[Mpls] This Week in The Minneapolis Observer

[Craig Cox]

T H E M I N N E A P O L I S O B S E R V E R
A Weekly Digest of All Things Minneapolitan
Vol. 1, No. 21
January 7, 2002

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THIS WEEK IN THE OBSERVER:
* Somali Fears Persist After Meeting with U.S. Attorney
* HIV 101
* Robert Bly's Next Decade
* Patrick's Is Now Sarah's
* Kicking Butt at City Hall
Plus: Robert Lilligren's savings account, ice boats on Lake Harriet, Lisa McDonald's favorite word, a midwinter harvest, and waving goodbye to John Berryman.

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MEETING WITH FEDERAL PROSECUTOR FAILS TO QUELL SOMALI FEARS
U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger met December 12 with local Somali leaders in an effort to dispel fears of mass deportations and civil rights abuses in conjunction with a federal anti-terrorism initiative.


HIV 101
The Minnesota AIDS Project has launched a program designed to educate small businesses about how to respond to employees living with AIDS.

ANOTHER DECADE, ANOTHER MAGAZINE
Continuing a publishing tradition that began nearly 50 years ago, poet Robert Bly has released a new literary magazine called The Thousands.

SARAH'S CABARET
Sarah Harris, the new artistic director at Patrick's Cabaret, will host her first show at the popular performance space January 11, reports Karen Lundquist in Minnesota Women's Press (www.womenspress.com).

HOW WE'LL REMEMBER HER
"Whereas Lisa McDonald should be listed in City annals as the only Council Member to use the word 'ganortner' on a daily basis . . ."
--Council resolution at the December 28 meeting (We don't know what it means, either.)

SNAPSHOT
Saturday, 11:30 a.m., Lake Harriet
The hazy sun shines down on the skaters and ice fishers. Last night's sleet turned the lake into a shimmering wonderland. A gentle breeze plays with the sail of an ice boat. A man runs alongside his ice boat. The sail snaps to life. Then the man's in place, and he and the boat dash across the frozen lake.
--Nora Cox

BACK IN THE DAY
30 Years Ago This Week
"[He] waved goodbye."
--Pedestrian on the Washington Avenue Bridge after witnessing University of Minnesota professor and poet John Berryman jump to his death
Minneapolis Star
January 7, 1972

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RAVES, RANTS, AND OTHER CONSIDERED OPINIONS
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IT'S JUST MY OPINION, BUT . . .
Our new mayor is enduring plenty of ridicule for his therapeutic approach to last week's City Council meltdown, and I have to say the $175/hour facilitator does tend to get your attention. But I really liked the fact that he forced the whiny council members to air their disagreements in public, with the media present to record each adolescent outburst.
And the picture painted by those in attendance was one of political hackdom at its finest, with pols old and new grasping, maneuvering, lying, and betraying confidences forged only days before. In other words, good old-fashioned politics. The surprise to me was not so much that Sandy Colvin Roy and Natalie Johnson Lee betrayed their newfound allies or that our reliable DFL hacks toed the party line in denying budget whiz Barrett Lane the Ways and Means chair, but that anyone would be surprised by such treachery.
Politics is an ugly business, and just because we've got a bunch of newcomers in City Hall and a mayor determined to clean it up doesn't mean the rules are going to change. Nor does it mean that Rybak is going to quickly forge a submissive council coalition to push through his policies. The honeymoon, folks, is already over.
But it could've been much worse. Paul Ostrow's election as Council president gives the mayor a sympathetic ear among the leadership that he wouldn't have had with old-line pol Barbara Johnson in the post. Rybak will also work well with vice president Robert Lilligren (whose surprisingly effective behind-the-scenes politicking for the v.p. post demonstrates the kind of lobbying savvy and ambitiousness Eighth Ward constituents haven't seen since Sayles Belton represented them). The big question (beyond whether Ways and Means chair Johnson will develop any interest in the budget) is how effectively the mayor will be able to navigate among the old-school DFLers like Johnson, Joe Biernat, and Colvin Roy, who torpedoed his choice of Lane for Ways and Means chair and who, I suspect, came away from last week's embarrassing encounter group with a less-than-lofty regard for Rybak's approach to political disagreements.
But that's OK, because my sense is that the mayor's going to have to practice some old-school butt-kicking along with his New Age diplomacy in the days and weeks ahead. It's the one approach that most DFL hacks will always understand.
--Craig Cox

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Editor: Craig Cox
Associate Editor: Sharon Parker
Contributing writers: Nora Cox, Mark Engebretson, Tim Herwig, Leo Mezzrow
Occasional research assistance: Martin and Nora Cox
Online technical assistance: Christopher Pollard
Thanks to: Cathy Madison, Ali Shah