Carrying an AP feed, Strib reports, and this after last year's gazillion dollar Wall Street bailout largess, a change of a kind that has not happened since 1975:
COLA set to go flat for seniors - With inflation in check, no cost-of-living increase is planned for 2010 or '11.
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, AP - Last update: Aug. 24, 2009 - 4:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise.
The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting that there won't be a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975.
By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly checks would dip for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.
"I will promise you, they count on that COLA," said Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut who now heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. "To some people, it might not be a big deal. But to seniors, especially with their health care costs, it is a big deal."
Cost-of-living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year, largely because energy prices are below 2008 levels.
Advocates say older people still face higher prices because they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care, where costs rise faster than inflation. Many also have been hit with declining home values and shrinking stock portfolios.
"For many elderly, they don't feel that inflation is low because their expenses are still going up," said David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP. "Anyone who has savings and investments has seen some serious losses."
About 50 million retired and disabled Americans receive Social Security benefits. The average monthly benefit for retirees is $1,153 this year. All beneficiaries received a 5.8 percent increase in January, the largest since 1982.
When seeking your vote for president, he did say change. And you can believe, this one is real.
...............
CONSISTENCY
From the Internet Archive, Ramsey Town Center "Key Locations" and you know exactly where it is, you've been there (haven't you), to that very place in Ramsey so many, many times - Centro:
And what's consistent? The expectations exceding any reality, or any reasonably foreseeable reality on the horizon. New studies will be done, to bring what was planned into the sphere of what might sell these days, and Landform gets thousands for the exercise. How critical can you be, of spending thousands after millions were committed for buying the albatross? It would make sense, when the market rebounds, but now, it is waste since in two years it will need to be done again, presuming the market rebounds in that short a time frame.
I spoke briefly with one Landform person, and that was my key question - When will the market be better, how much better, which segments gainers, which losers, on a permanent basis? The guy's response to me was an admission that those in planning are more optimistic than others but nobody knows.
I was impressed, because it was an honest answer.
I had to look for the card - a fellow named Lazan. I had a better perception of him, hence of the operation he'swith, than I had of John Feges and his pack of pastel dream weavers, flanking him on his left, when he got the Vegas plaque saying Town Center was great, in theory, in 2005.
Twenty-three grand initially earmarked for Landform.
Now, a request for up to four grand more. It adds up, but I have a feeling - no logical argument to back it up, but a feeling - there will be more bang for the buck and fewer bucks spent than when Tinklenberg Group was attached to Ramsey, drawing out cash.
We wait and see. City of Ramsey buying the thing out of foreclosure by the bank, and then the price paid, it's been done, so it really is a question of, "What next, magic man?"
And there will be no magic.
Probably no train stop, with politics against it, and with the current stops, Big Lake, Elk River and Anoka each having a bridge so commuting from the other side of the river for rapid transit downtown is possible. Ramsey only has thoughts of a bridge, rerouting Armstrong, etc.
I would doubt cross river commuting will be a big boost to ridership, but at least those other three locations have it as possible, and it would be a counterflow to the main rush hour flows.
I hope my impression is correct and there will be no more of the syrup rhetoric that the opening Feges-related item entailed, when Landform reports in with what twenty-three grand bought. I looked at the Landform website. They are anything but immune from indulging in planner speak. But it seems sounder than the stuff John Feges was spreading around a few years back, using a smaller manure spreader or something, while Feges was using Sigfried-Dunlay as a PR flak firm, and all the while wheelbarrows of cash were being hauled out of Town Center only a few years ago. It seems like only yesterday ...
LANDFORM WORK PRODUCT: Here, here, here, here (I think all those firms have their drawings done by one big operation in China or the Philippines, outsourced to save cash, all looking alike, Feges-like, in a way), here (one I find impressive onscreen but if it were my money I'd surely touch base with a couple of past project owners for candid opinion), (then for pure planner speak - but short - while still as if all planners outsource all their text-work to one single place in India where they all handle English the same), here, here and here. Those are representative pages. Be prepared to bring a barf bag if you intend reviewing the final product(s) they deliver to Ramsey, it will be planner speak infested, but there might be value to the content - we can hope twenty-tree grand gets something.
It took a bit of doing, web-wise, but this is a firm that will allow public access to pick and view multiple pdf project files; here. Another firm might be less up front about past work, and that would make you wonder if there's something to hide.
One other thing that's a king-size negative, you go to their main page [homepage] detesting Adobe Flash Player (because you like to read and have a TV for that other bunk); and you get this. It's pure gag-and-heave BS to me when firms do that to you, pushing Flash Player.
But, again, Landform does let you parse back to that pdf page, showing they have some sense, despite being trained planners. It's indirect to get there without my giving the link, but accessible. No 403 error message, access denied, you are not authorized to view this page.
Give credit for that.
Ramsey contact people will have to rein in any planner-speak tendencies, "No BS," being the hoped-for mantra this time, time-after-time, and product quality should reflect client wishes.
Finally, Landform guys, if you do not use the buzzword "stakeholders" around me it would score some points. I hear that and I envision "steakholders" and see in my mind some barbecue event, people standing around without plates or utensils.
_________UPDATE_________
I looked again at that "Key Elements" "Centro" page from the archive, and -- this sentence pair from there says it all:
Ramsey Town Center is not a typical development that assembles various parts. Rather it is an integrated approach that combines synergies of uses with the goal of building community.
________FURTHER UPDATE_______
Then there is this. It's Ohio, so that's a bit of an excuse, but it is a mini-mall with long row buildings, tarted up with towers - and why did they do that to the windowing? It probably met price and square footage specs, but is it lasting architecture. What would Le Corbusier say? Would he rave? Mies van der Rohe would probably ask about the windows, and say, "Less is more."