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Thursday, May 20, 2010

An early summer rerun. Add three more years, and enjoy a bite of irony as tasty as it was back then.

First published All Fools Day, 2007; this link.

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Four-and-one-half years ago, almost to the day, and trust me you don't want to read the entire article, it will only make you cry, so I will not link to it. But, this:

Anoka County Union
4101 Coon Rapids Blvd.
Anoka, MN 55303
763-421-4444
Fax 763-421-4315

Posted: 9/26/02

Town Center plan offers a glimpse into the future
-- Preferences identified


In May, the city of Ramsey sent 1,300 three-question surveys to find out what residents wanted to see included in the proposed Town Center. Approximately 882 surveys were return[d] by the end of August.

The top five categories in the three questions are:

-- If you could pick the places you would like to shop in the Town Center what stores would you support?

Bakery/coffee shop Yes: 648 No: 231

Hardware store Yes: 510 No: 368

New/used books Yes: 448 No: 431

Women's clothing Yes: 447 No: 431

Craft/gift store Yes: 416 No: 463


-- What restaurants would you like to dine at in a Town Center?

Italian Yes: 479 No: 399

Bakery/coffee Yes: 459 No: 420

Mexican/Tex Mex Yes: 443 No: 435

Seafood Yes: 438 No:441

Steaks/chops Yes: 411 No:468


-- What other services or businesses would be valuable in a Town Center?

Post Office Yes: 697 No:180

Park/Walking Trails Yes: 537 No: 340

Indoor Pool Yes: 492 No: 387

Movie Theater Yes: 444 No:435

Community Center Yes: 396 No: 481

Source: city of Ramsey
Copyright ©ECM Publishers, Inc. All Rights Reserved
by Tammy Sakry
Staff writer


Yes, TexMex, Northern Chinese, Thai, and - a real nice steakhouse. Prime rib at Town Center. Yes, your City of Ramsey tax dollars at work, in a survey 4-1/2 years ago. You may ask yourself, have you gotten your money's worth for all the tax hikes since then? When you answer, keep smiling. Ben is smiling, but then look at the nice place where he lives -- A walkable distance from a job at City Hall.



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So much for nostalgia, the question of the day -

So where are the restaurants?

More money is being spent, no restaurants.

The citizens wanting them are chopped liver in the decision process.



A mantra is there has to be more buildout before the restaurants will arrive. It's been a mantra for quite some time.


First, "might" is the operative word. as in, "... the restaurants might arrive." "Will" in that context, after so long, is presumptous. Insulting even.


Second, it's ass-backward.


There have to be restaurants before any more money is wasted on "might" be this, or "might" be that. Either that, or continue screwing people, and throwing money down a rathole.


What's hard to understand about that? Horse in front of cart. It is not working the other way, the council's way.

Where is the message being lost - or worse, ignored? Why did John Dehen refuse to sign that one consultancy contract?



If no restaurants ever are built, then at least by abandoning cart-before-the-horse horsing around, there will have been no intervening useless waste of public cash.


It should be, if restaurants do arrive, then and only then consider spending on other stuff. Restaurants are what the people living 2, 4, 6 miles from Town Center care about. They get zippo from new housing. Zippo from concretifying a ditch.

Without Coborn's the thing would be an absolute failure without virtue of any manner, to any degree, upon any one square inch of the three hundred acres of waste.



Yes, a VA clinic will be nice for veterans.


But we were not promised veterans being treated fairly in town center; we were lied to about nice places to eat being months away.




Stop the BS.

Deliver the restaurants.

Or cease the ongoing wasting of time and money.

It is bleeding the fisc.


___________UPDATE____________
Mayor Ramsey and I have exchanged emails, the gist being, his contentions:

Please do not use half truths to try to bolster your point of view. We lowered taxes for 2010 and your rant is over the top!

The objective is to get restaurants in Ramsey along with other things that would benefit the community. They will come when the market is ready for them. This council has spent hundreds of hours working to re-vision and plan to make something out of the mess to deliver on a failed promise, we will deliver in the markets time, not yours.

My response:

Reserves have been depleted on gambling. Sure the budget's down, but
the reserves, they are really down. You showed me a drawing with a ton
of dreams on the east end, one hoped for restaurant site, and
emptiness and no detail about shops and restaurants in the useful
utilitarian region neighboring Coborn's.

Was I unclear sitting across the table saying that Coborn's is the
only thing of any value to me and I presume to many others in the
entire town center? I thought I spoke directly. I did not disguise my
frustration with that. At least you have Acapulco. The schedule
slippage there does not worry me.

I admit I do not watch much QCTV, but are the HRA sessions televised?

Mayor Ramsey did get me a printout of the total city expenditure on Landform from first consulting contract to the present, $177,282.56

There are numerous pastel poster size renderings at city hall to show for it.

He indicated HRA minutes and the full agenda from around March 16, 2010 would be where to look for the current contractual arrangements between the city and Landform. There was a 6 - 1 vote and Dave Jeffrey signed the contract on behalf of the city - HRA. I have not seen much cause to be routing the Landform dealings through the HRA instead of directly through the council, sitting as the council, but that's how it is being done.

The situation in a nutshell - he is frustrated that there is impatience over delivering on the past promises - dating well back to before he was mayor, that the COMMUNITY apart from special interests, would benefit from having restaurants and amenities.

Aside from Coborn's what at Town Center is worth much to YOU?

I am in agreement with the move to put the licensing center off busy Highway 10 where ingress and egress has its hazards; into available space at the city hall. That was a good move.

But the mayor and I did have a chance to discuss my impression that the Ricebox restaurant in the small mall on the northwest corner at Ramsey Blvd. and Sunfish is so far the best restaurant option in the city. It is not in Town Center.

He and I differ on the hard barrier installation decisions implemented in some highway upgrading, his view being more concerned about impact on businesses and my view favoring it as a matter of driving safety.

The major issue of disagreement I have with him is on spending now more money on what's a proven failure, and not waiting. Sunk capital that's not performing is little cause to sink more presuming the gamble might pay off.

The council has been spending, but saying, as the emails indicate, citizens must wait for a return, if any, for the market to perhaps rebound in ways we cannot know in advance, to determine things.

My view is you do not spend heavily on consultancy costs in a down market, when there will have to be more spending on revisions of visions, when the market changes in ways neither the mayor, I, nor Landform can really crystal ball with assurances.

Also I think that amphitheater stuff costing millions is vastly stupid and is not adding a single restaruant, while sucking up cash.

It will be a noise pollution source, if used at all, and otherwise will be an attraction for skate boarders liking risk and concrete challenges.