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naomikritzerOne of the things I really like about this race is that FOR ONCE it looks like a bunch of politicians will actually pay a political price for voting for a stadium deal. Most of the City Council reps who voted against it are doing fine. (The exception is Lilligren, but redistricting gave him a very different ward than he'd started with.) Most of the City Council reps who voted for it are on the ropes. (The exception is Don Samuels, who might be doing fine in the mayoral race -- it's hard to know, given that there was only one poll, and I don't think anyone other than Dan Cohen took the results all that seriously.)
So: Ward 3 has another incumbent who voted for the Vikings stadium deal, who didn't get the DFL endorsement and who stayed in the race despite not getting the DFL endorsement. (She apparently managed that a little more smoothly than Meg Tuthill did, but she had said beforehand she'd abide by endorsement, at least on the Stonewall DFL questionnaire.)
Jacob Frey (Democratic-Farmer-Labor)
Diane Hofstede (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) and the incumbent
Kristina Gronquist (Green Party)
Michael Katch (Libertarian)
Jacob Frey
http://www.jacobfreyforourcity.com/
The hazard of putting specifics on your website instead of just vague platitudes is that you'll probably include specifics I don't like. Frey has specifics I like a lot (bike paths! streamlining processes for small businesses! treating homeless people with respect! amenities for families in downtown!) and he has specifics I don't like (streetcars!) and then he has specifics that I have to admit worry me a bit (getting rid of surface parking lots in downtown because they're ugly, or at least requiring people to make surface parking lots a whole lot prettier -- sure, yes, that will definitely improve aesthetics, but I also want to be able to PARK when I go downtown. Although I nearly always head for a parking garage, rather than a surface lot, anyway.)
His endorsements section includes a bunch of City Council members -- basically all the people who voted against the stadium. Apparently a lot of Diane Hofstede's coworkers would like to see her fired.
Jacob is also endorsed by the DFL. Looking up the Stonewall DFL questionnaires over in St. Paul was surprisingly helpful, so I did that here, too. Jacob gives a lot of really good answers, which is not surprising given that he's the organizer of the Big Gay Race (a big fundraiser for marriage equality). He says in the questionnaire, "GLBT Equality is not something I picked up when it became politically expedient to do so. This issue has, for as long as I can remember, been a central tenant of my ideology," and gives details to back that statement up.
I think I like him.
Diane Hofstede
http://dianehofstede.com/index.html
Diane also embraces specifics, and has a bunch of specific accomplishments that sound pretty good, including projects that reduced crime and a bunch of housing developments. On the other hand, there's also the Viking stadium deal, which she sets out to defend. She also tries to defend the decision not to hold a referendum on it. Let me just C&P that bit, because I'm not sure I can entirely do it justice. "Some people are unhappy that there was no ballot referendum. Susan L. Segal is the City Attorney for Minneapolis. She researched the City Charter before there was a vote to determine if the Vikings Stadium required a referendum. In her professional opinion, it did not. Some say that she gave the recommendation that she thought the City wanted to hear. But how would she know what we wanted to hear? We had never taken a vote on it. Ms. Segal is a woman of great integrity and I do not believe she would jeopardize her career for a stadium. I voted to accept her report that a referendum was not necessary. Why not do it anyway? Timing was a problem. Timing of the referendum would have made it extremely difficult to get things prepared for the State legislature, which also needed to act."
...Yeah, I would describe this as specious bullshit. They explicitly overrode the city charter in the stadium bill. They knew that an overwhelming majority of Minneapolis residents wanted a referendum so they could vote no on it, and they didn't hold that referendum to keep that from happening.
She's endorsed by a bunch of old people, several people I don't like very much (like Mark Stenglein) and a few of her coworkers who were, I think, also stadium supporters, including Meg Tuthill.
Her Stonewall DFL questionnaire is frankly pretty hilarious. I think my favorite line is this: "Civil unions and all aspects of equal opportunity are my core beliefs based on the premise that all people are created equal."
I think I like Jacob Frey better than her.
Kristina Gronquist
http://gronquistforcitycouncil.nationbuilder.com/
Her website appears to have a lot of boilerplate from the Minneapolis Greens. If you like the Green boilerplate, you'll probably like it fine: she wants to get rid of the garbage burner, become a "zero waste" city, municipalize the power, support local food growers and food co-ops, etc. If she's your first pick, then by all means put her down as your first pick. I'd strongly encourage you to put Jacob down as your second pick, in that case, as I think he's a much more progressive candidate than Diane.
