Finding a Green Way to Govern

I've had a chance to see the specifics of the Mayor and Council President's proposed stadium deal.  There are some aspects designed to make the bitter pill easier to swallow, but there are also details to dislike, and some of the ways that the plans supporters are touting it strike me as more than a little dubious. On the plus side: The City of Minneapolis would no longer own the Target Center and we will no longer need to use property taxes to pay for it.  We never should have owned this facility in the first place, and it would be good to be done with it. The Metrodome would not become a vacant problem property to manage.  It will be expensive, difficult, and likely take quite some time to realign the street grid and make east downtown - which the Metrodome itself has helped to turn into a wasteland of surface parking lots - a livable space. On the minus side: The team would pay less than half of the costs of the stadium, with taxpayers picking up the majority. T...

I've been getting calls and emails opposing the most recent proposal, supported by the Mayor and Council President Johnson, to have Minneapolis fund 20 - 25% of the cost of a new Vikings stadium.  In general I am opposed to public funding for sports stadiums, especially those build and maintained for privately owned professional sports teams. I can think of very few situations in which I might find it appropriate for the public to foot any portion of the bill for a stadium. I would consider it if it was a publicly-owned facility for a publicly-owned team, for example, or if those who were bearing the costs voted affirmatively in a referendum on the new taxation, as I said in this post .  This position is informed by two of the key philosophical values that shape my thinking: social and economic justice, and grassroots democracy.  Too often, government sides with the wealthy against the rest of us, redirecting public funds to those who n...