. Info will be provided for the last three sessions as soon as it becomes available. Thank-you for your patience, participation, and help getting the word out.