Government Waste and Haste

Tearing down the former “Professional Building” is the biggest example of county government waste and haste yet.  Once again, with no plan in place for the empty space, Polk County is determined to tear down a fourth historic building.  I think anyone on the street can figure out that if the building was rehabbed into apartments, all those tenants are going to contribute to the tax base and the local economy.

Before the building housed professional services, it was the Villa St. Vincent Nursing Home.  Does anyone remember going with Garfield Reichert to sing carols every Christmas to the elderly?  Before that it was a hospital which treated Charles Lindbergh’s father, and before that it was the original Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Benedict and built of the finest materials and workmanship.  Names like your grandparents and great grandparents built it, and names like McKinnon, Rasmussen, Stone, Spence, Hagen, Farley, Mercil & Sylvester and many, many more donated to the building of the Addition.

Memories aside, I have heard that the 28,000 (estimated) square foot building has a relatively new roof, and boiler.  I’ve seen the leaded glass windows and doors, ceramic tile, hard Maple floors, and the all original Georgia pine woodwork not even painted over! I’ve read about an elevator, and it is built of solid white brick.  All in walking distance from downtown!  This huge building is three times the size of the Wayne Hotel. What a perfect building to work together with UMC to create an entire live/work space for one of their growing majors.

OK, Polk County, so you own the building; does that mean you can do whatever you want with it?  I don’t think so. Where are the facts and figures that led you to this decision?   What is your goal here?  If you want another parking lot for the Government Center employees, just come out and say so. If you want it off your back, hire a realtor!  It will be refreshing to read about your goals in the newspaper or hear about them on the radio.  Heck, the County could even have an interactive web site with agendas and minutes written so a lay person can understand them.  Explaining your goals and communicating effectively is a much more positive approach than saying NO, you can’t tour the building to “Artspace,” the non-profit housing developer for the arts.  

How well I remember sitting in the “hot seat” in the overly formal County Board room being hammered by a newer Commissioner for a plan when I had just handed out a plan to preserve the Wayne Hotel as the “Palace Pavilion.”  It was so brutal, I asked what the County’s plan for the empty space was and another Commissioner said “First we take it down, and then we will worry about a plan.”  I think that along with understanding how the tax base is decreased or  increased, people do  understand that planning comes first and not after the fact when it is too late. 

web counter

 

 

Four New Prayers for Crookston!

One Prayer answered, Two need more Prayers, and add Four!

That community leaders prioritize developing housing and businesses downtown, Answered!

That the banks of Crookston reconsider sponsoring an affordable housing program grant application for the Union Building, the missing piece to the funding package.

That a developer comes forth to develop housing in the former Professional Building. 

That all of Crookston and area artists show up for the “Artspace” events.

That “Artspace” will choose to develop the Wayne/Palace Hotel.

Strengthen the hearts of Polk County Board Commissioners to endure the Wayne/Palace problem a bit longer.

That our younger generations speak up and encourage us when we are sad, apathetic, negative, or avoiding difficult problems.

Provided by website-hit-counters.com .

Part 6 of my vision for Crookston

I’m sorry to be so slow getting this out to you, do you remember the other five parts? They are: Part I, Slow down, make it beautiful, and peaceful, Part II Address Parking once and for all, Part III antiques, collectibles, thrifts make a great destination, Part IV Bring people downtown through affordable rental housing, events and UMC, Part V create the best schools ever and after attending a recent 'strategic planning' session, I must say our goals must be much much higher, why not a magnet school for math, science, and engineering? or fine arts? or the highest GPA sports students ever?

Finally here is Part VI: Everybody talks to each other and everybody has meaningful work. Ok, I know, that’s two goals in one. Think though, if everyone talks to everyone else either by the Crookston Daily Times Guestbook, or email, or on the phone or in person, everyone would indeed have meaningful work because of our relationships with others, talking about our problems, and working together to solve them. And I must make one qualifying statement, and that is, we speak to each other while keeping our best manners, and our most open mind. Using our minds to concentrate and really listen. To respect all races, all income levels, and to take the time to have those conversations. Believe me I know its easy to say and tough to do, and sometimes when I try, I get slapped in the face, but oh well, its not the end of the world or anything.

And since I have only found part time work so far, I have spent my time thinking about Crookston and writing grant applications. Plus I’m an introvert, not a talker really. I should have gotten out and about and talked with as many people as I could. Surely there is someone somewhere who could put me to work full time in and around Crookston. Many times I thought to myself “I have no skills! Stupid Bachelor’s degree in marketing means nothing! The American Dream is dead! How will I pay the next bill!? But the Lord has provided and people in Crookston have been kind.

And so we must all continue to be kind, fair, and hopeful for Crookston. 50% are on the federal free school lunch program and I suspect the rate is higher than that, 18% Hispanic population, lots of homelessness, people on disability, and those that are trying to help them. But it takes a village to raise a child, a village to start a business, and a village to communicate with parents, teachers, community leaders, those doing the laundry for the hospital, and the hospital executive director. The leaders and the followers, the sports people and the arts people, the farm kids and the town kids, the poor kids and those from families more well off. I’ve found over the years that if you talk long enough, you will find something to connect you to the other person and then fear goes away, and new opportunities arise.

One thing we could do right away is add a “Time Dollars program” to our community. Imagine the young helping the elderly for time-dollars that they can go spend to obtain other services that they need. A person called “mmaps” on the Crookston Times Guestbook said that Crookston has a service base, not a retail base, and that’s true, so why not capitalize on it, and if the retail sector can afford it, they could join in and redeem time dollars as well! Imagine it! The homeless helping the poor non-profits with their works, and proving their worthiness to hire, the smarter kids helping those that need tutoring, parents helping teachers, teachers helping parents, people could apprentice again if paid in time dollars, not real dollars, kids could get some useful skills instead of one shop class in their whole life. Instead of a strings tied government program, we could help ourselves with our own teams of "Youthbuild" or "Self Help Housing" the list could go on and on. But it only works with frequent respectful communication.

search engine submission

Part V of My Vision for Crookston starts with comment from Patsy

Patsy said: "I've realized recently that Crookston is really a paper tiger in that people are generally poor and have little money to spend even for the most basic necessities. Those conditions lead to a clear division between the haves or popular in town and the have nots. I see it more and more in the community, more division both economic and in status connected social circles. The new hockey arena, quite truthfully, scares me in that if we, or the leaders, have guessed wrong about what we really need to substain us instead of what we may need just to survive, then Crookston is pretty much finished or the best days have already passed before us. The stats, trends, and local leadership, who seems to be caught in a 1950's-60's time warp, make Crookston's future linked to the aged, middle aged and elderly. Certainly not to a up and coming youth movement. Kay, am I on something or onto something?"

Patsy, Your comment/question needs to be out there on the front page of my blog, not hidden in the comments. I believe that all government is a “paper tiger,” in that it seems all powerful, but that is only because of our fear and/or lack of knowledge of how it works. When we have no fear, we can make change happen. It saddens me to quote that the “poor are always with us,” and the division you talk about is everywhere you go and yes, the division between the “haves” and the “have nots” seems to be widening everywhere, not only here in Crookston, where ½ of us make less than $34,609 (2000 census) per household, and 12.4% of individuals are living at or below Federal poverty level of $10,830 yearly income. A better income judge is the number of kids on free or reduced school lunches. Last time I checked it was over 50%.

I read an article a few years back that is even truer today than when it was written. This report finds that the richest could have given billions more in 2000 and I suspect that it holds true today.

“According to a new report from NewTithing Group, "http://www.newtithing.org, a nonprofit donor education and research organization, the nation's wealthiest four hundred taxpayers could have donated billions more than they did in 2000 without sacrificing their lifestyles.

Data provided by the Internal Revenue Service revealed that taxpayers with the highest reported incomes in 2000 made an average of $174 million and donated, on average, $25.3 million, for a total of $10.1 billion, or 6.9 per cent of the $146 billion in charitable donations that Americans declared on their tax returns. According to the report, however, the same group of individuals could have comfortably given nearly one-and-a-half times that amount, representing an aggregate increase of more than $4 billion, without compromising their financial well-being.

"Charities and social services face severe long-term funding cuts in one of the worst fiscal crises for states in fifty years," said NewTithing founder and Chairman Claude Rosenberg. "An additional $19 billion could have kept open fifty homeless shelters that have been closed in fifteen Midwestern states in the last year alone; help schools and the underprivileged in California, which is struggling to decide which services to cut, including in higher education; [and] improve the quality of life in Massachusetts, where social services could decline after another round of budget cuts....[W]wealthy tax filers -- and certainly the wealthiest four hundred -- can come to the nation's rescue by donating the maximum they can comfortably afford to those charities that can provide a solid social return on investment."

"Wealthiest 400 Could Comfortably Afford to Give Billions More." NewTithing Group Press Release 1/01/04.

Indeed, the best days have already passed before us in the 50’s and 60’s, and that is everywhere as well. The problem that no one wants to address is “What do we want Crookston to be like when our kids have kids?” And they are having kids now and working two to four jobs and paying one or two child support payments. And the reason no one wants to take on that question is that it is a much more risky question to answer than dealing with the risk of future costs of the hockey arena.

Unfortunately, the economic dichotomy will all even out as the baby boomers age and decline in health and find that those with wiped out retirement funds end up in the same situation as those that had none in the first place. Lots of people give me a funny look when I say, the cliché, “You can’t take it with you.” Not the aging, the tight-fisted, or the fearful, but the youth and their creativity are the key to re-inventing Crookston. And that leads to me to say that Part V of “My Vision for Crookston,” is to offer the best schools ever in Crookston and we will draw more people to come and live and stay and open shops and do things than ever before in this “our bedroom community.”

free hit counter

5 More Prayers for Crookston

That the former Carnegie Library can be maintained until a creative re-use can come forward.

That the Banks of Crookston reconsider sponsoring an affordable housing program grant application for the Union Building.

That a new community gathering space evolves downtown, perhaps the four floors of the former Kay’s Attic building?

That City Leaders slow down traffic and encourage the big trucks to use the bypasses, so that downtown is safer, quieter, has more diagonal parking, has more walkability, and is more of a visual pleasure for shoppers and visitors.

That we fight off modern day laziness and endure slight inconveniences with all the strength of our forefathers and mothers.

website-hit-counters.com