Michael Katch
http://katch4council.wordpress.com/
So this one is by far the most entertaining.
He has a website suggesting that he ran for Congress in 2012, although I seriously DO NOT REMEMBER HIM. (And it appears I didn't find him listed as a candidate when I wrote about the race. Maybe he put the website together but forgot to actually file?) I guess on one page he says he's "exploring a run" so I guess he didn't file.
For Council, he's running as a Libertarian (and in fact has their endorsement). This despite the fact that he's possibly pro-municipalization ("He believes the voters must choose whether electricity should be a city-owned utility, or should continue to be outsourced to a particular blessed monopoly") and I would expect Libertarians to be firmly against it. He's pro-referendums in general (people should vote on EVERYTHING) which I suppose is not a completely unreasonable approach for a Libertarian, but the thing about a referendum is that it's expensive (and it costs public money) to hold one. He also says, "It was heinous when the Minneapolis City Council gave away our remarkable Libraries, and kept the debt. It was criminal when they sold our parking garages, and kept the debt therefrom, which are still operating privately at a profit, just not for the city." I agree with this (especially re the libraries) but I would really not expect this to be a Libertarian stance. He's firmly anti-stadium, though, so there's that.
Anyway. He seems extremely flaky.
I'd say this is basically a two-and-a-half person race; Michael Katch isn't going to win, Kristina Gronquist probably isn't going to win, and even if one of them is your first choice, you'll need either Diane or Jacob as a fallback. (Heck, even if Kristina Gronquist is #1 and Michael Katch is #2, you get to pick three! Also, I question your commitment to the very concept of a political philosophy, but if you really want to vote whimsically, I'm not going to try to talk you out of it.)
I would vote for Frey. If I lived in Ward 3 I'd probably just mark a vote for Frey and leave it at that.
Election 2013 Index of Posts
So: Ward 3 has another incumbent who voted for the Vikings stadium deal, who didn't get the DFL endorsement and who stayed in the race despite not getting the DFL endorsement. (She apparently managed that a little more smoothly than Meg Tuthill did, but she had said beforehand she'd abide by endorsement, at least on the Stonewall DFL questionnaire.)
Jacob Frey (Democratic-Farmer-Labor)
Diane Hofstede (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) and the incumbent
Kristina Gronquist (Green Party)
Michael Katch (Libertarian)
Jacob Frey
http://www.jacobfreyforourcity.com/
The hazard of putting specifics on your website instead of just vague platitudes is that you'll probably include specifics I don't like. Frey has specifics I like a lot (bike paths! streamlining processes for small businesses! treating homeless people with respect! amenities for families in downtown!) and he has specifics I don't like (streetcars!) and then he has specifics that I have to admit worry me a bit (getting rid of surface parking lots in downtown because they're ugly, or at least requiring people to make surface parking lots a whole lot prettier -- sure, yes, that will definitely improve aesthetics, but I also want to be able to PARK when I go downtown. Although I nearly always head for a parking garage, rather than a surface lot, anyway.)
His endorsements section includes a bunch of City Council members -- basically all the people who voted against the stadium. Apparently a lot of Diane Hofstede's coworkers would like to see her fired.
Jacob is also endorsed by the DFL. Looking up the Stonewall DFL questionnaires over in St. Paul was surprisingly helpful, so I did that here, too. Jacob gives a lot of really good answers, which is not surprising given that he's the organizer of the Big Gay Race (a big fundraiser for marriage equality). He says in the questionnaire, "GLBT Equality is not something I picked up when it became politically expedient to do so. This issue has, for as long as I can remember, been a central tenant of my ideology," and gives details to back that statement up.
I think I like him.
Diane Hofstede
http://dianehofstede.com/index.html
Diane also embraces specifics, and has a bunch of specific accomplishments that sound pretty good, including projects that reduced crime and a bunch of housing developments. On the other hand, there's also the Viking stadium deal, which she sets out to defend. She also tries to defend the decision not to hold a referendum on it. Let me just C&P that bit, because I'm not sure I can entirely do it justice. "Some people are unhappy that there was no ballot referendum. Susan L. Segal is the City Attorney for Minneapolis. She researched the City Charter before there was a vote to determine if the Vikings Stadium required a referendum. In her professional opinion, it did not. Some say that she gave the recommendation that she thought the City wanted to hear. But how would she know what we wanted to hear? We had never taken a vote on it. Ms. Segal is a woman of great integrity and I do not believe she would jeopardize her career for a stadium. I voted to accept her report that a referendum was not necessary. Why not do it anyway? Timing was a problem. Timing of the referendum would have made it extremely difficult to get things prepared for the State legislature, which also needed to act."
