World-class potholes

The city of Minneapolis has, for many decades, been determined to be what they refer to as a “world-class city”. Citizens have paid through the nose for such luxurious amenities as museums, stadiums, big shopping destinations, and light-rail transit lines. In the process of building magnificent edifices, Minneapolis has tossed out innumerable former residents, and they continue to form and promote such grandiose plans. I like the current mayor’s (R.T. Ryback) phrase to justify bold new construction projects, “weaving the tapestry of the community” or some such nonsense.

We all know that only a small percentage of city residents use any of these fabulous facilities, because most are too busy working and spending frugally in order to survive.

While Minneapolis continues to plan and build huge and expensive structures for show, what they seem to be completely unable to do is take care of the streets.

Last night, I drove through some of downtown Minneapolis. The the 7 or 8 blocks of busy streets I drove were probably in the worst shape I’ve ever encountered. Riddled with deep potholes that are impossible to avoid because some are gouged-out seams that run clear across lanes. If you’ve ever had to drive on such roads, you understand that they cost you money, in damage to tires and vehicle suspension.

Perhaps even worse for those who live in Minneapolis, the city has done a crappy job of clearing snow on most residential streets, so much so that the city has declared no parking on the even-numbered sides of the streets. Minneapolis doesn’t plow alleys either, so many citizens are having a very difficult time of finding a place to park.

I live in Richfield, just south of Minneapolis, and our streets are in far better condition. Richfield plows have been out early and often, plowing fast enough to keep the streets clear as wide as possible. No parking restrictions here, even though Richfield is an older blue-collar suburb.

Simply put, Minneapolis has lots of fancy frills, but performs basic services poorly. In other words, it concentrates on luxury while shortchanging most of the tax-paying citizenry.

World-class city? For people visiting the city, it might seem that way, but for those living here and paying for it, it sucks. Well, at least the potholes are indeed world-class.

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