Chris Coleman was the lead strategist in delaying for years any action on Gopher State Ethanol (GSE) air and sound pollution. The delay enabled the wealthy owners of GSE to make profits while local residents suffered; profits of rich exploiters seemed to be consistently more important than the welfare of ordinary non-wealthy citizens.
I attended a St Paul city council meeting where local residents against GSE filled the room. The GSE side, owners and compliant city officials, got the first 2 hours. The citizens got 30 minutes; 3 spoke. Then when it came time to DO something concrete, Chris Coleman found/fastened on some bit of language such that if they voted that evening the vote would be the usual 4/3 line for GSE/Chamber of Commerce; so the vote could be taken then, and lose, or be PUT OFF till the next week (when all those pesky citizens might not be back). Blackmail pure and simple. And the dodges went on and on, week after week; it was clear GSE had a licence to pollute until the next election. Only in the last few months of Chris Coleman's term did he begin to tend differently on GSE, the months after he announced he would not run for council again. Generally Chris Coleman was part of the 4/3 majority favoring the StPaul Chamber of Commerce position. Decidedly NOT progressive. Very corporate, friendly to the rich, unfriendly to others. I see no reason for progressives to support Chris Coleman for mayor. Randy Kelly is 100% Chamber of Commerce. Chris Coleman may be just the same, only smarter and more clever. If there are issues where they differ, I would be pleased to hear what they are. We need a candidate who will publicly take positions for ordinary citizens (the bottom 98%), and come out publicly against the many bad Chamber of Commerce positions. Those bad positions should be advocated by a Republican candidate, and not by any party styling itself progressive. --David Shove Roseville On Mon, 28 Feb 2005, erin stojan wrote: > Indeed. I feel compelled to add that Coleman's support for the Holman > Field expansion/airport floodwall while he was on the City Council > hardly qualifies him as a champion of the environment (or neighborhoods, > for that matter). Coleman might be able to claim middle of the road DFL > status, but it's tough for me to see how "progressive" he is. I don't > recall "progressive" was a label he embraced while on the Council, at > any rate. But perhaps that comes with "feigning interest for long > periods of time" (a Coleman quote from Jan. 21 2004 Pioneer Press). > I remember Norm Coleman advocating privatization of St. Paul's water > system, but don't recall where Chris Coleman was on it. Can anyone fill > me in? > > Many thanks, > > Erin Stojan > Dayton's Bluff > > caty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I feel compelled to clarify some of the accomplishments the Coleman > campaign has described as "led" by Chris. The introduction to Chris > states that he "led the fight" for the city's affordable housing policy > and again "led the fight" to preserve the historic "7th Place." I think > it would be more accurate to state that Chris voted for the affordable > housing policy and helped the Community Stabilization Project preserve > 7th Place. In both instances the fight was led by community groups and > members and Chris supported the work done by community when the issues > rose to the Council level. So maybe, for the purposes of accuracy, the > bio should read "led the fight at the Council" and even that might be > exagerating a bit. > Caty, Selby by way of south minneapolis. > > > ------------------------------------------------- > JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: > http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ > ------------------------------------------------- > POST MESSAGES HERE: [email protected] > > To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: > http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul > > Archive Address: > http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ > > > ------------------------------------------ > Erin Stojan > Dayton's Bluff, Ward 7 > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. > ------------------------------------------------- > JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: > http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ > ------------------------------------------------- > POST MESSAGES HERE: [email protected] > > To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: > http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul > > Archive Address: > http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ > ------------------------------------------------- JOIN the St. Paul Issues Forum TODAY: http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ ------------------------------------------------- POST MESSAGES HERE: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
