August 15-18, 2017
Aug 15 07:39 St. Cloud's affordable housing project Aug 15 10:01 Kim Jung Un blinks Aug 15 14:31 Mayor Kleis, where's the beef? Aug 16 01:04 Corporate morality police? Aug 16 02:11 Mayor Kleis's foolish vision Aug 16 16:49 ABM's big victory? Aug 17 11:06 DFL AG candidate Winkler steps in it Aug 18 09:06 CAE's transportation full-court press Aug 18 15:41 Ashley Fairbanks' history lessons
Prior Months: Jan Feb ~ May Jun Jul
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
St. Cloud's affordable housing project
Jenny Berg's article about Monday night's City Council meeting focused mainly on a proposed multiple city affordable housing project.
In her article, Ms. Berg wrote "Matt Glaesman, community development director, said a coalition led by United Way is working on a joint project between St. Cloud, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, St. Joseph and Waite Park where each city would work to bring an affordable housing project to its city. A joint agreement could help the cities get funding, which is highly competitive." Later, George Hontos said "he wants a joint resolution to show interest from other cities" before the city commits to the project.
I can't picture that happening. According to the most recent census information , the Median Household Income for Sartell is $73,872. Just 3.7% of their citizens live below the Federal Poverty Level, aka FPL. By contrast, 23.3% of St. Cloud residents live below the FPL. St. Cloud's Median Household Income is $45,437. By comparison, the MHI in Sauk Rapids is $48,410. 21.5% of Sauk Rapids residents live below the FPL.
What incentive does Sartell have to join this coalition? They're projecting an image of being an upscale community. It's in Sartell's best interests to be seen as a growing community filled with upper middle class citizens. There isn't a visible upside to supporting affordable housing in their community because that would bring property values down. Further, affordable housing might lead to their city getting refugees. They've been trying to avoid that.
As usual, St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis tried spinning the project:
St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis said a "win-win" could be building new affordable housing and moving tenants from HRA-owned Empire Apartments to the new housing. The existing Empire site, which is a catalyst site in the city's comprehensive plan, could then be used for redevelopment. The city would be required to relocate Empire Apartment residents if the building is removed, Kleis said. A new building could house those residents plus meet additional demand for affordable housing.
"It could be a pretty significant win," he said.
Kleis sees the grant money and little else. I'd love hearing him explain how this would be a win for Sartell.
Posted Tuesday, August 15, 2017 7:39 AM
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Kim Jung Un blinks
The headline speaks for itself. North Korean leader Kim Jung Un displayed something approaching rational behavior . The opening paragraph of Fox News' article said "Kim Jong Un appeared to blink first, with North Korean media reporting Tuesday the dictator had delayed a decision about whether to fire missiles toward Guam - a pronouncement that came hours after a particularly stark warning from Defense Secretary James Mattis promised further escalation would mean 'game on.'"
More than a month ago, Gen. Mattis was asked what kept him up at night. His response was essentially that he keeps others awake at night. Now we see why. Gen. Mattis brings to the equation something that wasn't there during the Obama administration: a credible threat of the use of military force.
Last week, Gen. Mattis said "The DPRK must choose to stop isolating itself and stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people." Apparently, Kim Jung Un took that not-so-veiled-threat seriously. That's one of Un's first rational thoughts in ages.
Last week, Marie Harf got into it with Lisa Booth, asking "If this rhetoric leads to North Korea attacking Guam, are you ok with that?"
Booth replied "No offense, Marie, but I am so sick and tired of the criticism of the "sound and fury" comment. We have Secretary Mattis, who was confirmed by 98-1 in the Senate, who is a brilliant military scholar, who is a student of history, who is known for being deeply thoughtful, who essentially said the same thing yesterday..."
This morning, we found out that Kim Jung Un backed down, thereby eliminating all of Ms. Harf's what ifs. During the Obama administration, they didn't attempt to back Kim Jung Un down with a credible threat of the use of military force. The Obama's policy of strategic patience was deployed. The Chinese and the Un administration didn't have an incentive to blink.
