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“The new Vikings stadium will provide new jobs for residents who are unemployed.” ~Local Politician and Social Service Director.
…Today we know the Minnesota Vikings have been thrown under the bus – what’s the next story for jobs and economic development for those who need it the most?
by Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/The Independent Business News Network
"Suck it up!"
Minneapolis, MN (IBNN/Jobs, Unemployment and Lies/April 18, 2012)…this is how things work in Minnesota. The future is clear, the Minnesota legislature voted down the proposed new Vikings stadium in downtown Minneapolis. The folks that acted like super heroes of job creation are sitting in a room looking at each other deciding who will be the first pivot man in the continuing circle jerk of community members that desperately need work versus a part-time social service pipeline to a six-month job.
Short-term construction jobs, you bet! But once (if ever) the thing is built, the honeymoon is over and the subsequent service sector employment is unlikely to be impressive. Waitpersons, housemaids, hot dog vendors, and parking lot attendants may be numerous, but their incomes are unstable and typically well below living wage levels.
Many community spokespersons told community members tall-tails of jobs, economic development and millions of dollars “about to hit” the poor and unemployed for the great construction of the Minnesota Vikings stadium. What they didn’t tell community members; “To get new stadium built for the Vikings would be a long political process – that could fall short based on the lack of lobbying by elected officials who have boondoggled the professional football franchise.”
On Tuesday, November 1, 2011 Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota admitted the NFL’s Vikings could leave for a new city. Dayton said that there would be no state or local tax increases to fund a new stadium for the Vikings, creating a $1.1 billion dollar gap in the proposal for a new stadium north of the Twin Cities. (CBS Los Angeles)
Remember, the Vikings lease at the Metrodome expires at the end of the season. This could possibly be the Vikings last season in Minnesota.
I have no issues with the Vikings moving to Los Angeles or anywhere else. The issues I have is how community members, desperately looking for work have been befuddled by a few social service agencies into thinking there would be all these “new jobs” on the construction of the Vikings stadium. If you really look at the big picture, the state and city elected officials took care of the Gophers and the Twins – still to this day, not one Black person has made a substantial amount of money being a vendor in either stadium. The crowds that attend the Twin’s games really aren’t too integrated.
But remember in the construction phase of those stadiums and the promotion of how many Blacks, Indians, Latinos where hired to work during the construction? My question is, “Where are those folks today?” Are there life’s better because of their employment? Are they still working?
At the sake of being redundant, “Waitpersons, housemaids, hot dog vendors, and parking lot attendants may be numerous, but their incomes are unstable and typically well below living wage levels.”
Using the Minnesota Vikings stadium construction, which is apparently off the table is shameful, and a very deceitful lie to people that needs jobs.
Some of you folks do this every year, the promise and the failure of the promise – but we keep training.
