Speaker and Minneapolis Resident Margaret Anderson Kelleher Goes for Mall Boondoggle at the Expense of Her Home Town
From:
Bob Spaulding
Date:
May 03 04:32 UTC
Short link
Peter,
Thanks for the analysis. I do share some of your perspectives. But likewise,
some notes:
IMPACT ON THE 1971 FISCAL DISPARITIES ACT. The mall subsidy goes well beyond
just a simple subsidy case. As today's Star Tribune editorialized
(http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/18467184.html), as well as
tomorrow's Star Tribune
(http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/18529969.html?page=1&c=y), the
subsidy would seriously jeopardize one of the most innovative regional equity
programs anywhere in North America. This is a program that has helped ensure
no suburb gets left behind - that we move forward together as a region.
MALL'S FOCUS ON TOURISM/VISITORS COMPETES MOST DIRECTLY WITH DOWNTOWNS. We
must recognize why the Mall of America competes most directly with the urban
core: competition for tourists and visitors. Retail analysts would note that
is a different market segment than strip malls or general neighborhood retail.
A new theater, a new exhibit space, or a new hotel at the Mall of America
doesn't compete with strip malls or even many regional malls. Those
attractions compete most directly with theaters in downtown, museums in our
central cities, and hotels around downtown.
Beyond these amenities, the kind of retail found at the mall is the kind of
retail found in a regional center, generally not a neighborhood strip mall.
The tourist/visitor crowd is a key part of the MOA mix, and many (and most
assuredly most) of those visitors would be here anyway, but forgo visitng the
central cities during the time they spend in this artificial city.
HOW MANY PEOPLE ACTUALLY COME TO THE TWIN CITIES BECAUSE OF THE MOA? The MOA's
PR department has done a good job of getting earned media over the years about
travel packages to the Mall. I have no doubt that some people take such trips.
But the fact that we're hearing about them is no accident. The Walker,
Orpheum, Macalester, and our recreation opportunities also bring plenty of
people to the Twin Cities, but they don't have comparably-sized PR departments
dedicated to such self-promotion.
In a real city, a Convention & Visitors Bureau does that promotion collectively
for the whole City. But of course, we're basically dealing with a fake city.
The mall also makes grandiose claims about how much money is spent at the Mall,
and how much business they do. But never do they acknowledge how much of that
retail trade (most of it) would happen in the Twin Cities if the Mall were not
around, and is "stolen" through subsidy from other parts of the Cities.
EVER WALKED ANYWHERE FROM THE MALL OF AMERICA? Exactly. Density as a goal is
of limited use on its own. One of the main benefits of density is that it
creates walkable, bikeable, human-scaled, livable environments. Which is
pretty much everything that the MOA is not. Which means the mall is prone to
encourage car use, adding to the development's carbon footprint.
Call me an old-fashioned 33-year-old, but I prefer real cities, where tax money
doesn't shower down from above, with real accountability to voters, real
environments, real buildings, real store-owners, all in an environment that
doesn't needlessly hasten the patterns of climate change that threaten the very
future of our life together on earth.
Certainly I'm being provocative, and I'm doing that consciously. That's
because I think we face some real choices with serious implications. Keeping
in mind that I'm the Associate Chair of my own Senate District DFL, I give my
DFL leaders an F for their leadership on this issue. Listen to your
constituents. We expect far, far, far better, Senator Pogemiller and
Representative Anderson Keliher.
Bob Spaulding
.