•••
Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne’s latest commentary offers a good illustration of his mindset and that of his progressive allies on the council (“This city doesn’t have a strong mayor, it has strong donors,” Strib Voices, March 7). To him, Mayor Jacob Frey, the Chamber of Commerce and the large-donor super PACs amount to a malevolent capitalist cabal — focused only on their own profits and power. Minneapolis residents and voters — who elected Frey and voted for the “strong mayor” revisions to the city charter — are merely passive dupes of that cabal’s relentless propaganda.
I am a resident and taxpayer in Minneapolis. The political messaging of the Chamber and the PACs has exactly zero influence on my opinion. I throw their mailers (and most others) in the trash, unread; I don’t watch TV advertising. I merely try to follow factual information, via standard journalism and neighborly conversation.
My view is that the progressive wing of the council actually hobbles progress, due to their own jaundiced view of the mayor, city administration and the role of commerce and industry in Minneapolis. This view has led to constant bickering and roadblocks in city government — whether it’s over the George Floyd Square stagnation saga, the status of the Third Precinct police station, the reform and revamping of the Minneapolis Police Department, etc., etc. Instead of seeking practical measures to improve Minneapolis, they play political games: shadowboxing with the mayor and filling the Minnesota Star Tribune’s editorial pages with pretentious diatribes, such as this latest blast from the council president.
Give your politics a rest, progressive true-believers. Get real. Do the job that you were elected to do. Try taking some basic, practical, low-key measures, working with others, in order to maintain and improve our city.
Henry Gould, Minneapolis
•••