Minneapolis City Politics General Discussion

[mattaudio]

I've been thinking the same thing today, since I got an email from her that clearly pointed out how she's an ally on the Walgreen's issue (and she's been frustrated with single story Giordanos, Chipotle, etc). I think she'd be especially effective if we got even one or two more "urbanism progressives" on the council to make our preferred outcomes happen more as a matter of default.

[twincitizen]

2015 fundraising reports are in: http://www.startribune.com/minneapolis- ... 367888901/

[LakeCharles]

Minneapolis considers limiting drive-throughs:

http://www.startribune.com/minneapolis- ... 367886711/

[David Greene]

Betsy in trouble.

http://www.citypages.com/news/mayor-bet ... ck-8025071

I'm far from ready to call her done but she certainly did a lot of damage to her base. Sounds like she's pissed off some councilmembers too, which is never a great idea.

[seanrichardryan]

Sounds like Fox9 willl have some sort of elected official travel expose including Ms. Hodges on Thursday.

[twincitizen]

We'll see how things look in 10-12 months. Hodges probably can't win back the people she lost in late 2015, but overall I think she's probably doing fine among the plurality of Mpls residents who were largely indifferent about the whole 4th Precinct deal. A 1% levy reduction (or at least no increase) later this year would go a long way to help her out.

As for Frey possibly running for Mayor, my position has always been that I'd rather he wait another 4 years. He has to be smart enough to know he has more influence on the council, and could have even more in his second term, particularly with Barb Johnson likely gone (and perhaps other council veterans will call it quits too).

That said, if Betsy is still looking vulnerable a year from now, other challengers will emerge. If some other challenger comes along who could maybe beat her head-to-head, I'd probably back Frey over the unknown.

[grant1simons2]

Latest numbers in school graduation rates

https://twitter.com/VOTERebeccaG/status ... 5509419008

Overall 64.3% graduation rate

[mattaudio]

Any urban/transportation resolutions people are proposing at their caucuses tomorrow night? I'd be up for proposing a couple in my precinct.

[twincitizen]

Question: even though the city council is not on the ballot this year, there will still be a "Minneapolis DFL" convention for a few school board seats, correct? That is sure to be sparsely attended.

Can anyone say if getting involved with the city-level DFL organization now would be a good idea if one wanted to be more of a "player" in the city DFL party for 2017?

If that's not clear to anyone, there are multiple DFL party organizing units, which meet in years when there are seats on the ballot.
There's your MN House/Senate district party unit and convention in the even-numbered years.
There's a Minneapolis DFL party unit and convention for city council, park board, and school district elections.
There's also a Hennepin County DFL party unit and convention for the county board, attorney, sheriff, etc.

[gpete]

Can anyone say if getting involved with the city-level DFL organization now would be a good idea if one wanted to be more of a "player" in the city DFL party for 2017?

Depends how you want to be a player in 2017. If you want to have more influence on how the Mpls convention is run in 2017, the logistics, rules, etc, then it might be worth your time to run for one of the director positions with the Mpls DFL. There will probably be a committee that screens candidates ahead of the convention, and then the directors will be elected at the city convention. You can reach out to the Mpls DFL chair or vice-chair and ask them for more info.

[grant1simons2]

Does anyone want to be Public Works Director?

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/www/gro ... 174604.pdf

According to the mayor the 2 big transit projects are Orange line and Nicollet streetcar

[mattaudio]

Plastic bag ordinance is coming up next cycle.

[twincitizen]

I don't know if this is locked or not because I'm logged in (/humblebrag), but this article is a humdinger: http://finance-commerce.com/2016/03/at- ... riorities/

Was this CD committee meeting they refer to recorded?

[xandrex]

It is indeed locked. :/

[FISHMANPET]

Everything but Comittee of the Whole meetings are recorded (and I don't think HPC is recorded either...) but whatever CD is (Community Development?) should be online.

[grant1simons2]

Maybe it's about TIF?

https://youtu.be/LMEGrdBTJIg?t=34m50s

[grant1simons2]

Lisa went off. That's what happened. It's a good watch.

[MNdible]

That was a spicy meeting.

Frey got schooled by Goodman, and Cano is still Cano.

[mullen]

cano is insufferable. lisa goodman is a rock star council member, has been since she started. Andrew Johnson is insufferable. has he proposed any other name changes for city streets or places? awesome stuff.

Jacob frey should probably wait four years I tend to agree with that. the lemming like voters of mpls will probably reelect the worst mayor since the 70's. I've loathed betsy hodges since she walked out of the city convention when she knew she wouldn't win endorsement.

so basically she's a caretaker mayor. we'll have to wait another four years for someone with vision. I fail to see why betsy hodges wanted to be mayor in the first place? because she's some budget savant? that's laughable.

[LakeCharles]

I am a delegate at the city convention upcoming this Saturday. Has anyone done this? Any pointers? Is there a list of topics to be covered so I can do research about them?