In response to Jan Del Calzo's question:
"Now how many Council Members from
Minneapolis and mayoral candidates have contacted the 13 out of 15 MAC
Commissioners who aren't from Minneapolis to plead their case? I have a
funny feeling the answer would be mighty few, if any."
I've actually spent a pretty fair amount of time talking to commission
members who are not from Minneapolis....and it helped prove Jan's point that
sometimes you can make progress with people who don't start out agreeing
with you.
An example is Cora Houle, who is from Bloomington. Bloomington's former MAC
rep had been strongly against anything that seemed to lessen noise. But
right after Cora got appointed, Henn Co. Commissioner Gail Dorfman helped
me get a breakfast with her. Cora was pretty reluctant to hear the points
but warmed up as the conversation went on. In the recent votes and hearings
on sound insulation, Cora has consistently been the one making the case for
helping those suffering from noise pollution.
Another example is Charles Nichols. The morning he got appointed I called
his house and through some fluke, got through. He was nice enough to have
breakfast, told me that he had no patience for whining about noise and only
wanted to talk solutions. Fair enough. So we did that for a couple hours and
a few months later Nichols was actively advocating the idea ROAR had been
forwarding about moving some traffic to a Rochester hub connected by high
speed rail.
I've also been talking to several other MAC reps outside of Mpls who would
not want their names used. In one case, a member who is extremely hostile
to Minneapolis' noise pollution issues was about to brush me off when
through some dumb luck we realized he used to play cards with my inlaws.
Now we talk at each meeting and slowly he's warming up.
Also, when Bert Mackasy was appointed, ROAR and SMAAC met with him to make
the case. So far he has not been a helpful vote, but he may be....and at
least he has heard the case.
ROAR's chair Sara Strzok has also spent a considerable bit of time working
with citizens around Flying Cloud Airport to try to build a coalition with
them.
And I've worked with Satveer Chadray, the state sen. who represents the area
around Crystal Airport.
On a broader note, some of you questioned why ROAR was interjecting airport
noise into the last Senate race. It was for exactly this reason: that we
needed a broader coalition. The work we did on the floor of the state
convention helped us develop coaltions with environmental activists in other
parts of the state that we hope will someday pay off.
I know Jan had to fight a very lonely battle at the MAC for many years.
That's a major reason why ROAR was needed: to try to develop these bridges
beyond the city.
It's a lesson was have to learn in all these battles. The city doesn't have
the power it once had. Deal with it. We're losing on all these fronts:
school funding, airports, NRP.....unless we come up with a new way of
reaching out, we're going to keep getting hammered.
The city doesn't have the power it once had....and it's only going to get
worse if we try to pretend we can get what we need by only talking to those
who agree with us.
R.T. Rybak
www.rtformayor.com
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