Ward 9

Who wanted to be mayor?
Online
twincitizen
Moderator
Posts: 6368
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 7:27 pm
Location: Standish-Ericsson

Ward 9

Postby twincitizen » April 10th, 2013, 3:03 pm


PhilmerPhil
Moderator
Posts: 1064
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 11:38 am
Location: SOUP: SOuth UPtown

Re: Ward 9

Postby PhilmerPhil » April 10th, 2013, 8:35 pm

Tim Springer stands out to me so far as being the most forward thinking when it comes to urbanism. One of the fathers of the Midtown Greenway gets him huge bonus points in my book. He has a Streets.MN podcast that was just posted--I'm looking forward to checking that out.

Online
twincitizen
Moderator
Posts: 6368
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 7:27 pm
Location: Standish-Ericsson

Re: Ward 9

Postby twincitizen » May 8th, 2013, 10:03 pm

I attended part of a Ward 9 debate/forum tonight at the behest of a friend. All I can say is holy crap, we are screwed. Most of these candidates are pretty weak. Ty Moore (socialist/Green-endorsed/Occupy Homes guy) kicked the 5 DFL candidates' butts, and I'm not remotely a socialist. Heck, I'm probably a little to the right of most Minneapolis DFL'ers, on fiscal issues anyways. These candidates were almost universally terrible. Alondra Cano has the benefit of being connected to other DFLers, carrying the endorsement of Robert Lilligren and others. When asked a question, most of her answers missed the point and turned into some flowery story about studying abroad. She's also basically a one issue candidate-- social/immigrant justice. Tim Springer might be the "urbanist" but he was kind of unprofessional and couldn't wipe the silly smile off his face even when talking about pretty weighty issues. He is like cartoon character level flaming. The rest were fairly unimpressive and unprofessional, unable to succinctly and directly answer questions or even present the illusion that they were remotely qualified for this job. I may not agree with Moore's far left wing politics, but he can talk the talk and seemed like he could actually handle the job of being a city councilperson.

Charles Curtis actually impressed me, but I don't think he has the backing/organization to win this. He created his Facebook page in late March. Cano, Hill, Springer, etc all have roots or connections within the DFL or a history of activism that are going to make it tough for Curtis to catch up, even though he is clearly smarter and better spoken than his competition. Then again, he has a really stupid porn moustache.

P.S. Not a single one of the male candidates wore a tie or sportcoat. Ty Moore was the only one to even wear a shirt buttoned all the way up. Then again, you could have worn a garbage bag and looked more presentable than most of the crowd.

mattaudio
Stone Arch Bridge
Posts: 7752
Joined: June 19th, 2012, 2:04 pm
Location: NORI: NOrth of RIchfield

Re: Ward 9

Postby mattaudio » May 9th, 2013, 7:21 am

No Republican candidate running in Ward 9?

User avatar
woofner
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1242
Joined: June 1st, 2012, 10:04 am

Re: Ward 9

Postby woofner » May 9th, 2013, 9:39 am

The rest were fairly unimpressive and unprofessional, unable to succinctly and directly answer questions or even present the illusion that they were remotely qualified for this job.
Welcome to local politics. The council chamber can be good practice - can't expect them to speak like a presidential frontrunner right off the bat.

At the local level a socialist likely wouldn't govern very differently from a DFLer. Ed Felien spent all his time ranting about municipal ownership of utilities and now the DFL council is exploring that (just in time for the collapse of the utility business model). Frankly the City could use more of a union voice in management - can't be worse than whatever greyhair floated to the top of their department's bureaucracy.
"Who rescued whom!"

MNdible
is great.
Posts: 5989
Joined: June 8th, 2012, 8:14 pm
Location: Minneapolis

Re: Ward 9

Postby MNdible » May 9th, 2013, 10:06 am

Frankly the City could use more of a union voice in management...
Really? I'm generally pro-union, but I think nothing is more embarrassing than having local politicians utterly beholden to AFSCME "negotiating" contracts with AFSCME. Same thing at the School Board.

ECtransplant
US Bank Plaza
Posts: 711
Joined: June 1st, 2012, 9:56 am

Re: Ward 9

Postby ECtransplant » May 9th, 2013, 1:16 pm

The police union has most local and state politicians in their pocket

User avatar
woofner
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1242
Joined: June 1st, 2012, 10:04 am

Re: Ward 9

Postby woofner » May 9th, 2013, 9:17 pm

I thought I shouldn't respond to this on the computer provided by my employer with whom I have an AFSCME contract.
nothing is more embarrassing than having local politicians utterly beholden to AFSCME "negotiating" contracts with AFSCME
I don't think that the council or school board actually dig too deeply into the union contracts very often, actually. They are negotiated by an exempt staffer and/or a consultant typically, and presented to the governing board for approval. Typically it's a thumbs up/down thing, and while I'm not saying it's totally clean, I don't think this is the big source of contract bloat related to unions. I would say it is rather due to a) the government always paying too much for everything, thereby obscuring the fact that they pay too much for labor (this is thanks to the cultural norm that fleecing the government is morally acceptable) and b) keynesian policies (which I support) causing government expansion rather than contraction in recessionary times, throwing their labor inflation out of whack with the rest of the economy.

But what I was actually referring to was having union representatives involved in operations management, i.e. the German model. Frankly because of the float to the top nature of bureaucracies, it seems like a low-risk place to try it, and the unique apathy/incompetence of management in municipal departments makes it uniquely high-yield.
"Who rescued whom!"

Online
twincitizen
Moderator
Posts: 6368
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 7:27 pm
Location: Standish-Ericsson

Re: Ward 9

Postby twincitizen » September 23rd, 2013, 7:09 pm

Strib (somewhat surprisingly) covered a recent debate: http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 20422.html

User avatar
woofner
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1242
Joined: June 1st, 2012, 10:04 am

Re: Ward 9

Postby woofner » November 8th, 2013, 11:42 am

Cano in 9!

http://vote.minneapolismn.gov/results/2 ... tabulation

Moore would have been great - he's really knowledgeable about housing thanks to his foreclosure activism - but Cano is definitely on the left side of the DFL at least.
"Who rescued whom!"

Online
twincitizen
Moderator
Posts: 6368
Joined: May 31st, 2012, 7:27 pm
Location: Standish-Ericsson

Re: Ward 9

Postby twincitizen » November 8th, 2013, 12:14 pm

Just 230 votes short of a Socialist councilmember. If Cano does anything to tick off the neighborhood or just isn't that effective, I could see Ty Moore making another run in 2017.


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests