David Strand wrote:
How many feel this analysis is spot on and how many
feel it is off base? ... What can we do to empower those attempting to enact
progressive policies at city hall in the upcoming
elections and after?
While the article makes note of it, it does not give enough credence to
the redistricting disaster. It was there where the old line DFL,
politics down and dirty, win at any cost, action took place. Of all the
redistricting plans put forward (and I did not see all of them), Dean
Zimmermann's made the most practical sense.
The plan which was engineered showed me that the local DFL was ready to
play footsie with progressive ideas during good times, but that the
tried and true bunker mentality would back off progressive politics to
its own detriment. The commission screwed the Greens and the
progressives in the eighth, sixth, fifth, and ninth to do it. The
commission gave the already wealthy seventh ward the economic engine for
the fifth ward, simultaneously designating the fifth as the official
ghetto par excellence.
At the same time, the newbies on the council were not progressive. With
the exception of Zimmermann and maybe Johnson Lee (not her fault, I'm
not real clear on her come from and I don't know the fifth). I do not
think it possible to call Samuels, Lilligren, Schiff, Benson, or
Niziolek (sp?) progressive. Certainly Johnson, Colvin Roy, Goodman,
Lane, and Ostrow are not progressives.
Had the redistricting commission not been so adamantly wrong-headed,
Zerby's approach--laying out the cost to the city for profligacy on the
part of the federal and state goverment--could have helped bulwark some
backbone in the face of the disaster and kept Minneapolis in better
order even while having to determinedly trim its financial sails. The
point is to keep your eye on the prize.
They panicked over the budget rather than thinking it through
strategically. Complicate the issue by bringing in a mayor who did not
have the credentials either at the state or federal level, and the DFL
is in chemotherapy big time. When the dominant party is on meds, the
city is in for a rough ride.
WizardMarks, Central
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