The Blog Is Back: Keeping a Promise I Never Should Have Made
Last week was especially consuming in the day-job, meaning I had to crank out some amazing, revealing, insightful prose to grace the print edition of City Pages. Sorry it was at the expense of this web log.
Anyway, it wasn’t long ago that I foolishly proclaimed my love for Minneapolis City Council meetings, and promised to run an update every other Monday, following the full council meetings that happen every other Friday.
Well, easier said than done, but I’m a man of my word (and loose lips), so consider this the first of a bi-weekly column, much like the ones written at CP by Britt Robson on the T-Wolves or Brad Zellar on the Twinkies. I’m even thinking about giving it some kind of name, though nothing quite catchy and pithy enough has yet to strike my fancy.
The point is that the city council, rather than being a faceless institution, is made of real people who have personality quirks and belief-systems that are usually pretty interesting. When 12, or soon to be 13 again, of these folks, along with the mayor and various department heads and city staffers, have to work in concert, in public, the result is not unlike watching a live band, or an orchestra, or a sports team. So, my aim is to cover the city council like Zellar and Robson cover the local baseball and basketball franchises.
Having said that, last week was a high-intensity affair at city hall, and there’s too much to get into here. I’ll dish it out piecemeal this week.
Two issues are worth noting right off the bat, though. The council approved a five-year financial plan, which is supposed to address the city’s dire finances. And the council did nothing with an anti-war resolution, something floated, to no avail, by Paul Zerby (Second Ward). The council wouldn’t even hear the resolution at the full council meeting, as council President Paul Ostrow (First Ward) ruled it out of order, and the council backed him on an appeal 7-5.
But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t debate. The real action on the anti-war resolution came on Thursday, during a meeting of the council’s Committee of the Whole. These are ostensibly dress rehearsals, so council members can iron out wrinkles before Friday’s meeting. Tough talk often surfaces on Thursdays.
Last week was no exception. Sandy Colvin Roy (12th Ward), while saying she was against the city weighing in on foreign policy matters, spoke from the heart about her feelings about the war in Iraq. “I met my husband 10 days before he left for Vietnam,” she told her colleagues, literally choking back tears. “So don’t tell me how war can affect people on a personal level.”
Barret Lane, usually reserved to the point of being forlorn, also ratcheted up the rhetoric as council members argued about where the city can—and should—trim costs. Gary Schiff (Ninth Ward) and Dean Zimmermann (Sixth Ward) wondered aloud why the city was looking to keep putting more cops on the streets, when that money could be better used for development. “I don’t see why we need to keep throwing more and more money into police,” Zimmermann argued.
“My neighborhood, the Corcoran neighborhood, on Lake Street, from Cedar to Hiawatha, has the highest rate of prostitution in the city,” Schiff claimed. “We have a plan for that in our neighborhood. We don’t want more police to deal with it. We want development in the neighborhood.”
This spun Lane into exasperation, saying the five-year plan, and discussion surrounding these very issues, had been circulating for some time. “Where is this class-warfare argument coming from?” Lane asked incredulously, saying it was a little late to bring such issues to the table—the council had to act on the plan now. “Do we have no plan or a plan? The legislature is listening.”
The Lane launched into his own class-warfare counterattack, visibly trembling as he spoke, claiming that without some serious budget solutions, "the richest people will leave" Minneapolis. “We cannot serve poor people unless the rich people are willing to pay taxes,” Lane argued. “The people in the 13th ward are willing to do that, but they need to see a plan.”
There are greater implications and nuances with all the players in both of these debates, but that will become more apparent as the week progresses and I write more. Stay tuned.
Finer Point: NJL Flips Her Wig
Just last weekend, I was chatting with the husband of Fifth Ward rep Natalie Johnson Lee about the council member's upcoming trek to Washington, D.C., to give the official Green Party response to the State of The Union address.
“We’re gonna go with the braids on that one,” he said to me.
I understood this to mean that Johnson Lee, who has been known to catch a few eyes around city hall with her impressive collection of wigs, was going to our nation’s Capitol au naturel.
Apparently I was right, and apparently the mood stuck, as Johnson Lee wrapped her Health and Human Services report last week by, um, speaking baldly. “I just want to say, this is my real hair,” Johnson Lee said, shaking her short-braided locks. “Everybody’s been asking me if this is a wig, and no, this is it. This is the real thing.”
1:58:15 PM 
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