Conceptual aids

Perhaps inspired by news the Euro could supplant the Dollar as global currency of choice, one blog reader suggests we start using a standardized currency as a frame of reference for city spending.

The suggestion? The Peppermint, in reference to the former Peppermint Garden strip club, secretly purchased by the city in what appeared to be an act of legal desperation.

One Peppermint thus equates to $5 million. (John and Jane Public only paid $4.7 million for the pizza parlor-turned-cabaret, but it's locked into legend as a cool five-stack.)

Using my recent story re: the potential loss of $10 million in utility user taxes, it's easier to think of as two Peppermints.

Or the recently appraised value of the city-owned land that will one day be Heritage Square:

Read the full entry to see City Hall's seismic retrofit in Peppermints ...