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In accordance with my transparency obsession, here is the unedited video of our discussion on 65th street.  I have received requests for information from state and federal officials. The total video (2 parts) is about 16 minutes.

Part 1:

Part 2:

There are a number of questions that need to be answered before the city should commit taxpayer dollars to the 65th street interchange.  To date, city administration has failed to even have meaningful discussion with the City Council for as long as I have been on the council. Read the rest of this entry »

I made the statement that the addition of retailers at Shoppes on Maine has not increased jobs in Rochester.  I have met with Tom Hexum and Ron Schultz of Maine Street Development.  They stated and I agree that there are new job at Shoppes on Maine.  However if these are simply a shuffling of existing jobs there is not a new benefit. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll post this now as we have been recieving many visits.

I spent 2.5 hours this morning with the developer behind Shoppes on Maine.  We discussed many items.  One point that I will accept is that the $$$ that went into infrastructure there was for more than Shoppes.  I thought it was a good conversation.

We strongly agreed that opening more land for development with the 65th street interchange is silly right now.

I will post more later.

Note:  I will be adding the council video when available.

No secret that I have never like that project, but I do have to admit that the council actually listened to what I had to say.  My opinion can be changed, but the current, “just make it up as we go” justification is not going to do it.  This is being forced through for all the wrong reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sales tax committee issued their final report.  I think they did a pretty good job but also came to some pretty head scratching solutions.  You can see their report here. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is an excerpt from my interview with KAAL (ABC 6) dealing with current and hopefully future bonding projects in Rochester.

(ABC 6 NEWS) — Nearly $500 million in federal stimulus money funded more than 200 state road projects. That’s according to a new study out today, by non-partisan think tank Minnesota 2020. But some say more work needs to be done.

“We need Minnesota to start investing in Minnesota,” says Michael Wojcik, Rochester city council member.

A new push to put more money into roads and infrastructure in the state of Minnesota.

“We know that we have projects here that will contribute to the long-term growth of the state, but we need to fund them,” says Wojcik.

Stimulus Success

From a blog we read.

Increased road subsidies not needed.