Secrets of the City

There is a bike/hiking trail in the region that already wears the brand. 

This is really aimed to help unify the St. Cloud metro area, which sits in several counties. There are 19 different jurisdictions withing the 350 sq. mile area of the St. Cloud Area Planning Organization.

This seems like a logistical nightmare that will result in a ton of job cuts in all kinds of areas.

Has this happened elsewhere in the state recently?

In 1970, Indianapolis consolidated a number of duplitive county and city services and powers, essentially making all of Marion County the City of Indianapolis. They called it Unigov.

It was messy, but the sudden increase in size gave Indy the area tax revenue, government payments and political clout it never had before.

Counties are dying in the current economic climate. Reduction of redundancies that would occur with this bill would be very helpful in balancing budgets. But, there are the county boards and high level officials would absolutely lose thier jobs, as well as some line staff.

While I’m not for anyone losing their jobs in this climate, I am for smarter and more efficient government. If done correctly, that is what will happen here.

Can you give them Anoka County if they promise to move it up north?

Sorry, Bob, but you’re welcome in Hennepin or Ramsey.

Does Hennepin or Ramsey counties have their own Twitter accounts? If not, I’m not moving.

God forbid, St. Cloud with political clout. Can we just let North Dakota annex them, and take their congressperson with them?

The residents are nuts if they don’t name it Bentburne.

Sherstearnton.

South Central – it gives them county cred.

Actually, the three areas mentioned have been sharing social services, courts and more for decades — Tri-County Action Program (Tri-CAP) is just one example. (Heck, half the businesses in St. Cloud are named Tri-County something-or-another.)

There aren’t as many redundancies as you think, so integrating them as one unit won’t be that hard, and the smart money would be on Tri County. Really.

“Can we just let North Dakota annex them, and take their congressperson with them?”

Don’t blame St. Cloud for Michele Bachmann — a proud resident of Stillwater, by the way.

El Tinklenberg carried St. Cloud pretty handily, by the way, as well as most of Waite Park:

http://www.scenedance.com/times/2008elections/racedetail.php?raceid=3

El won every ward in St. Cloud.

I can’t figure out if I like the “notbixby” handle. -1 for originality, +1 for making what I say important enough to base a handle on it, regardless of the position “notbixby” is taking contrary to mine. Hmmm…I’ll have to think about this more. Or not.

I wouldn’t think too hard about it.