WHITTIER, STEVENS SQUARE, LORING HEIGHTS, VENTURA VILLAGE, and PHILLIPS WEST
Sustainability, conservation, and economy in Minneapolis government

January 10, 2009 seems to be about the day I decided to run for City Council.  That was the date I wrote a document describing “What I want from my government”.  It is still on the back of my brochures and on this website as the home page.  I am proud to say that it has hardly changed at all.

Had I been changing it would suggest that I was tailoring my message.  That has not been the case.

At someone’s doorstep last summer I was told, “I always appreciated Paul Wellstone not so much because I agreed with him, but because I always new exactly where he stood on an issue”

I hope I am living up to that standard.  This website is an in-depth review of my philosophies, Everyone who looks at it will be able to find something they disagree with.  However, now you know what I am about.

I don’t know what I will do, politically speaking, if I lose the election.  I may just concentrate on being a very good Refrigeration and Maintenance Mechanic, or I may take up a specific cause.  I think it might be good someday Minneapolis were to have a Part-time City Council.

But, win or lose, it has been interesting!

I want to win because we in Minneapolis simply have not been well served by our City Government.
HOME      HIGH DENSITY HOUSING
HIGH DENSITY HOUSING:
 

To me high density housing means multi-unit residential rental property of 12 or more units. 

 

Minneapolis has recently 'upzoned' properties on and on either side of Lyndale, the Greenway, and perhaps other neighborhoods outside of Whittier that I am not aware of.

 

There has been talk that the reason for this ‘upzoning’ appears to be intended to increase the tax base by adding residential units upon which taxes can be collected.  It also has been said that the City Council has a legal responsibility to meet financial obligations.
 

It is a sad situation:  The City has employees, pensioners, all of the obligations of a municipal government - and apparently the tax revenues are insufficient to pay for them.
 

It is said that is the way it is, and nothing can be done about it other than to cut services and raise taxes.
 

I fear for my neighborhood, especially those portions of it along the Greenway and up and down Nicollet.  Huge buildings may soon be built, depending upon available financing.  Who will occupy those buildings?  Maybe people without jobs.
 

There will be traffic and parking problems; concentrations of adults and children; increased demands on the infrastructures such as water and water, electricity, natural gas, roads, schools and commodity providers – grocery stores and other shopping facilities.  Upgrading these infrastructures will incur costs as the new taxes could even go uncollected.
  

I am truly afraid that the future if great numbers of people who were not enticed to come for employment, but instead because of low cost housing.  This will bring a decline in the livability of Minneapolis.
 

I wish I could tell you solutions to the financial obligations the City of Minneapolis has.  I cannot, I can only tell you that I am a home owner and rental property owner, and that my income has never been really good.
 

However, I can tell you this:  No option will go unexplored, no question unasked, and I will make every effort to insure future financial obligations are within the Cities means.
 
There is a lot I don't understand about the finances of the City of Minneapolis, but I do understand about the finances of people working every day to make a living. 
SOME DISAGREEMENTS IN POLITICS ARE PERSONAL, SOME ARE PARTISAN, AND SOME GO TO THE HEART OF THE MEANING OF A CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY.
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