Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 07.20.05

[David Shove (shove001]

             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R      07.20.05

1. Parks/stop DeLaSalle 7.20 5pm

2. Haiti protest        7.21 4:30pm
3. Eagan peace vigil    7.21 4:30pm
4. Small is beautiful   7.21 5pm
5. Library cand/forums  7.21 6:30pm
6. Coldwater walk       7.21 7pm
7. Teens rock the mic   7.21 7:30pm
8. Health care/CTV      7.21 8:30pm

9. Citizens condemn Mpls Park Board

10. Michael Brooks     - Imperial revolutions
11. William Wordsworth - I wandered lonely as a cloud (poem)

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From: ed
Subject: Parks/stop DeLaSalle 7.20 5pm

Please attend the next meeting of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation
Board. [See item 9 below: Citizens condemn Mpls Park Board]
5-8pm, Wednesday, July 20
Park Board administrative headquarters
2117 West River Road


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From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Haiti protest 7.21 4:30pm

July 21 - Twin Cities Haiti Justice Committee Peaceful Protest.  4:30pm.

BACKGROUND:  Haiti continues to be an almost totally unpublicized human
rights catastrophe in what amounts to a United States run country.
Military units from various member states of the United Nations have been
assigned to Haiti since the ouster of the Aristide government over a year
ago.

Virtually nothing of what is happening in Haiti is reported in the United
States, and what official reports there are, regardless of the official
source, effectively make light of the tragic situation in Haiti.

The specific impetus for the July 21 demonstrations is a human rights
catastrophe which occurred in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Cite
Soleil, one of the most desperately impoverished places on earth, early in
the morning of July 6, 2005.  Early in the morning on that date, UN forces
along with Haitian police attacked the neighborhood possibly killing and
wounding perhaps nearly as many as were casualties in the London bombings
24 hours later.

The local demonstration begins at 4:30pm at the LRT station near the
Hennepin County Government Center, 3rd Ave and 5th St in downtown
Minneapolis, and at 5pm leaves for the short walk to the Federal Building
and then to Minneapolis Star Tribune Building (small park across the
street) at 5th and Portland. Location: Hennepin County Government Center,
3rd Ave and 5th St in downtown Minneapolis


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From: Greg and Sue Skog <skograce [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 7.21 4:30pm

CANDLELIGHT PEACE VIGIL EVERY THURSDAY from 4:30-5:30pm on the Northwest
corner of Pilot Knob Road and Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. We have signs
and candles. Say "NO to war!" The weekly vigil is sponsored by: Friends
south of the river speaking out against war.


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From: Jesse Mortenson <jmortenson [at] Macalester.edu>
Subject: Small is beautiful 7.21 5pm

7.21 5pm
Cahoots coffeehouse
Selby 1/2 block east of Snelling in StPaul

Limit bigboxes, chain stores, TIF, corporate welfare, billboards; promote
small business and co-ops, local production & self-sufficiency.


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From: "Hamilton, Colin J" <CJHamilton [at] mplib.org>
Subject: Library cand/forums 7.21 6:30pm

The Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library are hosting 10 forums for
Library Board candidates, beginning next week and stretching through
most of August.  The schedule is as follows:

[This is the ONLY post for this; if interested, please SAVE -ed]

1. July 21, 6:30 - 8 @ Franklin Community Library
2. July 23, 2 - 3:30 @ Washburn Community Library
3. July 27, 6:30 - 8 @ Northeast Community Library
4. July 28, 6:30 - 8 @ Nokomis Community Library
5. August 1, 6:30 - 8 @ Southeast Community Library
6. August 4, 6:30 - 8 @ Linden Hills Community Library
7. August 8, 6:30 - 8 at Pierre Bottineau Community Library
8. August 11, 6:30 - 8 @ Sumner Community Library
9. August 16, 6:30 - 8 @ Hosmer Community Library
10. August 20, 2 - 3:30 @ Walker Community Library

Addresses for specific libraries are available at www.mplib.org
<http://www.mplib.org/> .

We would appreciate whatever people on this list can do to help promote
these forums within your communities/networks.

Between continuing budget reductions, major capital projects, and on-going
threats on personal privacy and the free expression of ideas, there is a
critical slate of issues for the next Library Board to address.  We hope
these forums are informative for both community members and the candidates
themselves.

We also encourage citizens concerned about library issues to NOT limit
library issues to library board candidates this summer and fall.  The
Mayor, City Council and Board of Estimates & Taxation all make critical
decisions regarding library funding, and candidates for all of those
offices should be asked how library services rank as a city priority, and
how they would help improve our library system.  Visit the links off
http://www.friendsofmpl.org/Friends_advocacy2005.html to learn more.

Colin Hamilton Executive Director The Friends of the Minneapolis Public
Library cjhamilton [at] mplib.org 612/630-6172


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From: Sue Ann <mart1408 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Coldwater walk 7.21 7pm

Full Moon Tour Around the Historic Coldwater Spring Area
Thursday July 21, 7pm

The July Full Moon Walk, Thursday, July 21 around the Coldwater Spring
Area, will feature Henry Feldseth, coordinator of the Friends School Plant
Sale, talking about summer flowers and plants on the walking tour.
Gather at 7pm, Walk at 7:15pm. Meet at south end of Minnehaha Park in the
pay parking lot off East 54th Street. www.friendsofcoldwater.org
<http://www.friendsofcoldwater.org/> info [at] friendsofcoldwater.org

Learn about historic Coldwater -- some of the legends and stories and what
is happening today.

SPECIAL GUEST FOR July:  Henry Feldseth, coordinator of the Friends School
Plant Sale for the last 15 years, will join us to talk about summer
plants--wildflowers and other plants--in the Coldwater area.

