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Originally uploaded by Rachel Kramer Bussel.

A visitor to our fair city tries her first Jucy Lucy. It is, and I quote, “SO GOOD.”

I got to have brunch with Rachel and some other folks on Sunday. She made the most of her weekend, taking in a Fringe show, visiting the Walker, eating at Matt’s, going to a cupcake meetup, and doing readings from her books at Amazon Bookstore and the Smitten Kitten (her reason for being here in the first place). I believe she’s going to the Mall of America today. A quick look at a lake or a river and she’ll have done most of the quintessential things for Minneapolis visitors. We strongly warned her that it would not be safe to visit again next year until May or so.

From the Minneapolis Metblog flickr pool.

Originally uploaded by Kurt Peters.

Looks like yesterday was a lovely day inside the MOA.

The latest numbers on the Twins stadium:

Cost: $544.4 million (including site acquisition and infrastructure)
Public financing: $392 million from a 0.15 percent sales tax in Hennepin County
Private financing: $152.4 million from the Twins

Those are ballpark figures (*ba DUM bum*). I also read $522/$387/130 + about $5/year for naming rights. Looks like the more recent the estimates, the higher all figures are.

The latest numbers on the MOA expansion:

Cost: $1.9-2.1 billion
Public financing: $371 million from a TBD sales/food/lodging tax in Bloomington
Private financing: $1.5-1.8 billion

Again, costing varies depending on the date of the article. Here’s what you get in Phase II of the MOA. Phase I puports to bring $1.8 billion/yr to the city of Bloomington. Slightly off topic, I wonder how this will affect the Waterpark of America.

Part of the hang up here is the financing of the parking ramp to the tune of $186-$204 million. The parking ramp funding will certainly have implications for whatever large projects follow it (like a Vikings Stadium).

But… just look at the disparity in public vs private financing. The only direct comparison of benefit I turned up in my cursory research is that the state expects to collect $10 million/year from ballpark-related sales and player income taxes. The MOA pays $55 million/year in state and local taxes.

Tell me how the relative cost of taxpayer burden is worth what the venture brings to the region (yes, I know it costs me personally about $30/year for the Twins stadium). I’ll add in my argument for the social and cultural benefit of having a common cause that unites us.

Maybe I should wait to see how they go about approving the tax in Bloomington before I come to a conclusion. Maybe the residents will get a choice in the matter.

[Hennepin County/Twins Ballpark Fact Sheet (pdf)]