Minneapolis: Your "Leaders" Should Alarm You
Today's Strib editorial is entitled "Target's Move Should Alarm Downtown".
They got it half right.
Target Corporation built its new headquarters building in downtown Minneapolis a few years ago, bucking the trend toward companies building corporate campuses in the suburbs. The move had its downside, of course; the city of Minneapolis used massive eminent domain to evict the businesses that used to occupy its block, on Nicollet Mall, and received a signifiant city subsidy. Target got a big, impressive new HQ; Minneapolis kept a major tenant downtown...
...but not without the usual harassment that any business gets from the radical left. The radical DFL and Green majority that owns controls Minneapolis tried to kill Target's HQ with a thousand cuts; zoning restrictions on height and capacity (not always bad, although harassment in this case) and criticism of the subsidy (not a bad thing - I oppose them as well), quibbles about the percentage of union labor at Target HQ (they don't have much; it's one of the reasons they're a success). In the perfect world of the DFL/Green Fantasy-based bloc, the perfect downtown is high-density yet awash in greenspace, bike-friendly yet served by boundless mass-transit, full of mom and pop stores and boutiques that pay every single unionized employee a "living wage".
Target is, of course, growing wildly. They need more headquarters space. They had the option of expanding in downtown, or...
...building more space in the 'burbs.
They chose the burbs. And the Strib is not amused:
During his 2001 campaign, candidate Rybak sharply criticized subsidies for Target's urban-style store on Nicollet Mall. His political allies ridiculed the company's new downtown headquarters, demanding successfully that the City Council reduce its height and capacity. During Rybak's first term, the city did little to anticipate corporate office expansion downtown, either for Target or others. Only now has it begun a rezoning process to accommodate expansion. Subsidy remains off the table. Relations between Rybak and Target's senior managers are said to be icy.
None of that is good for the city or the metro region. Yes, it's good for Brooklyn Park, where land is cheap and tax incentives flow, that Target can develop a $2 billion "new city" with 15,000 jobs plus shops, hotels and a central park. But the project will exacerbate sprawl, worsen traffic and diminish job opportunities for the people who need them most.
Note to all you "people who need jobs the most": quit voting for DFL machine hacks.
Whatever political gain Rybak and other politicians get from posing as "anticorporate" comes at the expense of Minneapolis and its prospects.
The suburban advantage is clear: cheap land, sweetheart tax deals and assurances that Minnesota's taxpayers will step in to supply the new roads and other infrastructure that greenfield projects require. It's hard to blame Target for taking advantage of that dynamic.
First things first: government subsidy of business is generally wrong. And there's nothing in the "Suburban Advantage" that the taxpayers of Minnesota wouldn't be paying for downtown, either.
But the fact is that Minneapolis, and the "people that need the jobs", are being incredibly badly served by Mayor Rybak's actions and those of the Minneapolis City Council.
When do you suppose they'll make the connection?
Posted by Mitch at
November 25, 2005 08:57 AM
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When? After the government cuts more public safety jobs in an effort to save money and fund "necessary" social programs; the crime rate increases more; more businesses leave downtown because of the things you've already stated plus concern for their employees' safety; and then the city implodes. Then they'll make the connection ... maybe. I'm not very optimistic about Minneapolis.
Posted by: rrd at November 25, 2005 02:19 PMOnce again, the term "profound ignorance" can be the only one applicable to Mitch's comments.
The bottom line of the financing Target was originally offered was that it was far in excess of the amount Target felt it needed. It didn't even plan to put as large a store (or maybe even any) there until the City Council (the stupid, "liberal" city councel) through a pork-barrel at it. The debt load for the city was likely not one Target's operations would have successfully serviced. As a result of that proposal, and because of FAR too cozy prior deals under Sayles-Belton (a BAD BAD mayor), the City's bond rating (like St. Paul) was at risk, and was later lowered.
Investment in business has to actually make sense, and Sayles-Belton did Mpls no favors. Rybank is more friendly with business than many other Democratic mayors.. so much so Green friends of mine think he's just Randy Kelly w/o the stupid endorsements.. but a city cannot float financing that will cause it's bond rating to fall into B class or lower, not for very long any way, or it winds up like San Diego.
Now apparently Brooklyn Park will throw money at Target.. this is not so disimilar to bidding for sports teams, but you appear to be talking out of both sides of your face... subsidy bad, but good in this case... because why exactly? It will create jobs.. sure.. and using cheap foriegn labor also creates a small number of local jobs but it loses many more, so should I assume you favor off-shoring at every opportunity? You see this is the same paradigm, bid me up or I'll take my bidness elsewhere.. well the city has the right to say "no" because we think the repayment in decent jobs will be too low, you've already proven your track record Target, we don't care to pay health insurance on your workers.. so Brooklyn Park choses to be stupid.. good for them.. and I suppose then by this argument you believe Mpls paying 500 Mill for a sports franchise that creates 600 low paying jobs and 50 high paying is also a good idea?
Things simply are more complex than you appear to either understand or care to relate to your readers.. which it is is for you to resolve.
PB
Posted by: pb at November 25, 2005 03:00 PMPeeb,
You managed to sneak in the usual gratuitous insult, without actually explaining what this supposed profound ignorance of mine actually IS.
Nothing new there, of course.
Subsidies are as a general rule bad. So are anti-business demigogues who niggle away at any business that DOES exist. Vide Dean Zimmerman...
...but hey, no matter. Why would anyone let actual topicality get in the way of a good rant?
By the way, PB - proclaiming someone else's alleged ignorance while exhibiting spelling and English usage that'd make an eighth grade teacher puke up her skull is, to say the least, ironic.
Posted by: mitch at November 25, 2005 03:30 PMWhy is it always that it's perfectly OK for Minneapolis or St. Paul to bribe a business to locate downtown, but "unfair" for a surburb to do the same?
I was particularly amused by the "deck clearly stacked against core cities" line in the Editorial, as if the DFL machine has nothing to do with it.
Posted by: R-Five at November 25, 2005 05:37 PM'When do you suppose they'll make the connection?'
Here in New York, it took a truly awful Democrat mayor to open the eyes of diehard Democrats. David Dinkins was inept and his administration riddled with corruption. The usual liberal solutions generated the usual disastrous results.
When Dinkins ran for reelection, Rudy Giuliani beat him by a whisker. Citywide, things improved immediately. Democrats reelected Rudy in a landslide, and voted for his Republican successor in two more landslides.
We saw the same thing with Carter and Reagan. Democrats elected a candidate who was the pluperfect representative of liberalism. The results were so disastrous that the electorate repudiated him and chose his opposite, with good results.
It takes a disastrous incumbent followed by his opposite. That's when they'll make the connection.
Posted by: lyle at November 26, 2005 08:53 AMR-Five,
Posted by: StPaul_DFLer at November 26, 2005 02:09 PMMpls and StPaul are not the only cities that do that, all cities in Minnesota use tax breaks to lure business to them. Woodbury, Maple Grove and especially the Rogers area are the biggest violators of TIF gone wild. Not exactly Liberal havens.
". . . and diminish job opportunities for the people who need them most."
Posted by: Terry at November 26, 2005 03:10 PMHuh. Since when does the Star&Trib get to determine who needs a job? Don't we all do that on our own by actually looking for & getting a job? If the Star & Trib is using that phrase as racial shorthand, they should admit it.
StPaul_DFLer,
Posted by: Kermit at November 26, 2005 06:23 PMI'd stand out of the way if I were you. Now that you have your dream of a Chris Coleman administration, businesses will stampede to the suburbs. But hey, at least you can still smoke a cig in the bars there.
For now.
Mitch,
First, your use of the English language is hardly awe inspiring.
Second, if you chose to duck issues simply by throwing out, but you misspelled misspelled arguments.. ok, but you'd still be a hypocrite, whether or not I use prose to your liking.
Your ignorance here is that you didn't appear to know because you didn't say, that in fact the subsidy to Target was fought by Rybak (whom you simply blasted generally for being against helping Target), because it was a. unneeded, and b. bad for the City's already imperiled credit.
So either you ducked facts you didn't like (probable) or are ignorant (also probable) or both (most likely), because you simply presented an arguement that falls flat on its face when looked at factually. The deal made no sense and the city couldn't support it.
But whatever, why don't you insult my writing as a poor excuse for your lack of information some more, if that helps you sleep better.
PB
Posted by: pb at November 27, 2005 12:33 PMMinneapolis and soon Saint Paul will soon be toast for business because the DFL conservative socialists asswipes now run them both. Hopefully they will run them into the ground FAST and we have a crimewave to go with it so the final moves by the producers of society (go Target...leave Minneapolis) and the sane people head for the suburbs and the countryside where we can smoke, eat, invest, live, shoot our guns and generally encircle the remaining DFL f*cks so emasculate any that try to come out to the 'burbs with their mental dreck...
Can't wait...
...and pb...your a c*nt....have a nice day...
Posted by: Greg at November 27, 2005 01:29 PMKermit,
Posted by: StPaul_DFLer at November 28, 2005 02:05 PMYou have no idea who I voted for or supported. Randy Kelly still had some Dems sticking with him. You have no idea if think of Coleman as a traitor or not. You have no idea of Coleman's own record as a non-Liberal. You don't know pretty much about anything on this subject so why don't you keep your big wide green mouth shut?
Now there's a guy who has the guts to say what a lot of us are thinking. I wish he could have had a similar rant in the US congress when Jean Schmidt's 'cowards run, marines don't' message got taken totally out of context by people who obviously were not paying attention.
Except that I think you meant DFL liberal socialist asswipes, not DFL conservative... Right?
Anyway, kudos, Greg.
Posted by: Bill C at November 28, 2005 02:09 PM>>Except that I think you meant DFL liberal socialist asswipes, not DFL conservative... Right?>>
Bill C....they are socialists that want to conserve their power as a piece of banana in jello....just as Bolshevics are conservative communists....whole aspect is to "conserve" political power.
It is not conservative in the traditional everyday political sense.
...as for rants, my rant is tame compared to the Democrat Party as it is constituted now and will further lose elections in middle America as its keeps being pushed to the Left and the country continues Center/Right Look at it, the only place the Democrats will have any power in the next several election cycles is the weirdo cities of this country...we have them surrounded and they know it and the cities will be deathtraps for their politics when the money, goods, welfare, etc. runs out. That is why Democrat "Blue" Amnerica wants to suck the life out of Productive "Red America" (flyover country to them).
Posted by: Greg at November 30, 2005 03:22 AM