Erik RieseDyna's a great sniper but would she really put herself upfront for the kind of comments she throws so easily at others?-- In cooperation,
Eric, I'm going to take you up on your dare- tonight I am officially announcing my fantasy write in campaign for 3rd ward Council Member!
We have 20 some folks running in this electoral melee, and only a handful at most have a chance of surviving the primary. The rest are living out there fantasies, but most don't realize or can't admit they don't have a chance. The benchmark of my fantasy campaign will be honesty, and I quite honestly admit that I don't have a chance. So don't waste any real votes on me. My campaign will also be a model of frugality, as I will make no campaign expenditures whatsoever. I will accept PAC donations and for that manner any donations, but don't expect anything in return. And Eric, I'll be happy to participate in any debates that'll have me, but I won't get into civil disobedience if I'm not invited- I'll leave that duty to Leslie Davis.
MY PLATFORM
This is really a pretty basic, dumb platform- the kind you would expect a dumb blond to come up with.
Budget: Minneapolis wastes a lot of money. How much are we spending on software licences? We need to switch to free open source software like Linux. Linux runs well on legacy systems, so we can extend the service life of our computers and put off replacements longer. We need to apply the same logic to other acquisitions- take cars and small trucks for example. Instead of laying out 20 grand for Crown Vics and getting peanuts for them at auction after a couple years, we buy a vehicle that can serve many departments and will have a minimum 10 year life. We cut a long term deal for Ford Rangers, contingent upon Ford keeping the plant and it's payroll here. We get to spec a custom built vehicle with the pick of the parts bins- A 4 door supercab with gas/enthanol or diesel/soy diesel power. Fit them out with multi channel radios with all the city department's channels so they can be transfered between departments as needed. Let each department come up with a "gear" module to fit into the pickup bed for easy transfer- police, fire/EMT rapid response, public works, etc..
Add to this new purchasing policy a unique feature- the vendor would be required to allow any Minneapolis citizen or business to buy the product at the same price as the city pays. So when the city gets a deal on computers or whatever, the citizens get in on the deal too.
The River: Send the master plan back to fantasyland. We need to recognise and take advantage of the fact that this is a working river. Clean up the banks and line them with trails. Turn Port of Minneapolis into the multimodal terminal it has the potential to be. Expand our rail and towboat service to provide the logistical support to keep and draw living wage jobs here. Ad recreational opportunities appropriate to a working river, like a marina and RV park. Take back the near abandoned rail lines that run down 1st Street North and rehab them for recreational, commuter, and continued freight railroad use. Preserve and upgrade the North Riverfront industrial park and it's living wage jobs.
Crime: It's time to move beyond denial. We need to take off the kid gloves and put the gangs out of business. In fact, we're going to make gang busting a profit center- I've seen all too may late model SUVs and luxury cars parked in front of drug houses- can you say "civil forfeiture". We're going to go after the slumlords that profit from renting to gangbangers too. The house next to me is owned by the same guy who owned 1030 Morgan. It seems like every one of his tenants eventually gets busted- why does this slumlord still have a rental licence? And why are we buying his properties instead of seizing them if he is profiting from his tenants crime?
We are also going to deny the gangs their lifeblood- new recruits. For two decades our police have been banging down doors and hauling the gang bangers off to jail. After a few cycles of catch and release they finally get sent away for a long time. And a new recruit takes their place. Now this fantasy campaign is for Council Member and not school board, so I won't get into trying to run the schools from city hall like a few politicians have attempted to claim credit for. I do believe the city has the power to require school attendance until high school graduation or age 18. We also have the power to appoint truant officers to force such school attendance. These lids ain't gonna have no time for gang bangin'!
Crime is the area where we can best use Minneapolis greatest resource- our citizen volunteers. We can't afford a bigger paid police force, but we have a veritable army of ready and willing citizens who are ready to help the police run criminals right out of our city. Sadly, when they contact the police department and offer their help they are often ignored or brushed aside. This needs to change, and we need to compel our police department to work with citizens instead of viewing them with suspicion.
Housing: It is time for a new paradigm- for too long we have torn down whole neighborhoods, displaced hundreds of citizens, and then the land sits vacant for years. This dumb blond has a new idea- we build the new housing first. Then, and only if the old housing is beyond rehab, we tear it down. We also allow true innovation in housing- rehabbing older buildings, RVs, manufactured housing, etc.
City Services: The Mississippi River falls something like a hundred feet along and within our city- why are we buying power from NSP? Their is a wireless internet access system abandoned on our light poles- why are we not using it? We have city owned buildings in every neighborhood- they can be hubs for renewably fueled district heating systems and telecommunications networks.
Transportation: The automobile is a technology past it's peak- we need a moratorium on adding additional lanes. With or without the support of higher levels of government we can more cheaply establish a commuter rail system with whatever other municipalities wish to join our rail network.
That's all for now folks. "If elected I will not serve" and all other standard disclaimers apply. And you'd damn well better not elect me!
fantasizing from Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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