We'll walk the scenic area around Coldwater Springs and learn about the
past and present of Coldwater. The area that surrounds the Spring is the
historical center of Fort Snelling and Minnehaha Parks and the Birthplace
of Minnesota.

Gather at 7pm, Walk at 7:15pm. Meet at south end of Minnehaha Park in the
pay parking lot off East 54th Street.

Directions: from Hwy 55, turn East (toward the Mississippi) at East 54th
Street, follow the road around (to the left) into the parking lot. If you
don't have a parking sticker, park and pay at the meters, or find
alternative free parking across Highway 55 and walk to the lot.

Henry was born in Baudette, Minnesota.  He's been involved in the co-ops
and progressive politics since the mid-seventies.  Henry worked for over a
decade with Northern Sun Alliance organizing around nuclear issues and met
a lot of the community through his job at the New Riverside Cafe.  When
his daughter was reaching school age he began to work with the Quakers at
their school. He has been coordinating the Friends School Plant Sale for
the last fifteen years. He's excited to say the plant sale has become the
biggest fundraising plant sale in the region. This year the plant sale
moved to the grandstand at state fairgrounds, having outgrown the
schoolyard, for the most successful sale ever. The Friends School Plant
Sale is always on Mothers Day weekend://fsmn.org/events_plant.html.  The
2005 plant sale was a roaring success and earned much money for the
school's scholarship program.


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From: Kelly Phillips <phil0223 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Teens rock the mic 7.21 7:30pm

Teens Rock the Mic in collaboration with Juxtaposition Arts invites you to
a Teens Rock the Mic: Real Spit reception

With the support of the community members - twenty promising young poets
and ten of their mentors went to the Brave New Voices - International
Youth Poetry Festival in San Francisco in April 2005. You are invited to a
reception welcoming back the local teens that attended the Poetry Slam in
San Francisco.

The Reception starts at 7:30 pm on Thursday, July 21, 2005. Juxtaposition
Art Studio located at 2007 Emerson Avenue North

Two of the organizers, Melissa Borgmann and Dudley Voigt will present a
formal slide show documenting the International Youth Poetry slam and we
will listen to the poets describe their experience in San Francisco.

Join us for an engaging evening of stories and poetry! Their artistry,
honesty and courage has inspired us and we believe will inspire you as
well!


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From: leslie reindl <alteravista [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: Health care/CTV 7.21 8:30pm

Altera Vista

Thurs July 21, on Altera Vista, St. Paul cable SPNN, Channel 16, 8:30 pm:
"Our Great Big Health Care Mess:  How We Got Into It and How We Can Get Out"
Part I.  Kip Sullivan, Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition.  Taped
February 2005.


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Subject: Citizens condemn Mpls Park Board
[See item 1, above: Parks/stop DeLaSalle 7.20 5pm]

1 Scott Vreeland
2 Christine Viken
3 Chris Johnson
4 Barry Clegg
5 Scott Vreeland
6 Christine Viken
7 Fredric Markus
8 Scott Vreeland
9 Ryan T Curry
10 Jason C Stone

==1==

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 10:00:19 EDT
From: Scott Vreeland Svattheriver [at] aol.com
Subject: [Mpls] Public Hearings at the Park Board

Dear Commissioner Hauser and issues list readers,

There are many challenging decisions facing the Park Board, including how
to proceed with the proposed DeLaSalle project. I am concerned about the
potential illegality of Board actions - concerning this and the Saint
Anthony Parkway Master Plan. The Park Board has both ordinance and policy
that regulates its conduct for development and redevelopment projects.

The ordinance is very clear about the public hearing process, proper
notification, and the requirements of a specific citizen participation
structure called a citizen advisory committee as well as an appeal
process. These requirements are not optional and failure to follow the
ordinance is unethical and illegal.

This ordinance went into effect Jan 1,2000 signed by then MPRB President
Fine and is in the current code of ordinances
_http://www.minneapolisparks.org/documents/design/ord99-101O.pdf_
(http://www.minneapolisparks.org/documents/design/ord99-101O.pdf)

All the ordinance is relevant, here are two sections.

PB11-1. Citizens Advisory Committee - Creation and Authority. The Park
Board shall cause a citizen advisory committee to be created when park
facility construction or redevelopment projects are proposed. The citizen
advisory committee shall be balanced and representative of the interests
impacted by the proposed park facility construction or redevelopment. The
citizen advisory committee shall have the authority to make
recommendations to the Park Board's Planning Committee on the proposed
construction and redevelopment of park facilities.

PB11-4. Planning Committee - Notice. The Planning Committee shall hold a
public hearing on all proposed park facility construction or redevelopment
projects. The committee shall publish notice of the time, place and
purpose of the public hearing at least once, not less than ten (10) days
before the hearing, in a newspaper of general circulation. The Planning
Committee shall also notify the voting members of the citizen's advisory
committee and owners of record of property located in whole or in part
within three (3)  city blocks of the park facility being proposed to be
constructed or redeveloped of the time and place of the public hearing.
The Planning Committee shall also comply with all other notice
requirements of Minnesota's Open Meeting Law.

Almost none of the requirements are being met. Having a "forum" does
nothing to meet the legal requirements. As my Commissioner, I am asking
you to make sure that the conduct of the Board meets those legal
requirements.


==2==

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 11:28:35 -0400
From: Christine Viken <c1900 [at] sihope.com>

A meeting of the Planning Committee of the Minneapolis Park Board has been
called for 6:30pm, Wednesday, July 20 at the Pk. Bd. Headquarters.

According to Bill Engfer, a study report on the reciprocal agreement
proposed for DeLaSalle High School and the MPRB will be presented then and
public comment will follow. As structured to date THIS WILL BE THE ONLY
TIME FOR OPEN PUBLIC COMMENT BEFORE THIS MATTER IS VOTED ON BY THE ENTIRE
BOARD.

