urbanMSP

Fourth tower crane is going up along 4th St.

I'm kind of amazed by the dirt piles on the parking lots between 3rd & 4th:

I believe that Zygi is charging the state rent to store these dirt piles on his parking lots.

EDIT: Wilf's property taxes are being waived for these lots while the dirt is stored on them, to the tune of $90k. Not much, but it still doesn't look good. Source.

So waiving the property taxes costs 90k but saves a million and people are going to whine about it?

We'll give this public money to the Wilfs one way, or we'll save it and give it to them another!

I agree, $90k is a drop in the bucket, and saves $1M to the project. It's just a little sickening that a billionaire like Zygi went to a lot of trouble to make sure he profited from the cost savings.

It is smart business on his end. You can't blame him for that.

And the people that hate him will continue to hate him, regardless of this "shrewd" business move or not.

Yeah... He's a land owner... He made good life decisions... haters gonna hate, but I can't see why it's not reasonable.

I don't think most people are upset with him. Most people are upset with politicians who are handing him money.

I don't think most people are upset with him. Most people are upset with politicians who are handing him money.

If they would have handed someone else money would that make it better? he did have to cancel parking leases that could have run longer. And are they giving him money or are they forgiving tax amounts?

Yeah... He's a land owner... He made good life decisions... haters gonna hate, but I can't see why it's not reasonable.

He was very wise when he chose to be born into a wealthy land holding family.

Yeah... He's a land owner... He made good life decisions... haters gonna hate, but I can't see why it's not reasonable.

He was very wise when he chose to be born into a wealthy land holding family.

he could have sold it all and done whatever when he inherited it. that's a life choice.

So waiving the property taxes costs 90k but saves a million and people are going to whine about it?

Who is saving the $1 million?

I don't think most people are upset with him. Most people are upset with politicians who are handing him money.

If they would have handed someone else money would that make it better? he did have to cancel parking leases that could have run longer. And are they giving him money or are they forgiving tax amounts?

Or handed money to whatever lobbiest or special interest group they have under the table on that given week? The money is always going somewhere and usually not anywhere the public won't bitch about.

Yeah... He's a land owner... He made good life decisions... haters gonna hate, but I can't see why it's not reasonable.

He was very wise when he chose to be born into a wealthy land holding family.

So we're hating people based on the parents that procreate them now? This site....

Yeah... He's a land owner... He made good life decisions... haters gonna hate, but I can't see why it's not reasonable.

He was very wise when he chose to be born into a wealthy land holding family.

So we're hating people based on the parents that procreate them now? This site....

no, we're just seeing through the whole "billionaires must just work harder than everyone else" talking point

He was very wise when he chose to be born into a wealthy land holding family.

So we're hating people based on the parents that procreate them now? This site....

no, we're just seeing through the whole "billionaires must just work harder than everyone else" talking point

I thought I'd seen some pointless arguments on here, but this thread (almost) takes the cake.

PS: Nobody said what you just "quoted" at all, so I can't quite tell what you're "seeing through." You can hate the guy, but you're literally making things up. Stop it.

On another note – does anyone know the schedule on which the remaining buildings will start being torn down? I'm assuming Strib's main building will be among the last.

Someone said he's sucessful because he made good life decisions. This feeds into American Mythology about meritocracy, job creators, & boot straps. In fact, the man is wealthy because his father was wealthy. The greatest predicter of wealth is not hard work or smarts, but your parent's wealth. We're among the least economically mobile society in the western world. The aristocracy of Europe don't have anything on America's self-dealing plutocracy.

That must be what he meant by seeing through the talking point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/us/ha ... d=all&_r=0

The money involved in this deal is essentially negligible, which is why this story feeds into the perception that Wilf is greedy and is nickel-and-diming our state.

If the money is negligible, you'd think he'd turn it down so as not to further demonstrate the fact that he is taking public money coming and going while actual public needs go unmet.

A reasonable person would realize they benefit from this project many magnitudes more than anyone else and would decide out of some sense of gratitude to not further ding the public.

"I'd be happy to let you use my land to build a stadium to my specs at public cost" a decent person may say, "I'll lose some thousands in parking revenue, but it's the least I can do considering this project already increased my personal net worth by a few hundred million before it even broke ground."

You see, it's these little insults that remind us we need to get out of this abusive relationship with entitled mooches and their politican enablers.

So waiving the property taxes costs 90k but saves a million and people are going to whine about it?

Who is saving the $1 million?

The Project?

Listen if this is just going to be a sit and bitch about an NFL owner why don't we just lock this thread up again?