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Jim Graham, the day after the vote:
from Minneapolis Issues Forum at http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2002-October/017871.html
Ken Avidor is correct in both his explanation of the problem and
the results of the trampling elephants. He has missed one alternative
outcome. The grass grows thorns, which neither allows the elephants
to eat it or walk on it. Of course the elephants say well "What
will you do with out my 'fertilizer'? Of course after the trampling
the neighborhoods and residents have taken they are likely to answer
that they have about all the Bull-, I mean "Elephant Fertilizer"
that they can take.
I sat through the 35W "PAC" meeting yesterday in amazement.
I had been elected to represent an impacted neighborhood, and felt
that I may have been one of the few people at the table who was.
Some impacted neighborhoods, such as Stevens, were not even at the
table, other non-impacted neighborhoods were. Also select non-profits
such as Green Institute and Urban Ventures were at the table as
voting members while others were excluded. Businesses such as Abbot,
and Wells Fargo were VOTING members in what clearly was a conflict
of interest because they were voting to increase their property
values by spending 150 million taxpayer dollars. I think you indeed
had elephants trampling the grass root neighborhoods with the composition
of this "PAC".
I am not speaking of the viability of the access project, I personally
think the freeway system has to be "fixed" to mitigate
the destruction of neighborhoods and harm to residents that was
wrought upon the City of Minneapolis by the Freeways when they were
first badly designed and built.
I am speaking of the illusion of neighborhood support that has
been woven around this project. Hennepin County fostering this sham
group as some kind of "legitimate" citizen decision making
group is at best a joke and at worst a fraud. Hennepin County and
Corporations who will profit from the access projects have in large
part added a few neighborhood representatives, to an already stacked
deck, so as to claim some sort of legitimacy. If the "Elephants"
want this group to actually be legitimate then they need to remove
the "marked cards" from the deck and have a re-vote including
only those neighborhood "Citizen Participation" groups
who have been "Legitimized" by the City Council. Then
any vote they take would be "LEGITIMATE"; otherwise it
is just a sham.
The excuse that hundreds of hours and time have been spent on the
project is just so much further trampling. The "Legitimate"
neighborhoods thank you for that work. It will make their decision
more informed. Now please leave the table for a moment and let the
legitimate judges decide what is the winning hand.
The "Elephants" have wanted to be able to say what the
value of each card is.
Elephants come and go, remember the original Elephants running
this stampede were Ray Harris and the Sears project, Honeywell,
and Allina or Abbott. Allina has split off, Honeywell is dead, and
Ray Harris is gone (and through mishandling probably any Sears development
as well). The only constants are the few blades of trampled grass-root
neighborhoods whose only function seems to be lending "Legitimacy".
The Circus masters replace the "Elephants" with others
such as Wells Fargo, but the charade-- I mean circus-- goes on.
Some of us who actually want the present poorly designed and flawed
Freeway system fixed, and want true MITIGATION for the previous
damage, are caught in an absurd conflict between wanting the needed
benefits of the fraud (including the "Bull Elephant Fertilizer"),
and wanting to grow thorns of moral outrage at the trampling of
fellow blades of grass.
The "ELEPHANT" of course will be outraged that the "Grass)
objects to being trampled upon, but that's too bad. Some of us have
grown burrs so we do not plan to join our less hardy bluegrass lawn
friends by moving to the suburbs.
We plan on staying rooted in the same place and just make it to
painful for the elephants to continue their present attitudes and
actions. (Or at least to teach them to tread lightly, and be more
gentle while they are "picking" us.)
Jim Graham,
Ventura Village - Where we have been trampled so often by "Non-Profits"
and "Government" Elephants we had to grow thorns
read Ken Avidor's original post
(it'll explain the elephant thing)
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