Prior to the meeting anyone can sign up to speak on signup sheets located
just outside the Board's meeting room. The Pk. Bd. number is 612-230-6400.

If prior practice is any indication, the Board is likely to limit speaking
times to 1 1/2 to two minutes per speaker.


==3==

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:40:18 -0500
From: Chris Johnson <issues [at] chaska.org>

June 1:  the Planning Committee of the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board
voted to hold a Public Hearing on the subject of the proposed use of
public Park Board land by private high school DeLaSalle on Nicollet
Island.  The Public Hearing was to be held in July.  [1] -- public hearing
required by law.

June 20:  In the Skyway News, the Public Hearing was announced and
scheduled for Wednesday, July 20 at 5:30pm. [1] -- 10 day notice required
by law.

July 15:  Park Board staff, with no further direction given by a lawful
public meeting of the commissioners, announced a change -- the official
Public Hearing, with its legal recording requirements [2], has now been
downgraded to a "public forum" and its time changed from 5:30pm to 6:30pm.
Announcement was made with 5 days notice via the web site.

It appears this change has the following ramifications:

1.  It avoids a Public Hearing.

2.  It avoids the need to the record or consider any public comments made,
as it is no longer an official Public Hearing.

3.  Park Board staff is arbitrarily making changes to specific direction
voted and approved by elected commissioners.

Call your Park commissioners, and demand that they follow their own laws.

Footnotes:

[1] According to Park Board Ordinance 99-101 effective January 1, 2000:
"PB11-4. Planning Committee - Notice. The Planning Committee shall hold a
public hearing on all proposed park facility construction or redevelopment
projects. The committee shall publish notice of the time, place and
purpose of the public hearing at least once, not less than ten (10) days
before the hearing, in a newspaper of general circulation. The Planning
Committee shall also notify the voting members of the citizen's advisory
committee and owners of record of property located in whole or in part
within three (3) city blocks of the park facility being proposed to be
constructed or redeveloped of the time and place of the public hearing.
The Planning Committee shall also comply with all other notice
requirements of Minnesota's Open Meeting Law."

[2] According to Park Board Ordinance 99-101, section PB11-6 Planning
Committee - Hearing:  "The Planning Committee shall keep minutes of its
public hearings, and shall also keep records of its official actions.
Decisions of the Planning Committee shall be dated and forwarded to the
full Park Board."


==4==

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 16:41:39 -0500
From: Barry Clegg bfclegg [at] visi.com

The land lease for my house on Nicollet Island, covering about 1/3 acre,
was signed in 1992.  It was for 99 years.  It was signed, pursuant to
state statute, after an extensive opportunity for public input, after
development of two master plans, after agreement with the City of
Minneapolis, after consultation with the Heritage Preservation Commission
and after signoff by the Met Council, which provided the money to purchase
the land.  Leases were awarded through an impartial lottery process.  The
lease is very protective of uniqueness of Nicollet Island.  The lease goes
into thorough detail about what the lessee (me) can and can't do, what
building materials we had to use to restore the house, what approvals are
required to cut down trees on our lots, and who must approve every detail
of house design (4 levels of review).  The lease, with exhibits, is 155
pages long.

Today, the Park Board is poised to give away about 6 times as much land
just down the street - for a total of 70 years.  The document, with
exhibits, is 4 1/2 pages long.  It was drafted in a few weeks without
input by any citizens - the only party with any input was the lessee,
DeLaSalle.  Neither the City, the Met Council or any other responsible
agency has even been consulted, much less approved.  The agreement is
contrary to every master plan ever developed, and violates deed and lease
covenants.  The agreement is so scant on detail, it takes only 9 words to
describe what will be required to build a football field ("construct field
areas for physical education and athletic use").  DeLaSalle is only
obligated to provide anything in return if it doesn't "interfere with
DeLaSalle's use" of the facility.  In short, complete mush.

Is this the way to be stewards of the public's land??


==5==

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 18:51:45 EDT
From: Scott Vreeland Svattheriver [at] AOL.COM

Franz Kafka wrote a brilliant book about an impenetrable bureaucracy,
titled - The Castle, it is an apt metaphor for the Park Board. The
Commissioners and staff are people I like and can work with, but the mind
numbing logic of what is being said is just astounding with a breathtaking
distrust of the public as a chaser.

I just marvel at the effort to prevent an open and understandable process
of citizen participation.

Welcome to a world where words have no meaning. The MPRB Planning
Committee on June 1st took the following action: The Planning Commission
authorized a public hearing. Pretty Clear?

Commissioner Erwin offered a substitute motion authorizing staff to
negotiate a reciprocal agreement with DeLaSalle with the existing field.
Commissioner Dziedzic offered a substitution to Commissioner Erwin's
motion - AUTHORIZING STAFF TO NEGOTIATE A RECIPROCAL AGREEMENT WITH
DELASALLE AND TO BRING AGREEMENT BACK THROUGH THE PLANNING COMMITTEE AND
HOLD A PUBLIC HEARING ON JULY 20, 2005. Committee Action Taken: Approved
3-2 (Erwin and Young voted nay).

Apparently staff decided to disregard the Commissioners and cancel the
public hearing.

I'd say the above was from the approved minutes, but the Park Board
neither takes nor approves minutes, ( a complete disregard of
Parliamentary Procedure) but now issues an ominous " Final Agenda" that is
neither corrected nor informative as to the content of any written
reports.