As for the question that the media wing of the Democratic Party didn't ask, Susan Rice answered it recently, saying that the US could live with a nuclear North Korea. The truth is that the Obama administration was filled with Carteresque pacifists. This time, Americans should be happy that Gen. Mattis was asked to clean up the Obama administration's mess.
Posted Tuesday, August 15, 2017 10:01 AM
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Mayor Kleis, where's the beef?
After writing this post about a proposal to increase affordable housing in the Greater St. Cloud area, I got a call from a loyal reader of LFR. This person highlighted the fact that St. Cloud's economy used to be built around manufacturers like Franklin and big corporations like Fingerhut. This reader then mentioned the fact that St. Cloud's economy today is focused on the hospitality and retail industries.
In the past, St. Cloud has made terrible choices for its economy. The Chamber of Commerce shouldn't get off lightly, either, since they've frequently advocated for tourism industry bonding projects. In the end, those things changed St. Cloud from being a blue collar manufacturing town into a tourism mecca. That's foolish because there are thousands of different tourism meccas in Minnesota.
In Jenny Berg's article , she wrote that "Hontos said he wants a joint resolution to show interest from other cities." He might get that resolution passed by the St. Cloud City Council but it'll die the minute it gets to the Sartell and Sauk Rapids city councils.
Since this affordable housing project started getting publicity, talk has started about voting on a moratorium that would postpone the building of bike trails and city parks until St. Cloud attracts 5 new manufacturing companies to St. Cloud.
The liberal policies that've caused St. Cloud's neighborhoods to deteriorate have led to rising crime rates, too. Mind you, many of these crimes haven't gotten recorded but they've still happened. They've been reported. They just haven't been recorded. We're left with a city whose economy is like icing on a cake but without a main meal. Economies built around retailers and restaurants are like meals consisting of cake and ice cream but no meat, potatoes or gravy.
Other citizens have told me that getting things approved for construction has gotten more difficult. The City has the right official policies. They just aren't enforced. The reason I mention this is simple. Why would a major company move to St. Cloud when crime is rising, there's a shortage of the type of laborers that companies will need and the local economy is built around the hospitality and retail industries?
Dave Kleis has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for these policies. He's also the chief cheerleader for the airport. He could've killed 2 birds with 1 stone by proposing an industrial park built right by a new regional airport. That would have a chance of gaining traction and changing the trajectory of St. Cloud's economy. That proposal hasn't been rejected. It's been ignored instead.
Frankly, it's time for new leadership in St. Cloud. St. Cloud needs someone who a) isn't a de facto cheerleader for the Chamber of Commerce, b) doesn't believe in crony capitalism and c) has a vision to restore St. Cloud's identity as a blue collar All American city. I'd clean out most of the members of the City Council. I'd pretty much fire the School Board. Finally, I'd fire the SCSU president, too. It's clear he doesn't have a plan to turn SCSU around.
Mayor Kleis talks about reviving St. Cloud's core neighborhoods. Those don't get built or maintained by restaurant owners.
Posted Tuesday, August 15, 2017 2:31 PM
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Corporate morality police?
This article highlights how progressive activists expect corporations to be their newest poster children corporate morality police. It isn't surprising that these leftists demand obedience to their code of conduct. It's something they've had in their playbook for years, at least back to the Walker recall election .
That's when AFSCME decided they wanted to destroy businesses that didn't display their signs in their window. In my post, I quoted a WSJ article that said "Last month, Dawn Bobo, owner of Village Dollar Store in Union Grove, Wis., was asked to display a pro-union sign in her window. Ms. Bobo, a self- described conservative Republican, refused and received a letter from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees asking her to reconsider. 'Failure to do so will leave us no choice but do [sic] a public boycott of your business,' the letter said."
It's time that conservatives remember the left's fascists when they enter a voting booth. Further, it's perfectly fine to criticize the left's major institutions. It's painfully obvious that the hardline progressive left wants to be the morality police. Specifically, they want corporate America to be America's morality police.
Question: Remember when conservatives were considered America's morality police? I do, too. They were called prudes for sticking with the Bible's teachings. The left's morality police aren't prudes. Instead, they're mostly fascists. They'd rather shut down speech they disagree with. The Left's morality police are bullies, too.
