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Editor's Note: If you like Minneapolis city politics, you've come to the right place...Vinny's Lounge is the only place to hear the musings of one of the best political analysts of our time, SouthHighSucks.com's own Dr. Vinny!--Mr. T Bagger, SouthHighSucks.com Editor-at-Large

Editor's Note: The following commentaries were written in January and February 2003.

The Library Board Needs to Reign in It's Wasteful Spending!

I was at the Minneapolis Public Library recently, where I saw a table covered in event listings, brochures, and library newsletters. A few of the papers caught my attention, and after reading them, I was IRATE. It turns out that the Minneapolis Public Library has a budget shortfall of about $1.5 million for 2003, so they have cut library services. Now, high-traffic libraries, like North Regional, on Lowry Av. N., Walker Library in Uptown, Washburn Library on Lyndale Av. S., and East Lake Library on Lake St. near Minnehaha, have had their hours cut by 12 hours per week. They also have drastically reduced hours downtown, where they are in temporary quarters at the former Federal Reserve Bank building. The interim downtown location will not be open at night at all, with hours of 9-6 weekdays and 10-6 on Saturday. The downtown library used to be open until 9pm Mon-Thu. Anyhow, the point is that I have personally been to all of these libraries at one time or another, and they are always crowded with people, so the last thing we need is the city cutting open hours.

The Solution to the Library "Dilemma"

Anyhow, on the sheet announcing these service reductions, they say that there is "no fat to trim from the library's budget." Bull. What we need is more open hours, not more expenses. Another thing I have seen when I visit the library is that there are always more staff members than they need, especially at smaller branches, which, by the way, recieved no service cuts. So you rein in spending by having the libraries open more with fewer staff members on duty at a time. If you still need to cut, may I suggest telling the staff to reduce medical costs by simply not taking their kids to the doctor every time they get a cold. Geez, I never went to the doctor for a stupid cold, I just got the Vitamin C and Chicken Noodle Soup treatment. Of course, the final way to balance the budget is pay cuts. Everybody else is getting them, why not librarians?

I Don't Like That Solution. Can I Have Another One?

Yup. I just found a lot more fat in the library budget. Seems they are in a big hurry to spend their $130,000,000 in 2000 referendum taxes on expensive renovation projects. First off, we have the big project, the grandiose razing of the 1960 downtown library, which is taking an awfully long time to complete, followed by the construction of a new library on the same property at 300 Nicollet Mall. That should cost about a hundred million dollars. Sure, the old library had problems, but is the new one going to be worth this money--or is it going to be overly expensive so they can make it look like a glitzy shopping mall? Then, we have the equally wasteful branch library improvements. I bet we could cut just one of these stupid improvements and we'd have the million and a half to bridge the deficit. But the library board says the money must only be spent on construction projects, as stipulated in the referendum that brought on this extra taxation. But the school board is lying with regard to their referendum that says class sizes will stay down--so why can't the library board lie, too? Answer: They want you to accept another municipal tax hike instead of forcing them to have reasonable salaries for municipal employees.

Is Rybak Hiding the Truth By Muzzling the Cops?

Now Rat Trap Rybak has declared that all police employees must get permission from the Communications Department before they get to speak to anyone from the media. As KSTP-AM 1500's Joe Soucheray likes to say, that's B as in B, S as in S. I bet he's doing this because he's scared! He figures that if the rank-and-file officers are able to speak out on issues effecting the MPD, we might get a little bit of the truth out here in the public square, and he doesn't want that. Look, I don't know if the officers peed on the drunken Native-American person in South Minneapolis either, but I bet we could get closer to the truth if officers were allowed to talk about this and other topics publicly. The only other thing I can think up is that maybe Rybak is trying to fuel the fire in his conflict with Police Chief Robert Olson. It might make Olson look bad if he and others can't make public comments about anything. Hey, I'm no fan of Olson or Rybak, but it seems to me that they need to figure out how to tolerate each other for another year. Although I bet that might be hard, considering Rybak has such a problem with communication that he needed to have a consultant brought in for one of his first meetings with the City Council. Maybe he's paying a handsome salary to a consultant to look over police comments, too. In any case, we'd better watch this guy like a hawk, because he's really beginning to act disturbingly.

Where Did the Drugstore Go?

Where the **** are the city council members when the community needs them? The Walgreens Drug Store on Franklin Avenue South and 13^th has been closed for over a month and no one seems to give a rat's behind about it! (With the exception of the always collectible local tabloid, The Watchdog, which ran a story about it in their January issue.) They already lost the SuperAmerica at 11^th and Franklin, and now the Walgreens! Without the SA or the Walgreens, people in the neighborhood have almost nowhere to shop. And with nowhere to shop, you know what's going to happen? There are going to be more illegal enterprises, like open-air drug markets and whorehouses. Rat Trap Rybak keeps talking about how we need more business and community, but he has yet to do anything about it. I'm still pissed off at him for playing a guitar for the grand opening of the Hard Rock Cafe on Block E. If he was a real mayor, he would have been picketing and protesting those businesses for how they are bilking the taxpayers of the City of Minneapolis.

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