How many Commissioners can dance on the head of a pin? Staff is saying
that there will be no public hearing - because in 1983 there was a
decision (that didn't include DeLaSalle) but was about something like
this. It all depends on your definition of what "it" is. I don't think the
"it' that is before the board has very much correlation to the size and
scope of what is going on now and I think you have to stretch the truth to
say that the work of those involved 1983 approved this plan as it is now
before the board.

So if you had something to say you should have said it 22 years ago in
meetings that had very little to do with the current proposal,
clairvoyants only need apply, but the Park Board is allowing you to vent
you frustration at a meaningless "forum" somewhere between 5 and 8pm
depending on where you look on the website.

It's not just the DeLaSalle project. There is going to be an explanation
about how the St. Anthony Parkway met the requirements of a citizen
advisory committee and public process when it in my humble estimation it
clearly did not.

I would suggest a Metamorphosis.


==6==

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 18:27:27 -0400
From: Christine Viken <c1900 [at] sihope.com>

PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Christine Viken (c1900 [at] sihope.com or 612-874-1900)
FRIENDS OF THE RIVERFRONT SAY "KEEP IT PUBLIC"

MINNEAPOLIS PARK AND RECREATION BOARD WILL HOLD A PUBLIC FORUM JULY 20 ON
DELASALLE HIGH SCHOOL'S PLAN TO BUILD A STADIUM ON PUBLIC PARKLAND

A new nonprofit group, Friends of the Riverfront (F.O.R.), will urge the
Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to keep Nicollet Island Park public
at a forum July 20, 6:30pm at park board headquarters, 2117 W. River Rd.

This is the only opportunity for public comment before an Aug. 3 park
committee vote on DeLaSalle High School's plan to build a suburban-style,
750-seat athletic complex over a city street and on public parkland,
including paving adjacent riverbank land for parking. It would be at the
heart of the St. Anthony Falls National Historic District and Central
Riverfront Regional Park.

Supporters of F.O.R. will ask the park board to preserve dedicated public
open space rather than let a private institution take over two acres of
parkland for which the public paid more than $1 million. Friends of the
Riverfront will also deliver hand-signed petitions from more than 1,000
park visitors who oppose the stadium plan.

Nicollet Island is a 46-acre island in the Mississippi River between
downtown Minneapolis on the west bank and the city's birthplace on the
east bank. The island neighborhood dates to the 1860s, with some of the
city's oldest houses and streets (including Grove Street, over which
DeLaSalle would build its football field). Nicollet Island is at the heart
of the St. Anthony Falls National Historic District, which the
Preservation Alliance of Minnesota called one of the state's Ten Most
Endangered Historic Properties of 2005, in part due to DeLaSalle's
proposed athletic complex.

Formed by Central Riverfront Regional Park visitors and residents, Friends
of the Riverfront advocates for public access and environmental protection
on parkland along Minneapolis' riverfront. A website will be up soon; in
the meantime, http://www. nicolletisland.org and
http://www.mplsparkwatch.org have more information.


==7==

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 20:22:17 -0500
From: Fredric Markus <fmarkus [at] mn.rr.com>

Here's a little lesson in geography. the Bicentennial Commission put a
public park on the South tip of Nicollet Island. The current Park
Commissioners paved the open swale on the South Tip for the benefit of a
private, profit-making enterprise.

We all agreed, back when, that an open space mentality was important for the
remainder of the Island so that the historic buildings would be ensconced in
an inviting open space setting meant to encourage pedestrian use.

The current Park Commissioners want to pave another goodly chunk of the
mid-Island (bear in mind De LaSalle already has a major paved area in front
of the school). And close a pubic street. And expropriate the old tile and
marble site for what looks suspiciously like their exclusive use, given the
remarkably vague language in the so-called "shared use agreement", again a
gift to private enterprise that already has a net worth of several millions
of dollars and a healthy chunk of the Island's total area.

Add to this the travesty of public process that others have documented
relentlessly in recent weeks and ask, perhaps, "What's the rush?"

Helpful hint: expect major personnel changes at the top of this heap - I
wouldn't want the fellows who established our remarkable parks and open
space legacy disturbed in their rest by these arrogant grabs for power and
privilege. IMHO, a resounding vote of "no confidence" in November seems the
best way to keep the Historic District from further erosion by the latest in
a very long history of attempts to seize Nicollet Island from the public's
hands.


==8==

Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 16:19:48 EDT
From: Scott Vreeland Svattheriver [at] aol.com

Curiouser and Curiouser. You might as well say "I see what I eat "is the
same as" I eat what I see". ( Alice in Wonderland)

I have been writing about the Park board and looking for a metaphor that
describes the true oddness of what I am being told. Yes I am running for
Park Board, and my words should be somewhat suspect as campaign rhetoric.
But I am just amazed and fascinated by this odd fantasy world I have
stumbled into.

I appreciate clarity and logic and I have been seeking a clear answer to
why the Park Board does not follow its own rules. Welcome to a world where
words lose their meaning.

I wrote to the Chair of the planning committee and staff: Is there some
reason ordinance 99-101 is not being applied to the Master Plan or Public
Hearing process of the St. Anthony Parkway Master Plan?

The reply "if we had done the Citizen Advisory committee with
representatives from the biking and walking communities on the project,
there would have been less neighborhood based input."

What this means is - elected officials who should have appointed a Citizen
Advisory Committee - Commissioners, Council Members and Mayor can not be
trusted to appoint the right mix of participants.

So the staff disregards the ordinance written by Commissioners, considers
it optional, and somehow thinks that the mishmash that was created and
blew up in their face at the public hearing was the right way to go. It's
great to hear Commissioner Dziedzic voice his concerns about the lack of
public process - he was not happy with the work of the staff or
consultant.

