While the Legislative GOP warns Minnesotans about what DFL rule will bring, one group of Minnesotans is living it today.
Businesses along University Avenue in Saint Paul are learning what it means to be “Happy To Pay For A Better Minnesota”.
A business owner along Uni writes (anonymously, because businesses that offend the mother city tend to get more visits from city inspectors):
They (met council) finally have the loan application available for us businesses (that was mentioned in their April news release).
It’s late June. Just saying.
Funny, it’s 13 pages of incredibly detailed information and requirements of us….but I don’t remember approving these folks’ use of my tax money to build their worthless light rail.
I have to prove my business is worthy of their loan, but they don’t have to prove their light rail is worthy of ruining our business.
Sigh.
Just keep repeating to yourself “I’m happy to pay for a better Minnesota”.
I say this still holding out hope that we will survive. There’s a chance we will. Things aren’t as dire as they could be…we’re hanging on…but barely these past couple months!
Here’s the loan app & info…just came out today:
Loan application:
http://stpaul.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=16866
Flyer about the loan program is attached.
And it’s interesting to see what a goverment bureaucrat’s idea of “help” for a businessperson is:
Max loan, by the way is $20,000. Last I checked we are $10,000 down this May compared with last May. That is ONE month. I mean, if we actually meet all their qualifications, we’ll gladly take the loan/grant/whatever, but it will help make a dent for maybe 2 months during the how-many-years construction? Again, not being ungrateful…just saying, I don’t think these people realize how much it costs small businesses, especially restaurants, to operate day-to-day. We need to average $20,000-$30,000 per month in gross sales to simply survive, if that puts things in perspective…we are the definition of small! lol.
Even better? The bureaucrat’s idea of what it means to talk to businesspeople:
Business resources
http://stpaul.gov/index.aspx?NID=4533
But wait! They will save us with brochures!
This link goes to their “ready for rail checklist” to help businesses thrive during construction.
Array
It is insulting to my intelligence as a business owner. I read it an literally said to myself, “are you f-ing kidding me?”
How patronizing these people are! We have done every single thing on this list, except “attend their workshops” because, well, we are busy running our business. Nothing on their stupid check list will change the fact that nobody wants to drive near the mess that is University Ave. Nothing on the checklist will make customers choose to take a longer lunch break because it takes them so long to get to us.
Well, good thing they told us to simply “reduce overhead and operating costs in advance of construction.” Gee, really? I had never thought of trying to reduce costs until I read your brochure! Thanks! I suppose if we stop paying employees and stop buying food we can reduce costs (seriously…day to day we are forever working to never miss an opportunity to reduce costs….most businesses are…like I said…this checklist is insulting).
OK…enough venting again. I could go through every bullet point on their list & tell you how worthless it is….because none of their items actually reduces traffic congestion or creates parking.
To the bureaucrats in St. Paul ,Ramco, the Met Council and the State, empty buildings means cheap rent for non-profits!
Support your University Avenue businesses. Goodness knows your state isn’t.
And the illiterate jokers that run St. Paul wonder why businesses flee the city. It’s going to get worse when the Ford plant closes. We can then watch the gnashing of teeth and hand wringing from the left nuts.
“To the bureaucrats in St. Paul ,Ramco, the Met Council and the State, empty buildings means cheap rent for non-profits!”
And, the CEO’s of these non-profits can take light rail to the capitol to petition for more money and more light rail. What a country.
“reduce overhead and operating costs in advance of construction.” Gee, really? I had never thought of trying to reduce costs until I read your brochure!
They mean lay people off.
So Democrats hate poor people, businesses, conservatives, religious people, electricity, automobiles, the words “under God, indivisible”, Breitbart, I could go on. Man that would be a looong list.
Perhaps when distilled to its essence, liberals simply hate themselves. Perhaps.
