Like Earl Netwal and others who are speaking up, I too have a lengthy history in the city's civic life. My early experience in grassroots democracy hereabouts included not only a remarkable empowerment of a handful of Nicollet Island residents in the St. Anthony Falls Historic District but also an opportunity to participate in the resolute opposition to 335W which as planned would have cut through Northeast Minneapolis and across the north tip of Nicollet Island itself. It was also my privilege to work with representatives of many neighborhoods impacted by a sometimes insensitive urban renewal process in those years and this too was an environment of grassroots initiatives that not only pushed the government into more accommodating profiles but also gave rise to a group of community leaders who rose to prominence as city council members, made significant reforms in the management of existing renewal and development functions, and designed the Neighborhood Redevelopment Program (NRP) that institutionalized "bottom-up" input about renewal and development at the neighborhood level.
Whatever the financial restraints challenging the continuity of Minneapolis' remarkable NRP initiative, the political reality is that there are now many new hundreds of Minneapolis citizens who have found their civic voices in a big way and it is reasonable to observe that this transformation has left its imprint on every kind of organized political activity in our fair city and its surrounds. It strikes me that contentious issues like the perennial freeway fights are essentially situational rather than structural in nature and that programmatic innovations like the NRP however ingenious are a bit transitory in comparison to the ongoing corporate entity we know as the City of Minneapolis. In this context political parties stand out as more permanent vessels for democratic expressions of civic intent and I see the notion of de novo municipal election year caucuses in the DFL Party as an appropriate response to the challenge of renewal of these perennial flowers of democracy. This year, for example, thousands of citizens came forward to participate in varying degrees in the DFL's precinct caucuses and subsequent activities. Many of these folks are new to the process and might well succumb to the stereotype of "four-year voters" who come out for the presidential year contests and then fade back into passivity. Having a fresh sequence of caucuses in the year following the presidential year gives these folks an opportunity to turn their collective attention to the municipal world we tend not to notice when the presidential circuses come to town. The argument can also be made - especially now that so many citizens have had a taste of local governance via the NRP - that there are indeed folks who may find the municipal caucuses more in their immediate interest than somewhat rarified national concerns. Another argument in favor of the municipal caucuses is that the ability of the "ancien regime" to engage in empire-building in the caucus system is forever challenged by participants de novo. I particularly like the iconoclastic overtones of this argument because it's all too easy for small groups to come to power in voluntary organizations and there's nothing more refreshing than an occasional - and always inevitable - change in the political weather. I'd much rather have a series of little squalls than the kind of tempest that can emerge when entrenched pols get out of touch with the electorate. Fred Markus, West Phillips REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
