Big Mike
Member
This might be lengthy, but I thought it might be a worthwhile post. I was informed a couple of days ago, by my wife, that there were several people with safety vests power washing sidewalks in downtown Minneapolis. Of course this piqued my interest, because we washed sidewalks downtown for several years, until this year. Mysteriously, we were dropped by all of our commercial clients in the downtown district this spring, HMMMMMM. Anyway, I did some research and here's the press release:
Now, normally I wouldn't care if a competitor was violating, I would just let them get caught on their own, but this was different. Now the City was taking money out of my pocket, and that just seemed unfair. Well, I have some contacts at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and made a call to the enforcement division. I explained that I owned a PW company, and have a substantial investment in recovery equipment, and follow EPA guidelines carefully. I asked why I had to follow the CWA and not the City? Lets just say they were VERY interested in this program, and were sending an investigator over as soon as we hung up. I wonder what will happen???? I'll keep you all informed of any developments....
So, was I right or wrong? What would you have done??
Downtown Minneapolis takes a big step toward becoming cleaner, greener and safer
The Minneapolis City Council and Mayor R.T. Rybak unanimously approved the creation of the Downtown Business Improvement District Special Service District on Friday, Dec. 12. Commonly known as the Downtown Improvement District (DID), it is designed to make Downtown a better place for residents, businesses, visitors, and workers. Through the DID, Downtown property owners will contribute an estimated $6.5 million a year to make Downtown cleaner, greener, safer and better.
For many years, the downtown business community and the City have discussed the idea of creating the DID to further enhance the vitality of downtown Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Downtown Council championed the effort to gather support among the business community for the new district, successfully petitioning commercial property owners to agree to pay additional service charges as an investment in Downtown. By agreeing to contribute more, especially in this challenging economy, business leaders reaffirmed their commitment to, and confidence in, Downtown Minneapolis as the region’s premier business district.
The DID is a public/private partnership that will provide enhanced services beginning in 2009 to the Downtown area above and beyond what would normally be provided by a City, or what is currently done as basic City services. Some of those services include enhanced sidewalk cleaning, landscaping installation and maintenance, repair and maintenance of enhanced streetscape fixtures, and retail recruitment activities and programs. Other services will include creating new Safety Ambassadors for Downtown, as well as providing security coordination between the public and private sectors.
The 120-block district is bounded roughly by 2nd Avenue North, 2nd Street South, Chicago Avenue, and various streets along the southern edge of Downtown. The area includes approximately 650 assessable properties that will contribute to the enhanced services annually. Residential properties that are within the district cannot be assessed by law, but are able to opt in if they choose to do so.
The City ordinance that creates the DID calls for the City to enter into a contract with a non-profit organization that will provide all services within the DID. The organization, yet to be created, will be an affiliate or subsidiary of the Downtown Council that will be governed by a management board of approximately 20 members including property owners, business owners, and others who represent organizations within the DID. The City will oversee the contract as well as review and approve the proposed annual operating plan and budget for the DID. All costs for services will be recovered by annual service charges to the DID.
Dec. 12, 2008
Now, normally I wouldn't care if a competitor was violating, I would just let them get caught on their own, but this was different. Now the City was taking money out of my pocket, and that just seemed unfair. Well, I have some contacts at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and made a call to the enforcement division. I explained that I owned a PW company, and have a substantial investment in recovery equipment, and follow EPA guidelines carefully. I asked why I had to follow the CWA and not the City? Lets just say they were VERY interested in this program, and were sending an investigator over as soon as we hung up. I wonder what will happen???? I'll keep you all informed of any developments....
So, was I right or wrong? What would you have done??