Sunday STrib slams Mpls gov't

[GAspnes]

I was a taken aback by the concerted attack on the Minneapolis City Council and general governmental structure published in the STrib today. (http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5118124.html, under the more general Opinion Page rubric "Who's in Charge?")

As a life-long city resident with only brief stays in Roseville and Vadnais Heights, I'm not quite sure how to react to the criticisms. I've always preferred complex, slow-moving government -- there tends to be more input to the process, and more compromise. The suggestion that Minneapolis needs a weakened City Council and a strengthened mayor to serve as "... a single spokesman who can talk for it" is particularly reprehensible in my view. Minneapolis doesn't have a single voice, no large organization does, and I worry about voices being lost with the implementation of a 'single spokesman'.

My contact with city government over the years has been slight, so I'm starting from a position of ignorance. Does anyone here work for the city or have experiences that I can learn from?

[FredStembottom]

1. Cyclical?

I haven't read the piece, yet but as a 20-year Mpls. resident I can recall a fairly cyclical argument against Minneapolis' "weak-mayor/strong council" system. About every 8 years someone gets his/her undies in a bunch about the "slowness" of such a system. I will admit to a little ruminating on my part in the past on the glamor a "strong" mayor might provide the city. But that was when I was younger. Reality is: I want my say in the city government and I want you to have yours and my neighbor to have his. And the current system seems to do just that. Is it slower and messier this way? It sure is...God Bless us, Everyone.

[Krupskaya]

2. The democratic a democracy is...

...the messier it is. It's an inherently messy system, for better or for worse.

[GettysbergII]

6. Spoken like e true MN Democrat

Garrison would be pround of you.;)

[DFLforever]

3. The kind of mayoral system they want is the kind St Paul has

which is why our mayors are so frequently in the news...for better or worse.

I've lived in both cities and it seems it's both easier to get things done over here and to impact decisions.

[CatholicEdHead]

4. Of course they switch parties

As Normy did and Kelly is getting close with his recent backing of Bush.

[DFLforever]

5. Well, St Paul was the D in the DFL

when the Farmer Labor party merged with the corrupt and reactionary rump Democratic party located mainly in St Paul. Too bad political culture doesn't change more quickly.