And now there are more meetings - and again they will not be held
according to the requirements of Park Board. In fact, the motion that is
written in the "Final Agenda" - (minutes that are never approved and never
get corrected)  incorrectly records the motion of the board by including
something that was not part of the motion - adding an illegal action
suggested by the Superintendent.  (Probably not aware of the notice
requirement)

Sorry for the level of detail here but the "with an up arrow to the full
board the same night" was never part of any motion or amendment and is a
violation of Park Board Ordinance that would provide a 10 day period for
an appeals process.

I understand the desire to expedite the decision. BUT doesn't anyone at
the Park board read and understand its own rules? >From the "Final Agenda
" July 6. "The action was amended to read that the approval of the St.
Anthony Parkway Regional Park Master Plan be postponed until further
discussions were held with the public and was slated to return on the 1st
Board meeting in August with an up arrow to Full Board the same night."

On Wed July 20 there will be a study report about StAnthony Parkway Public
Hearing Process and how the Park Board met the requirements of the
ordinance. Again, an Alice in Wonderland conversation, now the Park Board
will say there was a Citizen Advisory Committee (the citizens just didn't
know it).  Part of the gist of a phone call with Park staff:

 - Can you tell me why the policies and procedures of 99-101 that are
required, weren't followed?
 They were followed, except for notice.
 - No they weren't
 Everything in the ordinance was followed.
 -No it wasn't, The Citizen Advisory Committee was never convened. They
have specific roles and responsibilities.
 The ordinance was followed.
 -No, it wasn't. There are clear policies about the conduct and
responsibilities of a Citizen Advisory Committee, the conduct of the
public hearing and an appeals process on the website.
 Where?
 -Design and Planning-Citizen Participation, and a reference on the FAQ in
that section.
 Those aren't  policies.

??

These are important issues that people care about and there is major
conflict and controversy about these planning issues. Wouldn't be nice if
there were a clear process that is an open, fair and effective means of
solving problems?

Well, actually, there is one and it is legally binding. The Commissions
have three screwed up planning processes, just in this past month.  In an
election year they don't want irate citizens complaining about being left
out of the process.

A simple suggestion to the Park Board - know the rules and follow them. It
will give people a chance to be part of a process and part of the
solution.

OK, now that we are in the world where words lose their meaning - The time
certain public hearing that was held on July 6 has been changed
retroactively to have not been a public hearing, it has been officially
recorded in the ominous "Final Agenda" as merely "a forum".

"I don't think they play at all fairly,' Alice began, in rather a
complaining tone......--and they don't seem to have any rules in
particular; at least, if there are, nobody attends to them--and you've no
idea how confusing it is.......  "


==9==

Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 19:25:11 -0400
From: RyanTCurry [at] netscape.net

Boy, a bottom of the barrel expectation should be that all the rules and
regulations are followed by our Park and Recreation Board when considering
the private use of public parkland for what amounts to a 70 year term.
This is the bare minimum, the smallest possible amount of civic dignity
one should expect a governmental entity with even a faint heartbeat to
scrape up; that is to say, at least follow all the proper regulations and
procedures when there is even the question of pinching the public.  I find
it astounding they are not, and really, the City Council (or whoever
appropriate) should intervene.  If not, one can only assume that lawsuits
from citizens and others will follow - always a good use of everyone's
time and money.

How much nicer it would be if MPRB was considering a private school
request for public land to construct a cutting edge science and technology
center to help Minneapolis kids excel on the world stage in a critical and
crucial field.  Such a private school could offer evening and summer tech
and science programs to all City kids in return for the public commitment
of very valuable land.  Let's have that debate.

To me it just doesn't ring true trading public land on a rare, natural,
historic and finite island on the Mississippi visited by hundreds of
thousands of visitors each year for a stadium/bleachers/lights/parking lot
that is foremost for private use.  BUT, if that is the route my elected
leaders deem most prudent, most beneficial to Minneapolis, most aligned
with the mission of the MPRB...then I can only ask that they go forward in
a spirit of honesty and openness, following the rules they have as a body
adopted and accepted by assuming the helm.

Ryan Curry
NIEBNA
Live on East Bank but love the island.  I'm a fan of athletics and
football, in addition to fair and legal governmental bodies.


==10==

Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 07:56:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jason C Stone <jason_c_stone [at] yahoo.com>

Public trust is political capital.  Many current board members don't get
it and it will take years to rebuild the trust that has been so
relentlessly squandered over recent years.

Community volunteers and officials from surrounding jurisdictions have a
grim view of the Park Board today.  In this context, the Park Board's
lobbying efforts are less than successful and it achieves fewer community
and government partnerships.  The Board's own fundraising Foundation
refuses to meet with the Board.

And against the backdrop of the Park Board's failure to conduct an
authentic dialogue about this backdoor land conveyance, DeLaSalle athletic
field supporters should be crying foul.  It's impossible to have a real
discussion about the merits of the deal in the midst of a process
meltdown.

The Park Board's historical policies for community engagement (the ones it
now follows only when convenient) have been held up as best practice
across the country.  It's going to take a lot of hard work to restore
trust in this organization.  But I do see a future when the Board is
respected for its honest, open process and commitment to bring
stakeholders to the table.

Jason Stone Diamond Lake Candidate for Park Board, District 5


--------10 of x--------

Imperial Revolutions
The Iraq War, the Reserve Army of the Unemployed,
and its British Historical Parallel
by Michael Brooks

(Swans - July 18, 2005)   The introduction in 1981 of Microsoft's first
commercial operating system, MS-DOS, is a convenient point in time with
which to demark the current period of rapid technological change. The
design in 1967 of the first computer network, ARPANET, might also be
considered for this designation. (1) Irrespective of its starting point,
however, the so-called Digital Revolution has not only ushered in the era
of the computer, but also wrought a fundamental restructuring of the basic
modes of production. Much like the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, the true legacies of the Digital Revolution have
been those of falling wages, persistent unemployment, and social turmoil.

