Readers Write (April 21): Public safety and law enforcement, soccer stadium, 'defying death'

I would like to compliment and express my appreciation for the efforts put forth by those who work to keep our country safe ("FBI arrests six as part of terror task force operation," April 20). With all of the criticism expressed against our national-security officials, let's stop and appreciate the excellent work being done.

• • •

Thank you to our law enforcement officers. Sixty-four fugitives, gang members, sex offenders and violent criminals were arrested in Minnesota during the past six weeks as part of Operation Violence Reduction. Nationwide, 7,100 of the most dangerous fugitives were apprehended. Those arrested were wanted for murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, abduction or kidnapping, sexual assault, and child molestation. One U.S. marshal was killed in Louisiana during one such arrest.

As we go about our lives without fear, it's easy to forget what law enforcement officers do for us, and whom they protect us from. I am thankful that they willingly put themselves between us and those anxious to do us harm. I am thankful that I can push three buttons on my phone and they will do what they can to keep my loved ones safe. Our lives would look very different without them.

Which Pollyanna is writing editorials for the Star Tribune now? ("Pro soccer stadium deal is a gift for Minneapolis," April 18). First, the editorial quotes the soccer ownership group in saying the stadium will generate $2.9 million in taxes from 22 games per year. Gee, the group lobbying for a tax break wouldn't inflate those numbers at all, right?

Next, the Editorial Board has the audacity to claim that "the soccer stadium would serve as a gateway to investment-starved north Minneapolis." We've been hearing this same song and dance for 20 years. The stadium site is on the wrong side of Interstate 394, people. It will have zero impact on north Minneapolis.

Last, the apple-faced, ever-optimistic Editorial Board declares that the "franchise would also give Minneapolis a foothold in an international sport with huge growth potential." Soccer is not a first-, second-, third- or even fourth-tier sport. It's fifth. Don't get me wrong. Lots of people love it. It's great fun watching a bunch of 5-year-olds chase a soccer ball around a park. But this region will never be a soccer hotbed, certainly not so much that we need to give sweetheart development deals to private owners. If Bill McGuire believes so greatly in the promise of soccer riches, let him pay for it himself.

The Star Tribune Editorial Board is dependably liberal, properly explaining that taxes are a necessary and honorable price for maintaining this great state — until the billionaire owner or prospective owner of a major-league sports franchise wants his lucrative project to be exempted from the taxes regular Minnesota citizens and businesses pay. Then it's a barrage of Tea Party- and Club for Growth-style rhetoric about taxes killing jobs and inhibiting development.

• • •

McGuire needs to take Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges to a Major League Soccer game at Sporting Park in Kansas City. My husband and I took our two younger sons there for a game last year on a whim one weekend. We had been to a Sounders game at the football stadium in Seattle years before. Sporting Park hands-down was the better experience. We were part of the excitement on the field, and there wasn't a bad seat in the house. If the mayor opposes the proposed tax exemption, take her to a stadium specifically designed for soccer. Let her experience it. She'll change her mind.

• • •

My wife, daughter and I moved to the Warehouse District in Minneapolis almost two years ago to the day. We have been thrilled with our decision to settle in the city; the energy and excitement in the North Loop, the Mill District and Northeast neighborhoods is palpable. The prospect of the world's game coming to the West Loop created quite a stir in our German, Nigerian and Ukrainian household. Could Minneapolis host one of our native national teams some day? If McGuire gets to build his stadium, they will come (sorry, Betsy, the German National Team won't play on artificial turf). A big thank you to all of the public officials with the vision to make Minneapolis a great place to live. (Sorry, Betsy, that doesn't include you.)

A gift for Minneapolis? Seriously? Yet another rich man's hobby farm, with as much public outlay as the law allows? (And where it doesn't, ignore the law, or jiggle it.) The editorial cartoon by Steve Sack on the page facing Saturday's editorial was a far more valuable comment on this unnecessary, foolish project. We've gone down this road too often not to realize, from these opening signs, what the next step will be and the next. Stadium fatigue? You bet.

• • •

The proposed new West Loop development is not just about public support of another sports stadium for billionaires. It is about creating a first-rate, central farmers market for Minneapolis along a new Southwest light-rail line spurring development for a large, underutilized area of downtown. It's not just Seattle, Vancouver, Dallas, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Philadelphia that have farmers markets as a central vibrant public space, promoting health, a green economy of small businesses and farmers, and tourism. Even places like Flint, Mich., and Wenatchee, Wash., have incorporated first-rate farmers markets into their public infrastructure. Minneapolis is behind the ball in building a public infrastructure for farmers markets.

I have been involved in the Midtown Farmers Market, where efforts have been made for 15 years in south Minneapolis in trying to create this idea of a market as a central feature of mixed-use, transit-oriented development. If we value great public spaces that spur further economic development, then the governor, the mayor and the City Council should absolutely support this project, not for the stadium, but for the farmers market.

I very much enjoyed the hilarious "There's a limit, and that's good" letter (April 20). It was clever of the editors to include this satiric take on Silicon Valley billionaires wanting to "defy death" and making it appear to be an alarmist rant: imagining youthful-looking but verging-on-senile, Fox News-watching bores going out and about forcing us to listen to their takes on '60s music and sharing personal memories and intellectual trivia. Or being able to learn anything new. Imagine if the writer really did feel that no one over the age of 40 could possibly have a new thought or anything of value to offer contemporary society — so funny his appearing to shudder at the thought of people growing too old, and pretending that he embraces ageism!