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Re: Minneapolis City Council and Park Board Elections 2017

Posted: September 29th, 2017, 1:28 pm
by Blaisdell Greenway
Couple more Park Board forums and events coming up. I'm planning to be at all of these. A few other at-large candidates probably will attend too.

Tuesday 10/3: League of Women Voter's Civic Buzz - Equity in Mpls Parks
5:30-7:30, Black Forest Inn
https://lwvmpls.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... lyer-2.pdf

Thursday 10/5: Parks & Power MPRB Districts 5 (southside) & 6 (southwest) Forum
6-8, MLK Park
https://www.facebook.com/events/143507052920633/

Wednesday 10/11: Citizens for a Loring Community District 4 (uptown/downtown) Forum
6:30-8, Loring Park community center
https://lwvmpls.org/events/event/mpls-p ... t-4-forum/

Friday 10/20: Parks & Power At-Large candidate forum!
6-8 Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Online invitations forthcoming

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 2nd, 2017, 2:58 pm
by Silophant
I am extremely wary of the DFL / Our Revolution candidates for Park Board...something doesn't smell right
Could you expand on that a little bit?

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 2nd, 2017, 3:03 pm
by MNdible
My issue with them is pretty fundamental -- there's no evidence whatsoever that a group called Our Revolution has any interest or inclination to effectively engage with the mundane realities of municipal government.

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 2nd, 2017, 6:21 pm
by phop
Unfortunately, even if you do take issue with an Our Revolution candidate, there aren't really any great alternatives for Park Board At-Large.

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 10:13 pm
by Blaisdell Greenway
At Large Park Board candidate here. I'm not seeing your point about Our Revolution. The candidates are the ones that do the engagement with the mundane realities of municipal government, not them.

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 10:21 pm
by Nick
It’s a weird situation where there are candidates running as very woke for an office that, I dunno, 1,500 Minneapolitans are even aware of? That seems then kind of inherently unwoke. Isn’t the woker play advocating for rolling the park board into the city council, which at least a full percent of eligible voters are aware of?

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 10:32 pm
by Blaisdell Greenway
Out of the 80,000 people that voted in the 2013 cycle, 60,000 voted in the MPRB at-large race. So people know it exists.

An independent Park Board is SO important. Our system is notably unique, and a lot of that comes from our ability to independently buy and sell land. What's missing is commissioners that actually give a shit about the concerns of poor people and how the MPRB can play a role in their lives.

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 10:38 pm
by Nick
People can fill in bubbles easily enough. I think I’d stand by a rough estimate of about 1,500 voters in the city who know who their particular park board commissioner is.

Re: RE: Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 10:38 pm
by David Greene

At Large Park Board candidate here.
Which one?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk


Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 11:01 pm
by Blaisdell Greenway
devinforparks.com

Why does it matter if residents don't know their park commissioner's name? Does anyone know the name of their school board member? The people most affected by our decisions (say, kids or undocumented folk) can't vote to begin with.

These independently elected boards focus on specific, major public assets that deeply affect our daily lives. This extra level of public representation is good for our city as it devolves more power to the people. Again, what's been missing are people willing to take up the Humphrey-Wellstone-Ellison ethos at this level.

The city charter also puts two checks on the Park Board: the Board of Estimate and Taxation and mayoral veto.

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 4th, 2017, 9:06 am
by amiller92
This extra level of public representation is good for our city as it devolves more power to the people.
Except it doesn't. It creates opportunities for eccentric busybodies exercise unaccountable power.

Great people doing public service can overcome that challenge, but that doesn't mean the set up is good. It's a system begging for corruption at worst and at minimum inherent lack of representation.

Heck, I pay attention, and I don't really know who to vote for. I'm likely going to vote for you because you participate here, which is a pretty poor reason if we're being honest with ourselves. For the other two at large I will likely vote for people that other people have told me are good, with again very little understanding beyond that.

I want to vote against my district commissioner, primarily because literally nothing has been done about the intersection of the Parkway and Cedar, which is unsafe and ADA non-compliant and dangerous to use on foot and especially with a stroller, but I don't really think that's fair and/or know anything about any of her challengers. All I really know is that Charlie Casserly is the "save the golf course" candidate, so obviously not him.

Point being, the park board should be abolished because it's next to impossible to actually know what's going on.

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 4th, 2017, 9:18 am
by FISHMANPET
Just because democracy is good doesn't mean that "more democracy" is better.

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 4th, 2017, 12:54 pm
by EOst
Counterpoint: Just because everyone doesn't always pay as much attention as they should doesn't mean "less democracy" is better.

Re: Minneapolis City Council and Park Board Elections 2017

Posted: October 4th, 2017, 2:22 pm
by FISHMANPET
Good thing I didn't say "less democracy" is better! Just pointing out that "more elected officials" is not really subsequent justification for having so many units of government split up.

Re: Minneapolis Mayoral Election 2017

Posted: October 4th, 2017, 3:21 pm
by amiller92
Counterpoint: Just because everyone doesn't always pay as much attention as they should doesn't mean "less democracy" is better.
Sure, it's the voters fault! Nothing to fix here except literally every resident of Minneapolis!

Re: Minneapolis City Council and Park Board Elections 2017

Posted: October 4th, 2017, 3:59 pm
by Anondson
The professionalization of so many layers of government is a design problem that is offputting to many many people. Like complex tech, when the design of something has a high barrier of understanding, tuning out until the design improves is rational.

Eventually we get candidates who promise to simplify government so it can be understood again by average non-specialists.

Re: Minneapolis City Council and Park Board Elections 2017

Posted: October 4th, 2017, 8:10 pm
by mattaudio
Uh, plenty of room for middle ground here. I am thankful for our independent park board more than not. But I also think MPRB should not have responsibility for policing or streets/parkways.

Re: Minneapolis City Council and Park Board Elections 2017

Posted: October 5th, 2017, 8:46 am
by Blaisdell Greenway
Also, as you all have mentioned, as have I, the problem is lack of good candidates!!!!!! That's not the problem this year.

Re: Minneapolis City Council and Park Board Elections 2017

Posted: October 5th, 2017, 8:55 am
by Blaisdell Greenway
The eccentric busybodies currently in charge are pretty furious the new candidates have thought through issues more thoroughly than they ever have. https://www.facebook.com/superdev3/post ... 1026104843

Re: Minneapolis City Council and Park Board Elections 2017

Posted: October 6th, 2017, 10:44 am
by Blaisdell Greenway
Here is a questionnaire by the League of Women Voters about the MPRB race: https://lwvmpls.org/park-board-candidate-questionnaire/

Pretty much all the information you need to make a decision is in there. You can vote for one district candidate and 3 at-large.

Sample ballots are here: http://myballotmn.sos.state.mn.us/