Another part of the Left's morality police are useful idiots like Joe Scarborough:
In the most instance, the CEOs of Merck and UnderArmor stepped down from the White House manufacturing council following Trump's initial response to the Charlottesville violence that was widely panned in the media as insufficiently tough on white nationalists. Both CEOs' decisions to step down received applause from public figures, including in the media. "I'm going out to buy Under Armour," declared MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.
Scarborough is a media whore, willing to say anything to remain politically relevant. When Trump was riding high, Scarborough wanted Trump on their show every day. Now, Scarborough criticizes President Trump's actions in virtually every segment of his show.
I'd ask if the real Joe Scarborough would stand up if I thought there was a real Joe Scarborough. It's like the old joke about how to give a chameleon a nervous breakdown. A: Put him against a plaid background. Saying that Scarborough's principles are situational is being a little too gentle.
Posted Wednesday, August 16, 2017 1:04 AM
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Mayor Kleis's foolish vision
Living on St. Cloud's East Side my entire life, I've grown skeptical of city plans to redevelop St. Cloud's East Side. When Mayor Kleis starts talking about redeveloping the East Side, I get extra skeptical. In this article , Mayor Kleis outdid himself. The article says that "The biggest redevelopment boon would be a Northstar line extension", adding that that "would be the single greatest catalyst for East Side development." The station where Northstar would stop at is less than a half-mile from my house. Anyone that thinks that that's a catalyst to redeveloping St. Cloud is either lying or stupid.
When Kleis said that this "is doable, and the Legislature can do that," my first reaction was to ask what type of drugs he was using. The East Side of St. Cloud will forever be a blue collar part of town. Within a quarter mile of that train stop are Red's Electric, Val's, Handyman's, a couple junk yards, one of which was abandoned 5 years ago, an old brick building that looks like it's been abandoned for 50 years and a day-old bread store. The frightening thought is that that's the upscale part of the area.
To do anything retail- or office-related there would require tens of millions of dollars to just make a dent. Then the question becomes what would go into this real estate. Here's the reply:
The plan recommended the city encourages artisan workshops and artist residences to move into the district by establishing incentives for redeveloping "make/live" space for artists and organizations.
Seriously? This is proof that this city desperately needs new leadership. To show how un serious this plan is, consider this information:
But East Side redevelopment captured only about one page of the document, which is upward of 160 pages . The plan's catalyst sites were mostly near downtown on the west side of the river.
Then there's this quote from Mayor Kleis:
The river flows through our city. It doesn't divide the east and the west.
Actually, Dave, the Mississippi does divide the city. It has since I was born 61 years ago. This is the view looking east down East St. Germain Street:
In less than a mile, there are 2 major sets of railroad tracks as you look east. There are 2 other railroad crossings if you look north from St. Germain. As you pass Lincoln Ave. heading east, there's a mix of a gas station, some homes and Highway 10.
If you think that I'm being a bit pessimistic, consider the fact that that's before we talk about fixing the properties on Lincoln Ave. north of East St. Germain St. If you don't fix that, you've just spent a ton of money without fixing the East Side's problems.
What's needed is to admit that the East Side is best suited for industrial redevelopment. Putting in cute apartments and retail shops might look nice for a couple of years but it won't fix the underlying problem. Getting a fistful of federal grant money to put in a few cute amenities won't change that fact.
Posted Wednesday, August 16, 2017 7:42 AM
Comment 1 by John Palmer at 16-Aug-17 10:52 PM
Auto Repair and used car lots are the dominant businesses along Lincoln Ave. When you use Val's as the center point on the Eastside with a half a mile radius there are four used car lots and nine Auto Repair shops. Three of these shops have unique (exhaust, electric, and transmission) services that draw customers from all over the state and region. Perhaps the city/chamber could facilitate a marketing plan for these business and help draw paying customers to the Eastside? A few bucks and some attention could go a long way in leveraging the special nature of these blue collar businesses!
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 17-Aug-17 02:12 AM
The other thing, John, that's needed is fixing Lincoln Ave. The Kleis plan focuses on East St. Germain St. There's no doubt that it needs a facelift but semi-fixing St. Germain without fixing Lincoln is inefficient.
