Fraters Libertas

City Flushes Residents’ Money Down Toilet

Thank God Jay Benenav wasn’t serving on the St. Paul City Council in the 1920s. Otherwise my hard earned money confiscated in taxes would no doubt still be subsidizing “The Buggy Whipinator” somewhere on Grand Avenue.

An exaggeration perhaps. But not too far from the truth given recent developments in St. Paul. A private business gets rejected by the marketplace because the public doesn’t want or doesn’t need what they’re peddling and Benanav’s immediate reaction - give them tax dollars and keep them around as a cultural institution. This is the state of events with the floundering Ruminator Books on Grand, hard by the Macalester campus. It’s in a short term bind because of some specific cash flow issues. As summarized by the Star Tribune:

A disclosure document says that if owner David Unowsky can't raise $500,000 by Jan. 31, the bookstore will be closed and its assets given to its landlord, Macalester College. However, if Unowsky can come up with $300,000, he can extend the deadline 90 days.

Due to shifting consumer preferences, in what they read or how they wish to buy books, long term prospects are even more bleak:

Under siege from major chains and online bookstores, Ruminator is more than $1 million in debt.

Not mentioned in this article, which is happy to present Unowsky as the helpless victim of the marauding chains and Internet retailers, is Unowsky’s disastrous investment in a Ruminator location at the woefully conceived Open Book literary center on Washington Ave.

In short, as a business, the Ruminator is a train wreck. Due to declining sales, bad business decisions, and bad management, the place is hemorrhaging red ink. The owner is suffering the consequences of not meeting consumer demand and the resources utilized for his enterprise will soon be redirected to more productive outlets. That’s how the market works, for the ultimate benefit of the many, right? Right!

But that’s not how the St. Paul City Council works. Instead of letting the choices of consumers channel existing Ruminator resources into more productive outlets, the city of St. Paul is planning on channeling additional resources from productive outlets (you, the taxpayer) into the sucking vortex of investment that is Ruminator.

City Council members on Wednesday, sitting as the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) are expected to discuss making at least a $50,000 loan to Ruminator .... details apparently are still being worked out, and the HRA could discuss a loan as high as $100,000, Council Member Jay Benanav said.

And it’s not just high risk loans being considered, they’re looking to hand some money over to Unowsky directly:

Benanav and [Councilman Pat] Harris also hope to tap a cultural grant worth at least $50,000 through the city's sales-tax revenue (STAR) program in the coming weeks.

Shameless redistribution of your income (St. Paul residents) to benefit a private business. All because the politicians control vast amounts of resources for discretionary spending and because they favor this particular business and they know they won’t be held accountable in their DFL safe seats. Benanav is so shameless, he’s not even bothering to make an economic argument for the subsidy:

Along with Council Member Pat Harris, who represents the area, Benanav has been drumming up support to save what he calls "a cultural landmark."

A cultural landmark, my ass. (Note - The previous sentence is intended to express my skepticism. It’s not an attempt to get a STAR grant for my rear end. Although, I do believe my keister has the same qualifications for a government handout as Ruminator Books.)

The Ruminator is a private business, not a cultural landmark. But the key fact for Benanav is that it’s also a private business with a history of supporting radical politics, hosting readings by Al Franken and Michael Moore, and attempting to sell (at full price) all the latest revisionist, feminist labor history interpretations of the Great Hormel Meatpackers Strike of 1982. (Are you starting to understand the reason why Ruminator doesn’t make any money?)

I have nothing against the Ruminator. It’s got an admirable record of success, managing to stay in business for 30 years. For most of that time it was called The Hungry Mind. (That name, by the way, Unowsky sold to a dot com back in the boom years, reportedly for six figures. I wonder what happened to that money?)

I’ve personally spent many a Saturday afternoon browsing its politics and economics sections. I’ve even purchased books there - hard cover books (as relayed in this Fraters post from last year). A voluntary exchange of goods for currency, it was a beautiful thing. And if that’s not enough to keep them afloat, then that’s too bad. For them, because I can get those same books on Amazon. And that location on Grand seems to be a great spot for a Chipolte anyway. The burrito carnitas - now that’s a cultural institution we can all get behind.