As both dominant imperial powers and centers of radical technological
change, Great Britain and the United States occupied historically similar
positions in their respective hegemonic roles. For this reason, each will
be the analytical focus for their particular imperial epochs in this
article. It is important to note, however, that by no means did either
England or the United States achieve imperialistic exclusivity; each was
merely the body from which the tentacles of unfettered capitalism spread
outward. The current war on Iraqi citizens is merely the latest chapter in
the sordid history of the imperial corporatocracy known as America.

            Technological Parallels between Historical Empires

Both the Industrial and Digital Revolutions were technological epochs,
periods of time violently disturbed by the arrival of radical technology.
Yet the advent of technological innovation was trumpeted and packaged as a
boon to workers in both historical periods. Bill Gates, Microsoft
chairman, recently expounded on technology's purported benefits:

In terms of things that people do at home, we are at the beginning of a
revolution in terms of people being in control, control of when they want
to watch a TV show that the digital video recorder is now getting people
addicted to this idea that it's up to them to decide when they want to do
it. People are getting addicted to the idea that, in terms of their music,
they can organize their collection and have different play lists that they
can have a portable device that they take with them that lets them play
that music. (2)

Of course, people must be employed in order to enjoy the benefits of a
mass-market, consumerist Microsoft lifestyle. Mr. Gates did not address
the issue of the chronically impoverished, whose income excludes them from
his dreamy platitudes.

Parallels exist between the respective developments of the steam engine
and MS-DOS; each, for example, was introduced with little contemporary
fanfare. The future applications of each mode-transforming mechanism, of
course, were not readily apparent to most observers in early years. In
addition, neither James Watt nor Bill Gates could claim true "inventor"
status, since both merely improved existing structures.

The use of Watt's steam engine in such future applications as Samuel
Crompton's 400-spindle spinning mule was a technological breakthrough, as
one machine could produce more than the output of hundreds of workers.
However, the depressing effect on labor demand created by such innovations
brought about unanticipated consequences: chronic unemployment, increased
poverty, and a widening of the gap between elites and the working class
top this list.

In a similar fashion, the arrival of MS-DOS; helped fuel a tremendous rise
in productivity (read: displaced workers) over the past two decades.
Computers have created exponential productivity gains in such fields as
industrial production, financial analysis, payroll processing, data
mining, and design automation, while unemployment forces workers into
poverty.

Even so stout a defender of political economy as Adam Smith acknowledged
(albeit, in an arcane fashion) the negative effects of technological
innovation upon the lot of the working class:

In consequence of better machinery, of greater dexterity, and of a more
proper division and distribution of work, all of which are the natural
effects of improvement, a much smaller quantity of labor becomes requisite
for executing any particular piece of work. (3)

                   Redundant Labor: Imperial Asset

Both the Industrial and the Digital Revolutions exacerbated one of the
most appalling structural realities of capitalism: the essential surplus
underclass of the impoverished, or what Marx termed the "industrial
reserve army." (4) This excess population is a fundamental component of
free enterprise, acting both as a counterweight to the inflationary forces
of employed workers and as a ready supply of labor for boom cycles; in
Marx's prescient eyes:

The industrial reserve army, during periods of stagnation and average
prosperity, weighs down on the active army of workers; during the periods
of over-production and feverish activity, it puts a curb on their
pretensions. (5)

However, rapid gains in productivity, while adding to the profits of
industrialists, also relegate more humans to the category of superfluous
worker.

The reserve surplus army is measured by most national governments as an
unemployment rate, or the ratio of unemployed to the employed.
Conveniently, however, such calculations generally factor out potential
workers who no longer seek jobs. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) developed the category of "not in the labor force" to
describe such people. (6) While some of these potential workers are
retired or physically incapacitated, many more have simply given up hope
of obtaining gainful employment in the workforce. In 2003, BLS estimated
that there were nearly five million such chronically unemployed Americans.
(7) In addition, over two million American heads of household are paid by
rates at or below the federal minimum wage. (8)

The Digital Revolution, and its ability to globally link corporations, has
intensified the process of shifting work to the lowest-cost provider. In
the patois of modern business, the euphemism "outsourcing" describes this
process. With a few mouse clicks, a profit-minded executive can locate
production sites whose potential for surplus labor far exceeds that in the
company's current location. Corporations with manufacturing facilities in
multiple locations can make instantaneous production decisions, and this
remote decision making affects the economic livelihood of many millions of
workers. Marx and Engels clearly foresaw the rise of what today is termed
globalization:

The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the
bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle
everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. (9)

"Settling everywhere" also includes the process of seeking new labor
markets to exploit. In the case of Iraq, it involves the de facto seizure
by the United States of underground wealth that will slow the rate of
decline in American global dominance.

                 Working Women in Revolutionary Times

The employment of women workers rose during both the Industrial and
Digital Revolutions, signaling not just the rise in feminist ascendancy
but the usurpation of female labor by a capitalist system ravenous for
low-cost workers. In each revolution, the entry of women into a previously
male-dominated workforce ultimately benefited only one class: the
capital-possessing industrial oligarchy.

The process of replacing higher-paid, skilled workers by lower-paid,
unskilled or semi-skilled workers accelerated during the Industrial
Revolution. Marx summarized this phenomenon in the following manner:

That mighty substitute for labor and for workers, the machine, was
immediately transformed into a means for increasing the number of
wage-laborers by enrolling, under the direct sway of capital, every member
of the worker's family, without distinction of age or sex. (10)
In the period from 1971 to 2003, the percentage of women in the US
workforce grew by 114.85%, from approximately 30 million to slightly more
than 64 million female workers. This was during a time when the total
female population of the United States grew by only 54.47%; thus, the
employment rate of women grew over twice as fast as the population growth
rate for this period. (11)

Conversely, the percentage of men in the workforce from 1971 to 2003 grew
by 48.48% in this period, from just under 50 million to slightly more than
73 million male workers. This occurred during a time when the total male
population of the United States grew by 61.41%; thus, the rate of growth
of the male population significantly exceeded that of the growth in male
employment for this period. (12)

Even more revealing are statistics on persons - as defined by the US
Department of Labor - "not in the work force." In the period 1971-2003,
this category grew by only 10.43% for women (from approximately 42 to 46
million), while growing an astounding 104.89% for men (from just under 14
million to over 28 million). (13) The imperial oligarchy, in a deft
maneuver worthy of the great Oz, championed the emergence of the liberated
working woman while simultaneously veiling the declining financial
fortunes of the working class in general. Of course, wages for women
remain well below those of men, thus preserving sex-based class
divisiveness.

                    Compensation Transformation

The change in average wages for workers is, arguably, one of the most
accurate indicators of relative class prosperity, since the exchange of
labor for wages (i.e., subsistence) is the principal reason that workers
even accept employment. An examination of workers' wages for both the
Industrial Revolution and the Digital Revolution is thus warranted.

Charles Feinstein, in his recent work on real wages and standards of
living during and after the Industrial Revolution, argued that the
Industrial Revolution did not bring economic gain to the working class:

[W]age earners' real incomes were broadly stagnant for 50 years until the
early 1830s, despite the fact that in many parts of the country they were
starting from a very low level...more substantial gains were not achieved
until the 1860s. (14)

Feinstein determined that, during a 70-year period when Great Britain's
gross domestic product grew some 250%, (15) the working class might have
received a total income gain of ten to fifteen percent, or a tiny fraction
of one percent per annum. (16)

The US Census Bureau dutifully tracks a wide variety of information about
the nation; each March, it publishes a table entitled "Share of Aggregate
Income Received by Each Fifth and Top 5 Percent of Households." Surely,
with so many millions of women entering the US workforce during the
Digital Revolution, the financial picture for American households must
have shown a marked improvement, since many households now featured
multiple wage-earners.

This, however, has not been the case, as the share of aggregate income for
the bottom 80% of US households has steadily declined in the past decades.
In 1967, this demographic received 56.3% of aggregate income, while
garnering only 49.8% of aggregate income in 2001. Each of the four lower
"fifths" saw a cumulative decline in household incomes for this period,
although the 61st to 80th percentiles only declined from 24.2% to 23.0%.
(17)

The share of US aggregate income received by the highest 20% of American
households saw a significant rise during the Digital Revolution. This
demographic saw a cumulative increase in the percentage share of aggregate
income from 43.8% (1967) to 50.1% (2001), amounting to a 14.83%
inflation-adjusted improvement. Not surprisingly, this class is that most
associated with capital ownership, which most frequently takes the form of
retirement accounts today.

Lest, however, the American petit bourgeoisie break collective arms
patting each others' backs in exultation, an examination of the
ultra-wealthy is in order. In 1967 the top 5% of all households gobbled a
17.5% share of the proverbial pie; the oligarchic feast rose to a
staggering 22.4% of aggregate income in 2001. (18) This amounts to a 28%
inflation-adjusted improvement for the nation's wealthiest households
during the Digital Revolution. Despite the purported "democraticizing"
(19) capabilities inherent in a Microsoft world, the Digital Revolution's
effects on the working class have been a widening of the income gap
between classes.

Finally, the tax cuts enacted by the Bush administration have provided the
American aristocracy with an additional petit four. While middle class
American families received a few $500 checks under the scheme, the
wealthiest 1% of taxpayers will see their collective wallets expand by
nearly one trillion dollars before 2010.

                    Empires and Imperial Forces

The building of an empire requires a number of key ingredients. Would-be
imperialists must, of course, possess the will to act as regional,
hemispheric, or worldwide hegemons. Capital is also a necessary precursor;
sufficient quantities of capital must be available - through willing
financiers, or through early territorial conquests - to acquire the
necessary armaments and resources for empire maintenance. However, perhaps
most crucial to the creation of an empire is a work force available to
fill imperial roles, as well as to take the jobs of those who serve the
empire. A reserve industrial army, then, is a vital component for the
preservation and expansion of empires.

It is no surprise, then, that the Industrial Revolution coincided with
England's rise as the preeminent world power in the nineteenth century.
Superfluous workers could be readily summoned to imperial labor needs;
Adam Smith described the synergism between capitalism and imperialism in
the following passage:

In time of war, when forty or fifty thousand sailors are forced from the
merchant service to that of the king, the demand for sailors necessarily
rises with their scarcity... (20)

With six percent unemployment and nearly four million unemployed workers
at the end of 2002 (21) - excluding, of course, those aforementioned
individuals who had given up looking for work - the United States was in
a perfect position to shift the imperial vehicle into high gear. The 2001
invasion of Afghanistan was merely a military tune-up for the colonial
trophy: Iraq and her many trillions of dollars worth of oil and natural
gas reserves. (22) The invasion of Iraq would require significant military
and logistic labor for conquest to be achieved, and American unemployed
workers, as an industrial reserve army, were an essential piece of the
invasion equation.

