The Local Scene -- Endgame

The election in New Brighton is tomorrow. I honestly have no idea what will happen. For the better part of a dozen years, the dynamic in the New Brighton City Council has been Gina Bauman vs. the Machine. For a few years, I wrote for a blog called Truth vs. the Machine. The underlying premise of that blog was to detail how Republican candidates had to fight against the political machine that is the DFL. The guy who ran the blog, Gary Miller, has long since left conservative politics and is now something of a anarcho-capitalist, which historically are not two great tastes that taste great together, but back then he was on to an important notion -- the left is machine-like, especially in Minnesota.

The way the dynamic plays out in New Brighton has been fairly predictable. The key player in New Brighton isn't anyone in elected office, but rather the city manager, Dean Lotter. Lotter, like most city managers, wants to ensure he has all the money he wants to pursue whatever agenda he deems necessary, so his goal is to find citizens who will serve in municipal government as rubber stamps. There's nothing particularly unusual about this dynamic; you see it in a lot of suburban enclaves. For the past dozen years, Gina has refused the ceremonial role and has been digging into how things are run. She asks tough questions and often challenges the prerogatives of the city government and its employees. Not surprisingly, these folks dislike Bauman for it.

The other politicians who serve on the city council are lefties for the most part. The mayor, Val Johnson, is very nice as long as you agree with her, but if you don't, she gets nasty and personal in a hurry. I posted the video of her outburst at a recent city council work session last week, but a repeat seems in order:





While Val Johnson isn't running against Bauman directly, that's the actual dynamic involved. The other members of the council include Brian Strub, who shares a similar mindset to Johnson (with more emotional control). He is not running for reelection. The machine has its candidates, Graeme Allen and Emily Dunsworth, who if elected would ensure that Dean Lotter's life would be much easier. Bauman is running as part of a de facto opposition slate, along with Susan Erickson and Sharon Doffing, who is Johnson's actual opponent. If elected, Doffing and Erickson would shake things up. The other two members of the city council, Mary Burg and Paul Jacobsen, aren't up for election in this cycle, but both have grown comfortable being Lotter's pal.

If I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, the machine is set to prevail this time. While Mayor Johnson's behavior has raised a few eyebrows, most of her supporters see the world the way she does and don't mind it much if she calls people racists without justification. It adds a little flavor to the stew and makes them feel better about living in Trumpland. Bauman has fought this machine for over a decade and deserves a chance to continue the fight. I hope she gets it. And further, I hope she gets some reinforcements in Erickson and Doffing. The city is a better place if we don't let it run on autopilot.

Point of order

Regarding the Philando Castile case, I have two questions that I would hope an enterprising reporter might ask:

Q1. The police scanner audio we've heard indicates that the St. Anthony cops who stopped Castile were on the lookout for an armed robbery suspect who held up a gas station in nearby Lauderdale, one of the other small communities that contracts with the SAPD for law enforcement. This security camera picture shows the robber in action:

Who is this man?

Are the local police still on the lookout for the perpetrator of this robbery? If they are, it would be good to know, because we don't want armed robbery suspects out on the streets.

Q2. Does the gun this robber is holding match the gun that Castile had at the time Officers Yanez and Kauser stopped him? That would also be good to know.

Post 5000

This is the 5000th post on Mr. Dilettante's Neighborhood. We've been at this for over ten years. It's a lot of blogging.

My original tagline for the feature was "a befuddled suburban dad tries to make sense of the world." Ten years on, the world makes even less sense. I've made my peace with befuddlement.

It's easy, too easy, to fret, to live the words of a certain musician I fancy, recorded way back in 1971:

Hang ups, let downs
Bad breaks, set backs
Natural fact is
I can't pay my taxes
Oh, make me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands
Yea, it makes me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands
Crime is increasing
Trigger happy policing
Panic is spreading
God knows where we're heading

God does know. And while this feature has been, from time to time, an exercise in hollering, and while the issues that Marvin Gaye sang about some 45 years ago persist, we can't throw up our hands.

Ten years ago, I was in the process of losing my job. I had two young children and we weren't quite sure what would come next. Now I know. A commenter wrote something back then:

Better things are in store for you. Stay encouraged.

And indeed, better things were in store. And yes, better things will come. Stay encouraged.

Weekend

A few random observations.

• I really, really, really, really, truly, completely, really, absolutely hate the FAFSA. Filling it out is a great way to destroy an afternoon.
• I'm apparently supposed to have an opinion on Cam Newton, who will be much in the news this week as he prepares for the Super Bowl. I don't like him, but I will say he's an amazing guy to watch. For me, the problem isn't about his showboating or his braggadocio; for the most part, he backs it up, so it's on his opposition to stop him. He's always had the lingering stench of scandal following him since his remarkable year at Auburn, though, and that's difficult to forget, or forgive.
• We had a shooting and a police standoff in our neighborhood on Friday night, apparently related to a drug deal gone bad, which took place about two blocks away from our house. We've lived in this neighborhood for nearly 20 years and nothing like that has ever happened before. We also were in the middle of having Fearless Maria's Sweet 16 birthday extravaganza while things were going down. As it happened, we were having dinner at a local Chinese restaurant when the incident started and as we returned home with Maria and 11 of her friends, we had to get past a police roadblock to reach our home. There was never any danger, although the unfailingly polite New Brighton police officer who was manning the roadblock on our street told us to stay put in our house until things were resolved. Not exactly how you draw things up, but the kids all had a good time.
• Apparently the huge, massive, deadly snowstorm that we've been hearing about for the past week is going to mostly miss us and hit Iowa instead. Personally, I think they've suffered enough.

The Joy of Lakeville

It's the city vs. suburb thing again, this time in the pages of the Star Tribune:

I’m always disappointed that my urban acquaintances know very little of the suburbs surrounding their city. But I’m never more disappointed than when urbanites spout clichéd opinions about suburban living.

Not long ago a Facebook friend posted her feelings on the blandness of the suburbs, positing on the beige-ness of every house, the only difference in color being “beige, taupe, buff, butter, mushroom, ecru, linen and bone.” And she pronounced all of them ugly. I must admit, the statement really hurt. I happen to live in a beige house.

So forgive me if I sound defensive when I say that I live in the suburbs and I love my community, cream-colored houses and all.

The writer of this piece lives in Lakeville, a big outer ring suburb. I live in the suburbs as well, but am inside the 494/694 loop. And I can see it both ways.

There's no question that there's a lot of sameness in suburbia -- if you drive down France Avenue in Edina one day and Metcalf Avenue in Overland Park, Kansas, the next, you'd not notice any significant differences. I lived in the Chicago area years ago and keeping track of the suburbs there was a chore. Were you in Oak Park, Forest Park, Park Forest, River Forest, Riverside, Oak Brook, Oakbrook Terrace, Lake Forest? Hard to know without a GPS.

At the same time, there's nothing especially unique about Grand Avenue in St. Paul, either -- you can find similar districts in a lot of cities. Gentrification inevitably brings Restoration Hardware to the area.

I couldn't wait to get out of my hometown, Appleton, Wisconsin, when I was a kid. Nowadays the west side of Appleton might as well be Roseville. Do you enjoy where you live? I hope you do. Enjoy your town and your tribe.