...Yeah, I would describe this as specious bullshit. They explicitly overrode the city charter in the stadium bill. They knew that an overwhelming majority of Minneapolis residents wanted a referendum so they could vote no on it, and they didn't hold that referendum to keep that from happening.
She's endorsed by a bunch of old people, several people I don't like very much (like Mark Stenglein) and a few of her coworkers who were, I think, also stadium supporters, including Meg Tuthill.
Her Stonewall DFL questionnaire is frankly pretty hilarious. I think my favorite line is this: "Civil unions and all aspects of equal opportunity are my core beliefs based on the premise that all people are created equal."
I think I like Jacob Frey better than her.
Kristina Gronquist
http://gronquistforcitycouncil.nationbuilder.com/
Her website appears to have a lot of boilerplate from the Minneapolis Greens. If you like the Green boilerplate, you'll probably like it fine: she wants to get rid of the garbage burner, become a "zero waste" city, municipalize the power, support local food growers and food co-ops, etc. If she's your first pick, then by all means put her down as your first pick. I'd strongly encourage you to put Jacob down as your second pick, in that case, as I think he's a much more progressive candidate than Diane.
Michael Katch
http://katch4council.wordpress.com/
So this one is by far the most entertaining.
He has a website suggesting that he ran for Congress in 2012, although I seriously DO NOT REMEMBER HIM. (And it appears I didn't find him listed as a candidate when I wrote about the race. Maybe he put the website together but forgot to actually file?) I guess on one page he says he's "exploring a run" so I guess he didn't file.
For Council, he's running as a Libertarian (and in fact has their endorsement). This despite the fact that he's possibly pro-municipalization ("He believes the voters must choose whether electricity should be a city-owned utility, or should continue to be outsourced to a particular blessed monopoly") and I would expect Libertarians to be firmly against it. He's pro-referendums in general (people should vote on EVERYTHING) which I suppose is not a completely unreasonable approach for a Libertarian, but the thing about a referendum is that it's expensive (and it costs public money) to hold one. He also says, "It was heinous when the Minneapolis City Council gave away our remarkable Libraries, and kept the debt. It was criminal when they sold our parking garages, and kept the debt therefrom, which are still operating privately at a profit, just not for the city." I agree with this (especially re the libraries) but I would really not expect this to be a Libertarian stance. He's firmly anti-stadium, though, so there's that.
Anyway. He seems extremely flaky.
I'd say this is basically a two-and-a-half person race; Michael Katch isn't going to win, Kristina Gronquist probably isn't going to win, and even if one of them is your first choice, you'll need either Diane or Jacob as a fallback. (Heck, even if Kristina Gronquist is #1 and Michael Katch is #2, you get to pick three! Also, I question your commitment to the very concept of a political philosophy, but if you really want to vote whimsically, I'm not going to try to talk you out of it.)
I would vote for Frey. If I lived in Ward 3 I'd probably just mark a vote for Frey and leave it at that.
Election 2013 Index of Posts
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no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 05:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 05:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 05:27 am (UTC)I wondered what party he was in in 2012, because the Congressional website doesn't say.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-31 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-31 06:56 pm (UTC)The library deal I paid a bit more attention to. This was partly the result of LGA cuts; Minneapolis was in a budget crisis, some of the smaller libraries were going to have to close, and hours were going to be cut way back. (All the libraries in town were closed on Mondays.) So they essentially handed over the entire system to Hennepin County, which did fund them enough to reopen some of them on Mondays (and Central on Sundays, IIRC).
However:
* They don't actually fund them enough to operate properly. I made the mistake a few times of sending a book to the Lake Street library to pick up -- they didn't actually have enough staff to shelve the books that had been requested on the pickup shelves, so they were in an unsorted mess in rolling racks. The last time I did this, even though I'd gotten the "ready for pickup" e-mail, the book wasn't anywhere that I could get at it -- it was still behind the "staff only" door. I had to find a librarian, which is HARD since they embraced the "wandering librarian" model, get his attention, which was hard because the available librarian acted like he hated all the patrons (the "wandering librarian" model is really hard on the staff) and convince him to go look for the book (which he had a hard time finding since it was on an unsorted shelf of miscellaneous books that had come in, and unlike me, he didn't have a good mental picture of what he was looking for. Anyway, Lake Street was a mess for a long time and might still be. I got so fed up I switched to the St. Paul system well before I actually moved to St. Paul.
* They are apparently fond of the "wandering librarian" model of library operations. This is the approach where you don't give librarians a desk or anywhere to sit down, and instead expect them to roam around the library offering to help people find stuff. The probably is that most people who are browsing for books don't WANT to be interrupted. Instead, if they actually need help finding stuff, they want the librarian to be in a predictable spot where they can find them. It creates an environment of stress and exhaustion for the library staff and you know, stressed, exhausted people are not friendly, helpful people even aside from "how am I supposed to find the librarian when I need her if she's wandering around instead of staying at a desk."
* The Central Library used to act partly as an archive for certain kinds of materials. When HCLIB took over, they dumped a whole lot of stuff.
* They implemented fines on children's materials. They're not huge fines, but here's the thing, children tend to check out a LOT more books at one go than grownups do, especially when they're at the picture book stage -- if you have 50 books checked out and it's a 5 cents/day fine and you keep them for an extra day, that's $2.50, just like that.
(to be continued)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-01 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-02 03:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-05 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-31 06:56 pm (UTC)When I objected to the implementation of fines on children's materials, I was told that HCLIB had hired a consultant that had expressed concern about their "stewardship" and that implementing fines on children's material was all about "stewardship." When I expressed concern about kids from low-income families who might be unable to easily get themselves to the library and who also might have a hard time paying fines, I was dismissively assured by the woman running East Lake that they would "work with" kids in that situation.
So. Okay. Regarding "stewardship," the libraries across Minneapolis quite some time back implemented a self-checkout system to save on staffing costs. In 99.9% of cases, no one is paying close attention to which books you scan (at Central, I have been asked for a look at my receipt and had a security guard count the books in my bag to see if they matched, but nowhere else, ever, have I had this happen or seen it happen to someone else.) So they're clearly not even remotely worried about people just STEALING the books, but by golly those parents of preschoolers had damn well pay their overdue fines!
And regarding "working with" kids, I actually observed this same woman at East Lake interact with a Somali girl a few months later; this was a girl who'd racked up a substantial fine by losing something, I think. The woman was scornful, condescending, and nasty, and her version of "working with" this teenager was that if the girl wanted to pay it back a little at a time, eventually she would have paid it off and she'd be able to check out books again! I think it's possible she was also allowed to check out one book at a time in the meantime.
(I want to note that this was actually the second-most-shockingly-awful treatment of a patron I've seen at East Lake. The most jaw-dropping incident ever involved a mother and a child with cancer. I mean, he was visibly seriously ill, he had lost about half his hair, he was wearing a respiratory mask to avoid germ exposure, and she had an ID showing that she was temporarily residing at the Ronald McDonald House over by Minneapolis Children's. She explained that her son was missing a lot of school due to his medical treatment and she was hoping to check out some books from the library to help him keep up. And she had an ID to get in and out of the RMHouse but obviously she didn't have a MN Driver's License or utility bill. This netted an exasperated sigh, some rolled eyes, and a final, grudging willingness to let him check out two books and have a library card sent to the RMHouse address.)
Libraries DO NOT HAVE TO OPERATE THIS WAY.
In St. Paul, they still don't charge fines on children's material (although you will get billed if you never return something). They also sponsor regular "read-downs" for teens, where teenagers can come in, sign in with a librarian, and have $1 in fines erased for every 15 minutes they read. (They did a read-down for adults at some point in the last year where you could get your fines erased either for reading, or for reading to a child.) They have enough staffing to put the books more or less where they're supposed to be, and the librarians are not completely fried by their jobs.
Fundamentally libraries should recognize that they have a role in helping the people in the worst situations. Yes, one of their missions is to provide books to the stable and comfortable middle-class people. But their most important mission is to provide books (and literacy help and Internet and the rest) to the people on the very button rung, because they don't have any other way to get this stuff. Sometimes, yes, that means losing books and not being compensated for it. That's frustrating but it's life. It is more important that we get books into the hands of people who really need them than that we carefully steward the collection. Because THAT IS WHAT A PUBLIC LIBRARY IS FOR.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-06 07:51 pm (UTC)