Rumors: A Historical Record of Mystery

[Avian]

Sorry. As I noted on SSC I have been house-sitting for some friends and their internet connection is pure crap, so I haven't been reading or posting much the past week.

I was pretty taken aback at the SSC forum debacle when I read it today. All I can add is that yes, I too have had some doubts about the "consortium." Mostly though it wasn't about the existence of certain people but more about if the people involved wielded any real influence. As "June's" posts multiplied recently I was responding less and less and I was beginning to distance myself from the conversation. What I do know is that many of the people involved are pretty damned religious and that also did not sit well with me.

Regarding Rick, I have been in touch with him for several years now though we have never met face-to-face (we actually had a lunch scheduled once but it was I who couldn't make it). I don't doubt he is real; we talked about many things that never surfaced on any message board. And he did connect me with Shorenstein to create a few renders for City Center and another building downtown. So - as I said on SSC before a lot of posts got deleted - if this was all a sham then it was liberally peppered with truth.

Yes, I am a real person with an architecture degree from the U as some of you already know. I worked for Quigley Architects in the 90's and Miller-Dunwiddie (and its spin-off CG studio) for 8 years. Our clients in the CG studio included MAC, MnDOT, MSR, ESG, Atlantis Resorts and a few Middle Eastern firms among many others. I've also done free-lance work for Perkins+Will, the U of M and SRF Consulting. I was nominated for a regional Emmy in 2005 for the U of M work, was one of 7 Honorable Mentions along with a partner in MIT's international competition "Just Jerusalem" and won a Telly Award for my work on Atlantis Resorts Singapore with what was then Met-Hodder (now Hodder.TV). (I'm only saying this because all of it can be verified). I've had CAD drawings in my hands months before some projects were even announced so some of the claims coming from Rick were completely within the bounds of how the development world works.

Rick was certainly not the only person I knew who had information about planning and schematic designs. And while maybe half of what he related to me could not be confirmed from a second source there were many times that I could get duplicate info from someone else. So if Rick is really not who he said he was then he is at the least an industry professional.

While he and I are polar opposites politically and have had our share of words back in the days of Minnescraper, nasa is who he claims to be as well. I don't agree with half of what he says but I respect his position. His contacts are primarily with Ryan Construction and Mortenson.

[David Greene]

Yeah how many times did we get into it about 3A vs 3C? Yet now I'd say we respect each other quite a bit.

Indeed! Actually, the 3A/3C discussion was quite helpful for me because it clarified a few things in my mind. Not enough to change my mind but it gave me lots to think about.

[acs]

Sorry. As I noted on SSC I have been house-sitting for some friends and their internet connection is pure crap, so I haven't been reading or posting much the past week.

I was pretty taken aback at the SSC forum debacle when I read it today. All I can add is that yes, I too have had some doubts about the "consortium." Mostly though it wasn't about the existence of certain people but more about if the people involved wielded any real influence. As "June's" posts multiplied recently I was responding less and less and I was beginning to distance myself from the conversation. What I do know is that many of the people involved are pretty damned religious and that also did not sit well with me.

Regarding Rick, I have been in touch with him for several years now though we have never met face-to-face (we actually had a lunch scheduled once but it was I who couldn't make it). I don't doubt he is real; we talked about many things that never surfaced on any message board. And he did connect me with Shorenstein to create a few renders for City Center and another building downtown. So - as I said on SSC before a lot of posts got deleted - if this was all a sham then it was liberally peppered with truth.

Yes, I am a real person with an architecture degree from the U as some of you already know. I worked for Quigley Architects in the 90's and Miller-Dunwiddie (and its spin-off CG studio) for 8 years. Our clients in the CG studio included MAC, MnDOT, MSR, ESG, Atlantis Resorts and a few Middle Eastern firms among many others. I've also done free-lance work for Perkins+Will, the U of M and SRF Consulting. I was nominated for a regional Emmy in 2005 for the U of M work, was one of 7 Honorable Mentions along with a partner in MIT's international competition "Just Jerusalem" and won a Telly Award for my work on Atlantis Resorts Singapore with what was then Met-Hodder (now Hodder.TV). (I'm only saying this because all of it can be verified). I've had CAD drawings in my hands months before some projects were even announced so some of the claims coming from Rick were completely within the bounds of how the development world works.

Rick was certainly not the only person I knew who had information about planning and schematic designs. And while maybe half of what he related to me could not be confirmed from a second source there were many times that I could get duplicate info from someone else. So if Rick is really not who he said he was then he is at the least an industry professional.

While he and I are polar opposites politically and have had our share of words back in the days of Minnescraper, nasa is who he claims to be as well. I don't agree with half of what he says but I respect his position. His contacts are primarily with Ryan Construction and Mortenson.

I wasn't active while Rick was posting himself, so I've only been around for the June era of this. The recent developments and information do still make me seriously question the actual amount of influence this group of people has, if it even is much of a group and not just one person. However that doesn't change the fact that whoever this poster is clearly does have access to at least some inside information. There are PM's now made public on SSC back from 2012 where Rick talks about the thrivent lots moving, and just this past year we get news that indeed thrivent is indeed exploring options on the site. Whether or not a "consortium" is behind these moves is definitely questionable. Similarly it wasn't that hard to believe a new convention center hotel project was in the works when the idea has been tossed around publicly for a decade.

[seanrichardryan]

[Nick]

If only he had leveraged his core competencies as well as Duval Development :-/.

Hey everyone go click through the first few pages of this thread

[IllogicalJake]

Hey everyone go click through the first few pages of this thread

I'd really rather not at this point

[MN Fats]

Hey everyone go click through the first few pages of this thread

I think that the United States Capitol will be moved to Minneapolis in the next couple years. This is a good prediction and it makes a lot of sense to me. The time is right for us to move our federal seat of government and build a new Capitol building here, because I thought it and typed it in this box.

[MN Fats]

DEVELOPING STORY: We're now getting word that EIG is on the market and is considering a possible acquisition deal.

As per SEC regulations, the possible deal must be announced by the CEO on his Linkedin profile.



We'll bring you more as new details are brought to light.

[xandrex]

Part of this whole story just makes me wonder if it was some sort of long-con from an anti-Agenda 21 group that wanted to troll and cause infighting amongst urbanists or something. This whole thing is so ridiculous that I'm making up conspiracies. Ha

[IllogicalJake]

Yeah, I'm weirded out. Someone (or a group) went through a bizarre and almost scary amount of effort to keep up these appearances. And for what reason? To make a group of urban enthusiasts look silly? Someone with truly no life and some sort of agenda to push?

Well shit that could be any of us.

[acs]

It must be the big bad gubmint!

[TTT]

I have been on this site for a little while now, SSC for maybe not quite a year, and Minnescraper way back in the day since 04' or so. As with most everyone else - I am blown away by what has transpired with TexasRE i.e. June. I work in a completely different industry (I'm a stock & bond guy), but have been fascinated by development and skyscrapers since I was a kid, and reading what was being said by Texas RE was fascinating to say the least. It has been a pleasure to read what Avian, MBP, Bapster, NASA and many others have said over the years, but nothing compared to what June was saying - now we all know why.

What is so confusing to me is why the moderator's at SSC have not given or made public any information they have about June's location they might have from her IP Address (I'll be the first to admit, I am fairly ignorant as far as what can be discovered from an IP Address) or other information SSC might have from her membership. Maybe there are privacy rules/laws for this, but there is more than a smoking gun with this ordeal, and the layers go so incredibly deep with deception from potentially fake corporations to fake LinkedIn accounts (well over 100+) to fake information about contacts and relationships. I would have thought once the moderator became involved and could see the deception going on, that they might have outed the person or investigated them and let the public at that site know they were intent on doing so. Maybe that is not the way things work - it would just be nice to know how this yarn was spun!

[612transplant]

It's because the moderation there is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

They've been duped into what amounts to a totally irrelevant, non-development related discussion there by TexasRE for the better part of the past year, and mods are siding with the dupers, not the posters that have been there adding to discussion before any of this nonsense emerged.

To be totally honest, I used to prefer ssc to urbanmsp, but after these events I'm going to be spending 0 time over there and more time over here...

[David Greene]

The SSC moderator confirmed that someone had multiple accounts there. It would be a good idea to list all of those accounts. Not only would it hold people accountable, it would be a step toward restoring trust amongst the posters. As it is now, all we know is some duplicate accounts were banned. We don't know which existing user created them.

Also, what, if any, legal ramifications exist for taking someone's identity (Rick Christianson) and using it in this way? I'd think the SSC mods would want to steer clear of getting tangled up in that and make it plain who is responsible.

[Viktor Vaughn]

It must be the big bad gubmint!

Ok, please understand I'm not putting this forward as a theory. Your comment just made me think of this.

Does anyone else remember a few years ago when Streetsblog.org outed their notorious troll as an employee of the military who worked in and trolled from the Pentagon? After years of this guy making discord and derailing every comment thread, they outed him in a very long, detailed, and facinating post. Which now I can't find. Does anyone remember this and can anyone find this post?

[EOst]

What is so confusing to me is why the moderator's at SSC have not given or made public any information they have about June's location they might have from her IP Address (I'll be the first to admit, I am fairly ignorant as far as what can be discovered from an IP Address) or other information SSC might have from her membership. Maybe there are privacy rules/laws for this, but there is more than a smoking gun with this ordeal, and the layers go so incredibly deep with deception from potentially fake corporations to fake LinkedIn accounts (well over 100+) to fake information about contacts and relationships. I would have thought once the moderator became involved and could see the deception going on, that they might have outed the person or investigated them and let the public at that site know they were intent on doing so. Maybe that is not the way things work - it would just be nice to know how this yarn was spun!

Knowing how the staff of forums like SSC tend to work (having been in that role on a couple large sites), I'd say it's less that they sided with one group or another than that they'd rather the thing went away. Giving away details means more speculation, more acrimony, more involvement. They'll handle it as far as the forum is concerned, and leave it there.

[David Greene]

Knowing how the staff of forums like SSC tend to work (having been in that role on a couple large sites), I'd say it's less that they sided with one group or another than that they'd rather the thing went away. Giving away details means more speculation, more acrimony, more involvement. They'll handle it as far as the forum is concerned, and leave it there.

Normally I'd agree but right now we've got people accusing other people and generally wondering who is legit. Worse yet, there's essentially a ban on talking about it, leading to even more conspiracy theories and acrimony because people can't talk it out and come to resolution. Basically this has all been handled exactly the wrong way from a fostering community standpoint. This is a pretty special case where the moderators should be as transparent as possible about what's known and not known.

Yeah, I know some people here LOL at SSC but it's still a community of people and people have dignity that must be respected.

[IllogicalJake]

Knowing how the staff of forums like SSC tend to work (having been in that role on a couple large sites), I'd say it's less that they sided with one group or another than that they'd rather the thing went away. Giving away details means more speculation, more acrimony, more involvement. They'll handle it as far as the forum is concerned, and leave it there.

Normally I'd agree but right now we've got people accusing other people and generally wondering who is legit. Worse yet, there's essentially a ban on talking about it, leading to even more conspiracy theories and acrimony because people can't talk it out and come to resolution. Basically this has all been handled exactly the wrong way from a fostering community standpoint. This is a pretty special case where the moderators should be as transparent as possible about what's known and not known.

Yeah, I know some people here LOL at SSC but it's still a community of people and people have dignity that must be respected.

Great points and huge amount of respect to you, DG.

SSC is a different (often overlapping) group of people but still members of the Twin Cities urban dev community, and I care about anybody who's taking the time and effort to make this city better. To see this shit play out as it has is upsetting even if some people prefer to laugh at it.

Someone targeted our cities' community for some reason and was crazy levels of obsessed about it...

[PhilmerPhil]

I think at this point, we can safely say that retiredbanker, Avian, and nasa35 are all real, separate people. The unexplained layer/plot twist lies in June and Ryan. Do we know for sure if either of them are real or not? Is Ryan a made up character by real life person June?

Looking at all posts by Texas _RE, she's been posting on SSC since 1/4/14. Her first 20 posts weren't even in Minneapolis threads.

Her first Minneapolis related post was related to 401 Hennepin back on 2/28/14 almost two months after joining SSC:

I've been working with an investment firm based in Minneapolis about this project. The firm that I'm working with for the development of that site is for a 50 story hotel with restaurant & entertainment businesses on the 1st & 2nd levels. Beautiful brick exterior building with a spire.

Then there's this post, with some minimal background on herself: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost. ... count=1947

Really, I'd have to guess that less than 20% of her posts are in Minneapolis threads, which makes this is really suspicious. Would a hoaxster really go that far? I know anything is possible on the internet, but this might be too far, with all the LinkedIn profiles and rich posting history in cities across the country.



So here's my theory:

June, retiredbanker, and Ryan are all real, separate people. Avian and nasa35 are also obviously real, but they are just as confused as the rest of us, based on how they've reacted to this situation.

Based on their LinkedIns, I'm thinking that June, retiredbanker, and Ryan are all extremely religious--almost cult-like. They really do use their LinkedIns to connect with like-minded religious/finance folk, and not so much for real world networking as someone mentioned on SSC. However, they wield no real power, and they are delusional in their perception of how influential their consortium--which is "real"--really is.

To explain their knowledge of the industry, they probably do know a lot of people, like Avian and nasa35, enough to get some information, but not enough that those connections realize how wacko they (RB/June/Ryan) really are, similar to how Avian didn't really catch RB's eccentricity until more recently.

How does that sound? I feel like this is the most plausible scenario at this point. Thoughts?



(I'm glad I'm not the only one that appears to be consumed by this whole scenario.)

[acs]

There's one thing that still doesn't quite fit with that theory. If these consortium people really are that religious, then why were some of their proposals/ideas for things like nightclubs and bars on hennepin ave? You would think they would be totally against such things, yet, in "Ryan"s massively long post he specifically talks about trying to keep Hennepin ave's gritty feel. RB had even mentioned wanting to bring international nightclubs to his 500 Hennepin project before he was outbid. Does that seem like someone who is devoutly Christian to you?