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| If there's an invite To the Vikings some night His luxury box is a biggie, I just adore His asking for more, Yes my heart belongs to Zygi. -- play the video - don't be fooled 'bout who's "Daddy" -- |
No apology to Cole Porter. He'd laugh. If knowing Zygi, he'd guffaw.
Photo from Strib, this link.
______________UPDATE_____________
MinnPost on stadium matters, as of Friday the 13th, here.
An excellent considereation: "When teams leave what do you do with a stadium?"
This link, with often the answer being, demolish it, after all the millions of sunk cost, since that's the better option than being driven by sunk cost to make further bad decisions running up further ineffective sunk costs. (Hello, Ramsey Town Center, aka "The COR," re pell-mell chasing after sunk costs).
A stadium spending opponent, Bryan Olson, who is a Falcon Heights resident, authored an LTE, here at p.8, about the Ramsey County Board, and the legislative process. Olson is one of the people championing the effort at the website:
http://www.nostadiumtax.info/
Olson wrote:
The Vikings stadium and the State Legislature's Actions
Dec. 20th’s Ramsey County Board meeting was chock full of vitriol aimed at the State Legislature. Chair Victoria Reinhardt said, “It’s high time they make a decision....if they had taken on that responsibility as they should, we wouldn’t be in this spot. My irritation is with the State (Legislature) in not doing their jobs.” Commissioner Ortega
then offered he and Commissioner Bennett (a former legislator) were also “irritated” by the strung-out process to get approval to raise taxes in Ramsey County for a stadium.
It isn’t the legislature’s job to address every idea that comes through the door. Over 3,000 bills are handled each session; few of them get a hearing and still fewer are passed into law (typically less than 150). State law dictates that the legislature cannot meet year-round, so its time is limited.
The legislature’s system is quite different than that of a local government body. The county board, with only seven members, can vote an initiative up or down immediately and put the matter to rest.
[...]
It is easy to tell others what their job is, and usually it also is presumptous. It is not the job of the legislature to allocate money, State tax money and/or bonding authority, to sub-governmental units, as and when such local entities extend one or both hands out contending for one reason or another to be entitled.
I do not doubt that Olson's characterization of the county board meeting is correct, and it is presumptive to an outrageous degree for those local self-interested people to have said what they did in the context of their wanting everyone else's money for their pet projects and for Wilfare.
They are out of line, and there is no other way to put it. Also, their rhetoric is counterproductive to gaining the end they ostensibly want, and seems instead to be aimed at inflaming local passion. It is playing to the local electorate in a most shameful and irresponsible way. Read the remainder of the Olson letter, again this link at p.8; and check the anti-Wilfare website, again, here. Also, the Monitor itself is to me a new local news resource I had previously not known about; with a homepage here. Have a look and decide whether you want to bookmark it.
___________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Olson read the post and had two main comments. First, the petition drive is for Ramsey County residents only because it petitions the county for a change. Only county residents can properly take part in petitioning their own county, just as Anoka County residents can petition Anoka County but outsiders cannot.
Second, this is the link for interested Ramsey County residents to find out petition signing locations/times.
http://www.adywickstrom.com/nstc/signingevents.asp
It should be checked daily. Checking the homepage daily is a good idea:
http://www.nostadiumtax.info/
If you've signed the petition already, do not sign again. Multiple signatures simply are a problem for county election personnel when they are
A related note, Olson said some have emailed asking for a petition copy to be sent their home. The petition is arranged with the text atop and with multiple signing lines per page, for signature, name, and address (to prove county residence). It is not something that can be individually mailed and returned. Also, for an all-volunteer effort such as this, mailing costs can skyrocket if not controlled and minimized. There is no grant money for this, nor any ability to tax to cover spending.
Volunteers who would sit at a location for a block of time to collect signatures are welcome. Volunteers who, in their own neighborhoods or in other locales, would walk a petition copy set door-to-door also are welcome. To volunteer, check this web page:
http://www.nostadiumtax.info/message.html
To contribute any amount you can spare, to help the petition drive, see the left sidebar of the main page, again, this link:
http://www.nostadiumtax.info/
If you need to request info or want to sign the petition, this is a pair of email contacts:
There is an accompanying press-release page and a links page:
http://www.nostadiumtax.info/press_release.html
http://www.nostadiumtax.info/links.html
Olson indicated that an audio of the meeting he wrote about is available, and there is a county posting of the video his LTE was about. His email is one of the above addresses. Olson sent me the audio clip, but Blogger does not allow posting of audio alone, or pdf files - only images or video. Please contact Olson if you would like info, such as the audio or video.
FURTHER UPDATE: Olson indicated the meeting where Ramsey County Board members were critical of the legislature for not giving them what they wanted, (where they arguably had no genuine basis beyond blind hope for asking for such statewide subsidies); is at this link.
FINALLY -- Please do not try to get info via the Crabgrass email address [see the right sidebar] because I am not a part of the petition drive and would be an inadequate info source. Contact somebody who knows detail.