While the Legislative GOP warns Minnesotans about what DFL rule will bring, one group of Minnesotans is living it today.<\/p>\n
Businesses along University Avenue in Saint Paul are learning what it means to be “Happy To Pay For A Better Minnesota”.<\/p>\n
A business owner along Uni writes (anonymously, because businesses that offend the mother city tend to get more visits from city inspectors):<\/p>\n
They (met council) finally have the loan application available for us businesses (that was mentioned in their April news release).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s late June. \u00a0Just saying.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Sigh.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Just keep repeating to yourself “I’m happy to pay for a better Minnesota”.<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n
Here’s the loan app & info…just came out today:<\/p>\n
Loan application:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/stpaul.gov\/DocumentView.aspx?DID=16866<\/p>\n
Flyer about the loan program is attached.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And it’s interesting to see what a goverment bureaucrat’s idea of “help” for a businessperson is:<\/p>\n
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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Even better? \u00a0The bureaucrat’s idea of what it means to talk <\/em>to businesspeople:<\/p>\n
Business resources<\/p>\n
http:\/\/stpaul.gov\/index.aspx?NID=4533<\/p>\n
But wait! They will save us with brochures!<\/p>\n
This link goes to their “ready for rail checklist” to help businesses thrive during construction.<\/p>\n
Array<\/p>\n
It is insulting to my intelligence as a business owner. I read it an literally said to myself, “are you f-ing kidding me?”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
To the bureaucrats in St. Paul ,Ramco, the Met Council and the State, empty buildings means cheap rent for non-profits!<\/p>\n
Support your University Avenue businesses. \u00a0Goodness knows your state isn’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trains-and-automobiles","category-st-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20679"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20682,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20679\/revisions\/20682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}