Why would you locate your business in Saint Paul if you had other, equivalent options? With the city, county, council, and state against you, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before you lose. :-/
The pamphlet at
http://www.funderscollaborative.org/sites/default/files/ReadyForRail_Brochure_English.pdf
lists five “outreach coordinators” and four “business consultants”. Four out of five of the “outreach consultants” are female. All of the “business consultants” are female. Looks like the city of St. Paul is setting itself up for a discrimination lawsuit if you ask me.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/blogs/124291998.html
Here Doggie, doggie, doggie. Let’s do some fact checking on your spewage!
As usual, Doggie is wrong and conservatives are RIGHT!
Shorter pamphlet for University Avenue businesses: Light Rail and you…you’re screwed.
I am going out of my to shop on University this weekend. Not that my few bucks will make a difference, but will try to give the local retailers some support.
Most likely the healthiest of the chains will survive (Menards for example), but the little guys will have the hardest time. Midway Liquors (near the Porkey’s site) is behind a chainlink fence, but they do have a parking lot off of…is it Prior? Nice people there, and good prices. And you reported the rumour that Roundy’s is looking at closing Rainbow on Univ/Snelling. Will visit both of those.
MGIN;
Did you happen to notice all of the left nut moonbat comments, including one questioning the demographics of the poll? I almost spit out my coffee laughing that that one! I wanted to challenge the idiot, but decided that I didn’t want to sign up to do so.
I think the whole situation is comparable to everything the gov’t does.
The control freaks in Big Government are clueless to the consequences of their actions. They don’t realize that everytime they pass a new regulation, rule, tax, etc, it has negative consequences to those of us out in the real world.
And watch the new union rules that Barry’s administration is trying to ram through. You think it is hard to now to be a competitve manufacturer in the US, wait until Barry gets done.
I headed into St Paul Sunday, bound for the Como Park area near the Fairgrounds where my daughter lives. Then I reached 94 and Snelling and the worst gridlock I’ve eveer encountered. I managed to finesse a way around the mess with my trusty GPS and was only 10 minutes late. If I ever contemplated trying to shop in that neighborhood, I won’t any more and I bet I’m not alone. A former friend/liberal blogger once wrote that the light rail project wouldn’t hurt any businesses along University Ave. I bet he isn’t driving there either.
Simple rule for getting around the Midway – AVOID SNELLING withing half a mile of Uni. Take Hamline or Lexington, or for points west, Cretin/Vandalia, and then up to Pierce Butler; you can actually get around fairly quickly.
Provided you at all costs AVOID SNELLING.
I was in some absolutely sisyphean gridlock there the other morning.
Northbound Snelling is the worst. There is an alley behind (south side of) the Midway shopping center that works great. And yes, Pierce Butler is an easy route also. As you say, you can still get around the neighborhood.
“at all costs AVOID SNELLING.”
I’m sure that this will be excellent news to the attendees of the MN State Fair! I have half a mind to go down there and hand out flyers that say, “If you’re pissed about the traffic issues you encountered, please let the following people know how you feel with a phone call!” Needless to say, the list will be a veritable who’s who of left wing big governnment moonbats!
To access the State Fair from the west use 280 up to Como. It might be a faster option from the east too, come to think about it.
If Chris Coleman and the Met Council want to kill St. Paul, they are doing a fine job of it. They are giving Minneapolis serious competition in becoming the Detroit of the North. Maybe Chris can get a chapter of MS-13 to set up shop. That would seal the deal.
Chck wrote:
The control freaks in Big Government are clueless to the consequences of their actions. They don’t realize that everytime they pass a new regulation, rule, tax, etc, it has negative consequences to those of us out in the real world.
They are idiots. They think they control things more than they do. I’m solidly middle class — income at the high end of the fourth quintile — and I know that all the “stimulus” spending the government does will have to be payed for, not by the rich and not by the next generation, but by me and people like me. I will be taxed at a higher rate, wages are flat, and I won’t have enough time before I retire to make it up if the economy does improve. I don’t think that I am alone.
Everything the government does to increase aggregate demand is useless. The more they spend, the more I save. Big spending liberalism cannot get us out of this hole, and neither can increasing taxes.
And that is all Barry knows how to do.