Minneapolis City Politics General Discussion

[MNdible]

"Sucks" is too strong, but I've been disappointed by her performance (or lack thereof) thus far.

[EOst]

I don't think she "sucks," but it does feel like most of the energy and ideas in city government are coming from the Council, not her office. That may not be a bad thing in a weak mayoral system, but it's not insignificant.

[mplsjaromir]

Her tenure has basically been la Terreur Nouveau for soccer team owners and their fans.

[mattaudio]

If only R.T.'s tenure was the same for the Vikings fans.

[mullen]

st paulites love it when the mpls mayor is ineffectual and distant. the cities are still fiercely compete.. but st paul wants it more. and now they're getting a 300 mil development from mn united dropped in their lap because of minneapolis' multi-layered, focus group governance and a mayor who doesn't care. maybe because she grew up in minnetonka? i don't understand what motivates her and why she wanted to be mayor in the first place.

hope she enjoys her junket to Rome to meet the pope. that really has impact on municipal services. then maybe she'll make another trek to DC. her style is similar to the malaise of the sayles belton years.

[mattaudio]

St. Paul sure has earned the right to be a sucker in this deal. As a resident of Minneapolis, I'm HORRIFIED that we won't get to give up tax revenue in perpetuity while taking on even greater liabilities for things like policing, infrastructure, et al.

[mplsjaromir]

Is the MN United development $300 million? I haven't seen a figure that was above $125 million for a new stadium. Has there been a new proposal?

I cannot blame Hodges for not being keen on a new stadium. She is responsible for the city budget and she would have find ways to come up with the funds to service a new stadium. The theory behind property valuations is that there is some relationship between the cost to service a property and the appraisal. So having to find the likely millions of dollars in revenue to serve the stadium would be challenging. Either the stadium needs to entice enough development that also utilizes existing infrastructure so efficiently that the budgetary impact is sufficiently minimized, or would have to ask the legislature for sales tax remittances.

The first scenario is risky because there is no way to know how the market would respond to the area around the farmer's market. The area needs either immense development pressure (which a soccer stadium will not bring) or a generous influx of streetscape improvements in order to be a desirable neighborhood. The city likely wants to see what it can get from its Downtown East expenditure before trying to reinvent another neighborhood.

The second scenario would be demeaning. Why should the mayor have to go to the reflexively anti-Minneapolis state legislature and ask for money?

The Minneapolis soccer stadium may just be 5 years too late and 5 years too early. 5 years ago this would have no opposition, 5 years from now people would be fine with it. It just so happens that three new stadiums and an area renovation are still new or in progress.

[trigonalmayhem]

I'd say the city could net a lot more benefit investing in fixing up streets and infrastructure in places like, say, near northeast (NIEBNA) than in throwing it all away on a little armpit tucked next to some highways just to make billionaire sports owners happy. Let St Paul have this latest mess.

[mattaudio]

Fighting ISIL From City Hall
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... daW1vlVhBc

[mattaudio]

Interesting fact from a book I'm reading: In the 1969 mayoral election runoff, Dan Cohen was endorsed by Senator Eugene McCarthy and President Nixon! Yes, that Dan Cohen! Who was then trounced by Charlie Stenvig, an independent populist (and not of the good populist variety, but rather the racial undertones and law & order populist variety).

[mullen]

I'd say the city could net a lot more benefit investing in fixing up streets and infrastructure in places like, say, near northeast (NIEBNA) than in throwing it all away on a little armpit tucked next to some highways just to make billionaire sports owners happy. Let St Paul have this latest mess.

st paul thanks you and betsy hodges for the gift of hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in the midway area. quite a "mess" isn't it. i assure you there are plenty of downtown business interests and city/county officials not happy with the mayor essentially giving the middle finger to mn united.

[FISHMANPET]

This is the most frustrating thing about stadium debates. You can parrot out "$X of development" all you want but you have to finish the statement. "$X of development" but at what cost? If it cost a billion dollars to get $1 of private development would that be worth it? Obviously not. What about a billion dollars to get a billion dollars? Nope, still wrong, because how long is it going to take to recoup a billion dollars from the tax revenues on property valued at a billion?

The Farmers Market area is not going to fall off the face of the earth never to be developed or even seen from again. The city will grow, and that part of the city will pay taxes, and we'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

[mattaudio]

True. Has anyone in St. Paul actually done anything that resembles an attempt at the math?

[Tiller]

It's ok, because St Paul can just tax the rest of the state to make it work.

[mattaudio]

I swear the Turtle Bread at 48th and Chicago is the power seat of South Minneapolis. Here for one potential political meeting, then a city council member and a state senator are here as well. #awk

And they really need USI Fiber for faster internet.

[twincitizen]

Cam Winton (yes, that Cam Winton) defends Mayor Hodges in the Strib: http://www.startribune.com/counterpoint ... 340463321/

This was apparently written in response to a (presumably terrible) Hodges smear by Dan Cohen.

[acs]

Defend is a strong word for that article... more than half of it is devoted to pointing out what she's done wrong so far. Shows just how high public opinion is of her.

[mplsjaromir]

It was definitely a defense.

He doesn't say it is her fault that there has been a spike in crime. Local news media's mantra is "if it bleeds it leads", so of course any uptick in crime is going to portrayed as some type of reckoning. And being a Republican, Cam can only see more even more police or worse military personnel as a solution.

The other "criticisms" are a streetcar project that is no where near breaking ground, and a fair scheduling proposal that has been tabled.

I am no fan of Cam Winton, but I do applaud him for this sensible op-ed.

Hodges will handily win re-election.

[MNdible]

Not so sure she'll coast to re-election.

Nobody I know is at all impressed with her term so far. I voted for her, and am hugely disappointed.

[mplsjaromir]

Non soccer fans seem to like her.