Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, image from the Twin Cities Daily Planet.
On Tuesday, September 17th there will be an excellent community forum on the HERC garbage burner. It's called "A Burning Question" and will be hosted at the Mayflower Church at 106 E Diamond Lake Road in Minneapolis, from 7 - 9 p.m.
The Minneapolis Issues Forum has a tremendous amount of information on the HERC, more so than I could distill in a single blog post, and more than I can reasonably summarize. Here's a decent, recent thread as an example.
I've spoken at length with supporters and detractors of the garbage burner, and find myself in the middle of the road on this one. There are benefits to the burner, and there are costs. The question is, who benefits and who pays those costs? And unfortunately, low-income and minority communities in our city bear the brunt of those costs without seeing significant benefits. Here, from my layman's perspective, is why:
