Podcast 501 – Mark Korin

Podcast 501 – Mark Korin. Hear the story of a small town Minnesota Mayor’s battle with the mighty Met Council’s planning czars in Podcast 501 – Mark Korin. Oak Grove mayor Korin has had it with the overbearing manner and attitude of the Twin Cities’ premier regional planning agency; The Metropolitan Council, and he may have actually figured out how to beat them. Major cities all over the country have regional planning councils with varying degrees of authority, with issues related to central planning without the consent of residents in small towns, medium sized and large sized cities. The planning authority in Minneapolis and Saint Paul is something called the Metropolitan Council, a panel of regional ‘representatives’ appointed by the Governor, controlling urban planning, sewer and water, metropolitan airports and transportation including the Metro bus and train services. The Met council has a huge budget, its own police force, and holds sway over small town city councils such as Oak Grove and Lake Elmo and big city councils like Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Who wields this power? A panel of ‘representatives’ appointed, and not elected. This in a state that elects its Supreme Court Justices, and it could be argued, the Justices actually have less power than the Met Council. Over the years we’ve heard many people on all sides of the political spectrum complain about development issues in their towns and cities. Usually residents incorrectly blame these problems on elected officials on planning councils and city councils, all the way up to County Commissioners. In Oak Grove the issue is housing density and long term development plans. In Minneapolis the issue is the planned Southwest Light Rail, which will cut through one of the most pristine urban parks in the country — the Chain of Lakes Area — and one of the most wealthy (and politically liberal) neighborhoods in the city. Here we have citizens on completely different ends of the political spectrum dealing with overbearing – and unelected – government power. What these residents don’t know is, city councils and county councils cannot legally say no to the Met Council. The Minnesota Legislature just passed a bill ‘reforming’ the Met Council, which consists of some cosmetic changes to the terms of council members. Oak Grove and Minneapolis are represented by a collection of powerful politicians in the State House and Senate; Speaker of the House and representative to the residents of Oak Grove, Kurt Daudt, powerful State Senator from SD61 (The Senator representing those rich neighborhoods in Minneapolis up in arms about the light rail cutting through their backyards) Scott Dibble, and Oak Grove’s Senate District 31 Senator, Michelle Benson. How is it these politicians missed how to address the Met Council’s overbearing and unrepresentative power, and a small town Mayor may have figured it out? Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

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Randal O’Toole – Podcast 189

Randal O’Toole talks about Light Rail, Street Cars, the Driverless Car, state and city planning, subsidies and the Highway Trust Fund, with The Bob Davis Podcasts. Cities all over the United States are spending billions, sometimes tens of billions to research, and billions more to build, light rail, streetcar and so called ‘high speed’ rail lines. Projects designed to serve centrally planned cities with subsidized high density housing. Millennials are interested in these cities, for now, but what happens when they start raising families? How did the Met Council come into existence? Do people really want this kind of life? Central Planners think so, but what if the future does not cooperate? What if the future is a dystopia with increasingly expensive transit systems, serving no one. In the second half of the Bob Davis Podcasts conversation with the CATO Institute’s Randal O’Toole we talk about driverless cars, the history of streetcars and the efficiency of today’s streetcar lines, and their costs. Why do a few elites make the working class pay for transit systems they use, expensive apartments they live in, in cities they design. They may not think they’re one per centers, but today’s Republican and Democrat liberals are creating what they think are utopian cities, but they’re not for the rest of the 99 percent. Hailing from Portland, O’Toole knows the folly of light rail and streetcar transit plans inside and out. If you want to learn how to argue against these plans at your city council and neighborhood meetings, listen to Randal O’Toole and learn how. Sponsored by X Government Cars!

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Randal O’Toole – Podcast 188

Randal O’Toole shares his knowledge about Light Rail, Street Cars, the Driverless Car, state and city planning, subsidies and the Highway Trust Fund, with The Bob Davis Podcasts. Cities all over the United States are spending billions, sometimes tens of billions to research, and billions more to build, light rail, streetcar and so called ‘high speed’ rail lines. These projects are designed to serve centrally planned cities with subsidized high density housing. Studies say this is what people want, but are the studies right? What is the history of this kind of thinking? O’Toole knows. Moreover, O’Toole is willing to debate, discuss, and write about the issue. Most of the time he doesn’t get enough time on talk radio, but he is a wealth of information. If you want to learn how to argue these issues, Randal O’Toole is the man to learn from. Do we continue to tax people, no matter where they live, to subsidize and maintain expensive transit systems for the elite, and to promote a vision of the future which may be dangerously wrong. Hear him as you have never heard him before, because The Bob Davis Podcasts will give him plenty of time in this podcast, and the companion podcast 189, to share those arguments with you. Sponsored by Baklund R & D.

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