Jenny Heiser, Dean Zimmermann's wife, says that Dean Zimmermann has been
effective. I am glad that Dean at least has retained the loyalty of a wife
during this his embarrassing time.
We should be brutally honest here. While Dean Zimmermann is a nice folksy
man, who is enjoyable to talk to, exactly how has Dean been effective?
Other than providing cover for the Sabri's in their exploitation of Somali
businesspeople, the Sabri's attempts to take over neighborhoods. Dean was
very effective at covering for the Sabri's renting space at the 24th Street
Market illegally. At covering for the clear zoning and safety violations.
He was very effective at sneaking through a zoning change that allowed the
Sabris to have retroactive cover for those violations. I must admit that
other Council Members are also complicit in those activities, because they
knowingly allowed them to happen because of that silly "Ward Privilege"
thing; they absolutely knew those things were going on.
Dean was effective in getting Mayor Rybak to get in bed with Basim Sabri, in
getting the Mayor to perform his only veto of his political career to help a
known briber of Council Members to acquire the entire Elroy City block of
Minneapolis, including the street, for about $150,000 dollars. So yes, in
that Dean was effective. Of course he was ineffective in making it stick!
Even "Ward Privilege" and a "Deal" could not keep the other Council Members
with a modicum of ethics from jumping ship on that deal. By the way, that
was the deal that was the last straw to break the camel's back. After that
even some us who were RT's staunchest defenders finally had to admit that
the City of Minneapolis really did deserve a better Mayor. Or perhaps I
should say a "Real" Mayor. The realization came that Minneapolis deserved
better than two politicians that would be so corrupt, blind, or ignorant
(either one is too much) as to get in bed with known criminals who bragged
about buying Minneapolis politicians.
So Dean was effective, in a backhanded way, at mobilizing and energizing
some support for McLaughlin. Cute and Kewl, folksy and seedy, they really
were fun for a while, but now it is time for Minneapolis to have REAL
leadership and REAL workers to make the City a better place to live and to
do business. Both RT and Dean had real potential, and promise when elected.
(Heck I still like them both.) Unfortunately, Zimmermann and Rybak were
totally ineffective at doing the work Minneapolis (and my neighborhood)
needed to have done.
Jim Graham,
Ventura Village, Phillips Community, and City of Minneapolis resident.
"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in
the other direction."
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