[Speed Gibson,
Sunday September 26, 2004 at 10:36am]
Consolidating City Government
In an earlier post (Aug 31) I discussed and proposed combining Minnesota's many counties, 29 more than California. The improvements in transportation and especially communication make this possible, saving taxpayers money by consolidating the duplications in management and services.
Later (Sep 13), I discussed cities in Greater Minnesota, that smaller cities should unincorporate, turning over the reins to their county. Now let's consider Metro area cities, where I contend many merger opportunities exist.
There is no better case than that of Crystal and New Hope. If you look at the map, you see two small cities with a jigsaw border. In fact, a small portion of Crystal is land-locked inside New Hope. There has been some discussion of such a merger, and already some public services are being shared. But I wouldn't stop there. I would add Golden Valley and Robbinsdale to the plat.
This new city, which I'll call "Queens" for now, would be about 25 square miles, with a combined population of about 80,000. They are all fully developed, and demographically similar. Queens would be comparable to Bloomington, Plymouth, and other large suburbs.
Other obvious opportunitiies are Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, and Champlin ("Brooklyn"); Edina and Richfield; St. Louis Park and Hopkins; Maple Grove, Dayton, and Osseo.
None of these cities existed 150 years ago. There is no great reason for them to continue to exist as small entities going forward. The neighborhood concept can preserve the heritage. What is Brooklyn Center today might be the Earle Brown neighborhood in "Brooklyn" for example.
These consolidations would in any case should save the taxpayers money while improving services.
Later (Sep 13), I discussed cities in Greater Minnesota, that smaller cities should unincorporate, turning over the reins to their county. Now let's consider Metro area cities, where I contend many merger opportunities exist.
There is no better case than that of Crystal and New Hope. If you look at the map, you see two small cities with a jigsaw border. In fact, a small portion of Crystal is land-locked inside New Hope. There has been some discussion of such a merger, and already some public services are being shared. But I wouldn't stop there. I would add Golden Valley and Robbinsdale to the plat.
This new city, which I'll call "Queens" for now, would be about 25 square miles, with a combined population of about 80,000. They are all fully developed, and demographically similar. Queens would be comparable to Bloomington, Plymouth, and other large suburbs.
Other obvious opportunitiies are Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, and Champlin ("Brooklyn"); Edina and Richfield; St. Louis Park and Hopkins; Maple Grove, Dayton, and Osseo.
None of these cities existed 150 years ago. There is no great reason for them to continue to exist as small entities going forward. The neighborhood concept can preserve the heritage. What is Brooklyn Center today might be the Earle Brown neighborhood in "Brooklyn" for example.
These consolidations would in any case should save the taxpayers money while improving services.