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Chris Williams

St. Paul, Minnesota
Commenter for
1 year 8 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 05/07/13 at 09:26 am in response to 21 Senate Republicans vote for new taxes

Anyone who thinks this is for mom and pop shops on mainstreet are clearly being deceived. Please tell me how a mom and pop shop, or home based online retailer is going to figure out the individual tax rates for over 7,500 tax jurisdictions (according to retailing.org) across the USA. Every little rule where a municipality has an extra sales tax on this or that, or a product that qualifies for a hospitality in this county or that, but not the whole state. They are going to end up having to by...

Posted on 05/03/13 at 10:24 am in response to Despite predictions of doom, strip malls live on

While I like the new Wayzata development quite a bit, I don't know that I would have called the old Wayzata Bay Center a strip mall. It was fully enclosed and the stores were only accessible from the inside. It was fully divided into 4 quarters with a small get together area in the center surrounded by parking on all sides. It was more like a mini mall. "Strip Mall" to me conjures up images of building standing shoulder to shoulder in a line, with exterior doors, no connectedness, and the...

Posted on 05/02/13 at 10:18 am in response to How a heavy police presence in high-crime neighborhoods hurts democracy

I have to respectfully disagree. Our crimes have punishments attached, and after the punishment has been served you've paid back your debt to society. Full citizenship rights should be restored at that point as you don't owe anyone anything at that point and are once again a full member of society. By creating more barriers and hoops to jump through, (along with the possibility that your request to have rights restored can be declined) you are just denying rights to someone who has already...

Posted on 04/25/13 at 09:49 am in response to Legislators should rethink costly renewable-energy mandates

It seems that the author is against this bill because of how Germany chose to implement it. Why can't we instead learn from their mistakes and make a better bill?

The anecdote about the assembly line is a bit of a red herring. I googled for this, and read further on the story. It seems the company's equipment cannot handle any fluctuation in power - even for a millisecond. Surely brownouts have occurred with all energy sources at one point or another. I'm on good old St. Paul power (...

Posted on 04/25/13 at 10:07 am in response to Legislators should rethink costly renewable-energy mandates

Just to add some context and background to another "supporting element" of the author's article... I'd also like to point out that the whole "pineapples in Alaska" line isn't "recent". It's coming up on a year old (June 2012). The person quoted (Jürgen Grossmann) was ousted last summer by his company. He had a five year contract with the board to serve as CEO and they chose not to renew his contract.

The comment about pineapples that is quoted was his response to Germany's plans to...

Posted on 04/25/13 at 11:39 am in response to Legislators should rethink costly renewable-energy mandates

Wow, in this comment we get self-promotion and a snarky strawman argument from our esteemed author. You're looking less and less like an academic with empirical evidence and more and more like someone with an agenda.

Just so I understand your argument, calculating costs is 'hard' and is, what?, therefore irrelevant? And since we exhale CO2 and plants can use some of it, then what? I shouldn't be concerned? A snarky response with no meat behind it.

Whether or not CO2 has a cost...

Posted on 04/15/13 at 10:02 am in response to After six years, she finally got Section 8 housing — and then lost it

Agreed with the above poster. I'm paying $880 for a 2BR apt with in-unit washer and dryer, dishwasher, new appliances, heated undeground garage parking, and all utilities (except internet) paid for by the apartment complex. This is out in the western suburbs. I mean, I know it can be hard to come up with a down payment for some lower income people and that forces them to stay put, but the rent quoted in this article is outrageous. They need to check out craig's list and find a better place...

Posted on 04/16/13 at 08:42 am in response to After six years, she finally got Section 8 housing — and then lost it

Hillary - I moved in 2 weeks ago.

Posted on 02/28/13 at 12:01 pm in response to Climate change comes to Minnesota: Three experts outline the impacts

Tom - The slides presented in the links do mention that there will be an estimate 9-16 more growing days. It also mentioned an opportunity for more invasive species. The bullet point that really struck me, is the expected increase costs in road repairs due to increased freeze/thaw cycles. Extrapolating out a bit, and knowing that MN has one of the more extensive road networks of any of the states, that sounds like something MNDoT should be researching. I'd be curious to see the expected...

Posted on 11/06/12 at 10:52 am in response to 2012 Election Day open thread

Went pretty smoothly this morning a little before 8am. Maybe 10 minutes to check in and get a ballot, and then another 5 minutes of waiting for a booth to open up. It was steady, but not super busy. Everyone was friendly and pleasant.