Mark Wilde wrote: You may not like his policies, or his methods. But there is no way you can argue that he does not care. The Mayor doesn't need me to defend him, but I will point out one thing that he does well: Get people excited about the arts. His work with the MOSAIC program, has really been inspired, and generated a lot of interest in the arts without a lot of spending by the City.
Connie's take on the Mayor's enthusiasm: We Northsiders put together a great event on June 7th called the Spring Art Party and over a thousand people showed up. I participated in all the MOSAIC hoopla, spoke to the Mayor personally about coming to our event and got confirmation from 2 of his staffers that he'd be there as ours was the first event listed in their guide. Guess what? No show! He told me he'd be there, so I in turn told all sorts of people that he was coming -- makes us both look bad when he doesn't make it. I'm told it's not unusual for Hizzoner to blow off a Northside event -- unless of course, he gets to float in, make an appearance and leave looking like a hero -- like high profile criminal events where he gets his mug on the TV. So I wrote him an e-mail -- no response. I wrote to the event coordinator, Brooke Darst, who offered her apologies for my disappointment. She passed my complaints along because lo and behold, I got a call from his aide offering his apologies as he was responsible for the mix-up. "Yeah, right, whatever" I said. But I got a call the very next day from RT himself and when I called him back, he was very apologetic and claimed a mix up of some sort on his part. Well, someone's to blame, that's for sure. I was told by 3 different people that he'd be there and he didn't show up -- that's not right. I was told by several others that day that he failed to show up for the dedication of the North Mississippi Regional Park last year and for the Arbor Day celebration again this year -- both great events that shed positive light on North Mpls. I still don't think MOSAIC did much for our event -- I didn't even get our PR packet until a weekend after the Spring Art Party :'( So it's a good thing it's not costing any money. I think it's a good concept, but it didn't do much for us. Our event was a success because of the hard work of a few of us volunteers and because KBEM radio got the word out for us. I can argue that the Mayor doesn't care about SOME THINGS -- like coming to North Mpls when we've got something positive to show off. But I do appreciate that he took the time to call and apologize to me -- whether he means it or not, it's a good effort on his part :-) Connie Beckers THE GODDESS OF GLASS www.goddessofglass.com "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." ~John Lennon TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