ABM's big victory?
I just received an email from Joe Davis, the executive director of the Alliance for a Better Minnesota, thanking me for helping persuade Inge Thulin, the CEO of 3M, to resign from President Trump's Manufacturing Council. Davis insists that this is a major victory. It isn't. The average person couldn't care less about these councils. They're most interested in whether the economic future looks bright and whether their kids will have jobs when they get out of school. Nonetheless, Thulin tried spinning it in a statement. Thulin said "I joined the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative in January to advocate for policies that align with our values...After careful consideration, I believe the initiative is no longer an effective vehicle for 3M to advance these goals."
Why should I care if Thulin, or any other CEO for that matter, is offended? Truthfully, it's painfully obvious that Mr. Thulin is playing a political game to avoid the wrath of liberal activists protesting his company's products. It's probably the right thing to do from a financial standpoint but it's still caving to unprincipled activists. Here's Thulin's statement:
If Davis wants to think this is a big victory, that's fine with me. It isn't like ABM has had a great election victory in Minnesota recently. In 2014, Republicans got outspent decisively but still flipped the Minnesota House of Representatives. In 2016, Republicans widened their margin in the House and flipped the State Senate. Rumor has it that ABM is thinking about changing their logo to this:
The other logo under consideration is this:
Here's my statement to Mr. Davis: Pop the cork on that champagne. Celebrate those moral victories. Savor them. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep telling yourself that it's just a matter of time before people come to their senses.
In the meantime, Republicans will keep winning elections, not just moral victories.
Posted Wednesday, August 16, 2017 4:49 PM
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DFL AG candidate Winkler steps in it
Ryan Winkler has a reputation for saying controversial things. In June, 2013, Winkler took to Twitter to tweet about the Supreme Court's ruling on the Voting Rights Act. That morning, Winkler tweeted "VRA majority is four accomplices to race discrimination and one Uncle Thomas." Rather than quitting there, Winkler replied , saying "I did not understand 'Uncle Tom' as a racist term, and there seems to be some debate about it. I do apologize for it, however," he said.
Winkler was then a rising star in the DFL. I think that label is pretty much gone after reading this article. Twin Cities blogger and conservative activist Chad the Elder got into an exchange with Winkler over Charlottesville. Winkler started by saying "Nazism only stood for one thing. Communism has meant different things in different place at different times, not just Stalin. Not the same." Chad replied, saying "Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Ceausescu, Honecker, North Korea...Stop me when I reach what you consider good communism."
Had Winkler stopped there, he might've limited the damage. Unfortunately for him, he didn't stop there . Instead, Winkler asked this question:
Do you disagree that the Soviets were the lesser of two evils for us from 1940-45?
Anders Koskinen of Alpha News wrote "In a series of tweets stemming from recent actions by white supremacists', Minnesota attorney general candidate and former State Rep. Ryan Winkler appeared to defend communism late Monday night. In light of white supremacists and Nazis being fired for their views, Twitter user ChadTheElder questioned whether the same standard would be applied to Communists, since that ideology is also responsible for horrific atrocities on the scale of Nazism."
It's apparent that Winkler is a loose cannon who hasn't learned the first rule of holes. Instead of getting into a hole, then stopping digging, Winkler keeps digging. Here's hoping he's the DFL-endorsed candidate for State Attorney General.
Posted Thursday, August 17, 2017 11:06 AM
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CAE's transportation full-court press
Kim Crockett's post about her recent trip to our nation's capitol focused on the work that the Center for the American Experiment is doing to thwart the Met Council's Thrive 20240 blueprint.
In her post, Ms. Crockett wrote that "DFL Governor Mark Dayton's plan, like many 'blue state' governors, uses 'transit oriented development' or TOD, to pull money out of the suburbs and greater Minnesota to fund and re-enforce a city centric power model. That model shifts how and where people live, and how they get around, to change the political landscape in favor of left-wing control of local and state government. If 'Thrive' succeeds, we will effectively lose self-governance at the local, and even state, level in favor of unelected bureaucrats."
First, the Met Council's transportation blueprint is outdated. Next, it isn't based on listening to the communities and residents it's supposed to represent. Third, the Met Council's transportation blueprint ignores the fact that the American people don't want to get herded like cattle into a one-size-fits all transportation blueprint.
With more people being able to work from home and with more people buying their things from Amazon, E-Bay, Craigslist and other online outlets, the need for transit is waning, not waxing. While Al Gore hates urban sprawl, the American people apparently have voted with their mortgages in favor of spreading out.
Then there's this:
These TOD plans rely on crony capitalism to thwart citizen opposition to these billion-dollar boondoggles. There are construction and engineering firms and armies of lawyers and consultants, lined up to take their cut of the $2 billion for SWLRT. And that is just the start: then comes Bottineau LRT and others. They press their case with help from the business chambers and K-Street lobbyist here and in D.C.
Here in St. Cloud, we're fighting against extending the Northstar rail project from Big Lake to St. Cloud. While extending Northstar isn't as high-profile of a project as building SWLRT is, it's still built on the same central planning crony capitalist principles.
Another thing that SWLRT and Northstar have in common is that they're massive wastes of the taxpayers' money. After construction, they'll still need massive operating subsidies. Think about that. Northstar isn't making money. It never will. Extending it from Big Lake to St. Cloud just adds to the money the special interests will need to take from taxpayers. SWLRT is no different. Before explaining that statement, I'd suggest that you watch this video:
As you watch the video, count how many different pieces of infrastructure have to be built before SWLRT is operational. Then think of how many people will use SWLRT vs. how many will continue to use the highways and city streets. (You can make the same comparison with Northstar.) SWLRT and Northstar aren't solutions to Minnesota's transportation problems. They're impediments to the solutions.
Posted Friday, August 18, 2017 9:06 AM
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Ashley Fairbanks' history lessons
According to Ashley Fairbanks' bio , Ms. Fairbanks is a progressive with an education from the University of Minnesota, where Ms. Fairbanks studied "American Indian studies and Political Science." The reason I mention this is because Ms. Fairbanks wrote this article , which was heavy on the guilt trip and short on tolerance.
Early in Ms. Fairbanks' article, she wrote "People learn the real history, the important stuff, from books. People learn from knowing people different than themselves. Lessons you must have missed." According to her bio, Ms. Fairbanks "is an Anishinaabe woman and citizen of the White Earth Nation. She operates as a socially-conscious designer and public artist. She works with a cohort of artists that do racial justice popular education and organizing. She seeks to use her design skills to activate people around issues ranging from police brutality to environmental justice. She has worked with the Energy Action Coalition, Indigenous Environmental Network and Honor the Earth to create campaigns around the KXL and Sandpiper pipelines and protecting our water from mining."
Based on that information, it's difficult picturing Ms. Fairbanks interacting with people different than herself. This information makes it even more difficult to believe that she interacts with anyone who isn't a hardline progressive and environmental activist:
Ashley sits on the board of Voices for Racial Justice. She went to the University of Minnesota to study American Indian studies and Political Science, and has completed Intermedia Arts Creative Community Leadership Institute, NACDI's Native Organizing and Leadership Institute, The Humphrey School's Roy Wilkins Community Policy Fellowship and is a 2016 Forecast Public Art Emerging Public Artist Grantee.
That's the resume of a SJW. This paragraph encapsulates Ms. Fairbanks' thinking:
We often forget that the history that we are teaching students shapes their entire worldview, not just their ideas on history. When we are taught white history, white science, white literature, and people of color and indigenous people get one week in our designated month, we are teaching white supremacy.
I'd love to hear Ms. Fairbanks' definition of what white science is. I think I understand what white literature and white history are but science is science. I don't doubt that white literature is different than the literature written from a black person's perspective. I'm certain, however, that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west whether you're black, brown, yellow or white. I'm equally certain that gravity works by the same principles for people of all races.
Understanding those things makes me think that Ms. Fairbanks' opinions are either jaded or incorrect or both. I won't automatically reject everything she's said but I'll maintain a healthy skepticism.
Posted Friday, August 18, 2017 3:41 PM
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