The imperial desires of the Bush Administration's self-monikered "Vulcans"
- Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Rice  are not a new phenomenon. As
lackeys of a corporatist oligarchy, American leaders simply perform as
trained political chimps in time-honored fashion. The drive for capital
accumulation is not human nature, but it is branded onto the psyche of
every actor in the capitalist drama; by definition, capitalist structures
must perpetually expand, or face systemic implosion. John Hobson's words
succinctly describe, in prophetic form, the choices made by American
leaders in the illusory emerging "democracy" of the Digital Revolution:

A people limited in number and energy and in the land they occupy have the
choice of improving to the utmost the political and economic management of
their own land, confining themselves to such accessions of territory as
are justified by the most economical disposition of a growing population;
or they may proceed, like the slovenly farmer, to spread their power and
energy over the whole earth, tempted by the speculative value or the quick
profits of some new market, or else by mere greed of territorial
acquisition, and ignoring the political and economic wastes and risks
involved by this imperial career. (23)

Thus Bush, with his professed goal of "spreading freedom and democracy"
(24) around the globe, is merely the latest in a long line of emperors
sitting precariously atop the Leviathan of capitalist accumulation in its
incessant - though doomed - drive to confiscate, dominate, and privatize
the world's limited resources.


Notes & Bibliography

1.  Leiner 2004.  (back)
2.  Gates 2004.  (back)
3.  Smith 1904 (1776), p. 328.  (back)
4.  Marx 1990 (1867), p. 781.  (back)
5.  Ibid., 792.  (back)
6.  US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2004.  (back)
7.  US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2004.  (back)
8.  US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2004.  (back)
9.  Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick 2004 (1848).  (back)
10.  Marx, p. 517.  (back)
11.  US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2004.  (back)
12.  Ibid.  (back)
13.  Ibid.  (back)
14.  Feinstein 1998, p. 649.  (back)
15.  Clark 2004.  (back)
16.  Feinstein 1998, p. 650.  (back)
17.  US Census Bureau 2004.  (back)
18.  Ibid.  (back)
19.  Gates 2004.  (back)
20.  Smith 1904 (1776), 159.  (back)
21.  US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2004.  (back)
22.  US Department of Energy - Energy Information Administration 2004.
(back)
23.  Hobson 2004 (1904).  (back)
24.  Bush 2003.  (back)

Bibliography
(All URLs valid as of July 7, 2005)

Bush, George W. Speech in Washington, D.C. October 1, 2003.

Clark, Gregory. "The Secret History of the Industrial Revolution." Working
paper. Electronic copy at:
http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/papers/secret2001.pdf

Feinstein, Charles H. "Pessimism Perpetuated: Real Wages and the Standard
of Living in Britain during and after the Industrial Revolution." The
Journal of Economic History, 58:3. (Sep., 1998), 625-658.

Gates, Bill. Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect,
Microsoft Corporation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
February 24, 2004. Electronic copy at:
http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/02-24UnivIllinois.asp

Hobsbawn, Eric J. "The British Standard of Living, 1790-1850."

Hobson, John. Imperialism (1902). The Modern History Sourcebook.
Electronic copy at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1902hobson.html

Leiner, Barry M. et al. "A Brief History of the Internet." The Internet
Society. Electronic copy at:
http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml#Origins

Marx, Karl. Das Kapital, Vol. I. Translated by Ben Fowkes. London: Penguin
Books, 1990.

Marx, Karl and Engels, Friderich. The Manifesto of the Communist Party
(1848). Electronic copy at:
http://ww.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

Rosenzweig, Roy. "Wizards, Bureaucrats, Warriors, and Hackers: Writing the
History of the Internet." The American Historical Review, 103:5 (Dec.,
1998), 1530-1552.

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations (1776). Based on the fifth edition as
edited and annotated by Edward Cannan, 1904. New York: Bantam Dell, 2003.

Thompson, Edward P. The Making of the English Working Class. New York:
Vintage Books, 1963.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Employment status of the civilian
noninstitutionalized population, 1940 to date." Electronic copy at:
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat1.pdf

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Employment status of the civilian
noninstitutionalized population 16 years and over by sex, 1971 to date."
Electronic copy at:
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat2.pdf

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Persons not in the labor force by desire
and availability for work, age, and sex." Electronic copy at:
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat35.pdf

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Wage and salary workers paid at or below
the prevailing federal minimum wage by selected characteristics."
Electronic copy at:
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat44.pdf

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "How the Government Measures Unemployment."
Electronic copy at:
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Unemployed persons by marital status,
race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, age, and sex." Electronic copy at:
ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat24.txt

US Census Bureau. "Share of Aggregate Income Received by Each Fifth and
Top 5 Percent of Households (All Races): 1967 to 2001." Electronic copy
at:
http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/histinc/h02.html

US Department of Energy - Energy Information Administration. Iraq: Country
Analysis Brief (March, 2004). Electronic copy at:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/iraq.html

Woods, Alan. "The World after the War in Iraq." Electronic copy at:
http://www.marxist.com/MiddleEast/afterwar_in_iraq.html

About the Author

Michael Brooks is a writer and historian currently residing in Toledo,
Ohio. He is a graduate student at the University of Toledo, and his work
has been published in local, regional, and international periodicals. He
is currently at work on several academic projects and two books.


--------11 of x--------

 William Wordsworth
 I wandered lonely as a cloud

 I wandered lonely as a cloud
 That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
 When all at once I saw a crowd,
 A host, of golden daffodils,
 Beside the lake, beneath the trees
 Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

 Continuous as the stars that shine
 And twinkle on the Milky Way,
 They stretched in never-ending line
 Along the margin of a bay:
 Ten thousand saw I at a glance
 Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

 The waves beside them danced, but they
 Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: -
 A poet could not but be gay
 In such a jocund company:
 I gazed -and gazed -but little thought
 What wealth the show to me had brought.

 For oft, when on my couch I lie
 In vacant or in pensive mood,
 They flash upon that inward eye
 Which is the bliss of solitude;
 And then my heart with pleasure fills
 And dances with the daffodils.


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