Minneapolis Park Watch

Sandy Colvin Roy, Brent Perry, Charley Underwood and Rick Nyhlen In Minneapolis’ southeast corner, all candidates for the city council share concerns about saving small businesses and keeping big developers in check. But beyond this agreement, the three candidates vying for the seat now held by Sandy Colvin Roy offer distinct choices for Ward 12 voters. Brent Perry is running with the backing of Socialist Action , “a nation-wide group of revolutionary socialists.” “Capitalism has failed,

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DFLer John Quincy (top) is running for retiring council member Scott Benson's seat (below). Photos unavailable for candidates Gregg Iverson, David Alvarado. With the announcement that two-term City Council member Scott Benson would be retiring later this year, Minneapolis’ southernmost ward became one of only three in the city to have open seats. Three candidates — two DFLers and one Republican — are vying to represent Ward Eleven, which encompasses much of the Diamond Lake area. “Given tha

Minneapolis City Hall. Photo: Wikipedia A handful of financial reports from Minneapolis political committees and candidates remain as imaginary as the just-pretend primary election that made them mandatory more than two weeks ago. The reports are supposed to let voters know who is putting money into political funds, how the committees are spending their money, and how much money they have on hand. The size of individual candidates’ purses is kept in check by donation limits, but greater q

Minneapolis City Hall. Photo: Hennepin Co. Library Although Minneapolis held no primary election this year, candidates for city office still had to file “pre-primary” campaign-finance reports under a new ordinance passed this summer. Yet for two weeks after the Sept. 8 deadline, confusion and other delays kept dozens of candidate and political committee reports from reaching the public. The city’s adoption of instant-runoff voting (IRV) did away with the separate primary election in early

St. Paul set the standard at last year’s Republican National Convention for dealing with protesters and reporters during a so-called “National Special Security Event.” That Minnesota hotdish of pre-emptive detention and prior (physical) restraint on the media is getting re-warmed as Pittsburgh prepares to host the G-20 Summit later this week, writes Nigel Parry at the RNC ‘08 Report. Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning … ST. PAUL : Gov. Pawlenty’s stance on climate-change contin

If states’ rights include opting out of a public option in federal health care reform, they apparently don’t include the right to deal with  droughts and deluges on your own. On Tuesday, Gov. Pawlenty sent a letter to the federal government asking for help with six soggy counties up north. If only state government didn’t regularly dip into its rainy-day fund to balance budgets, we might save the cost of postage and ignominy of begging to the feds. ST. PAUL : Tom Emmer pays sign fine . But

Ward Six contenders Laura Jean, Michael Tupper and Andy Exley (bottom left) are joining forces to defeat Robert Lilligren (top right). Not pictured: Mahamed Cali and Bruce Lundeen In 2005, Ward Six was the most tightly contested city council race in Minneapolis. Owing to redistricting it pitted two incumbents — Robert Lilligren and Dean Zimmerman — against each other. The race was further complicated by the fact that Zimmerman, a popular veteran Green Party activist, was facing a federal indi

Photo: Chris Steller, Minnesota Independent Proponents of amending the Minneapolis charter by referendum this fall say they’ll appeal a judge’s decision today to keep the measure off the November ballot. They had hoped to afford the city’s quasi-independent park and recreation board greater autonomy in raising tax levies.  Campaign manager Justin Fay told the Minnesota Independent that the judge’s ruling effectively shuts the amendment effort out of this year’s city elections. A deadline

Gov. Pawlenty will be speaking to citizens all day long today as he travels around the state … of Virginia. He didn’t cancel his trip to campaign there for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell despite the  howling of critics ever since excerpts surfaced from McDonnell’s 1989 academic thesis ( pdf ) revealing his preference for retrograde social policies (laws should favor married couples over “cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators,” working moms are “detrimental”). They’re like

Photo: Chris Steller, Minnesota Independent Lawyers for each side called the other’s case “absurd” in a court hearing Thursday into whether the Minneapolis City Council was out of line when it denied a place on the November ballot to a charter amendment that would make the city’s park board more independent. Referendum backers say greater autonomy to levy taxes would get the parks off a path to financial — and possibly existential — ruin. Others (notably an 11-member majority of the cit

Photo: Chris Steller, Minnesota Independent A battle royale within Minneapolis government escalated Friday when the park board’s lawyer, acting on behalf of a citizens’ group, filed a lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis. The suit asks a judge to force the city council to allow a referendum on the November ballot that, if passed, would give the park board new tax-levying autonomy. Attorney Brian Rice took his case to Hennepin County District Court ( pdf ) only hours after the city coun

Gov. Pawlenty recalls taking comfort at the 2008 Minnesota State Fair after U.S. Sen. John McCain’s campaign for president left him high and dry in Denver. They’d sent him to do TV interviews at Barack Obama’s nominating convention, but pulled the plug on that at noon. The Star Tribune’s Rachel E. Stassen-Berger charts how a year ago the stars failed to align for T-Paw, who had “deduced” he wouldn’t be McCain’s VP pick but “ wasn’t particularly disappointed .” Elsewhere in Minnesota news this

“ Panel tells DNR moose hunting should be allowed .” Other news media also cover a new report from Minnesota’s Moose Advisory Committee to the state Department of Natural Resources, but only the Star Tribune’s headline hinted at the potential gallows humor in a  Palinesque death panel for Minnesota’s biggest mammals. The committee proposes a moose harvest (sorry, Bullwinkle ) whenever annual aerial population surveys (sorry, Rep. Bachmann ) tally 100 cows for every 67 bulls. In setting a th

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The Minneapolis Police and Fire departments aren't the only agencies threatened with budget cuts. The Minneapolis Park Board is seeking downright independence via a Charter Amendment they hope to get on the November ballot. I don't live in Minneapolis, but I'm all for it. It's that rare exception where I'd be willing to pay for a better Minneapolis. Not a lot, but it shouldn't take a lot, either. The Minneapolis Park system is easily, far and away the best in Minnesota and many other states

First of all, an admin note: yesterday’s post on signature drinks is now officially my favorite post. If you haven’t weighed in yet, hop over there and do so , and if you have – your suggestions were AWESOME. And I have a lot of drinking to do. Ok… onward, to your regularly scheduled programming: [Maude Armatage] was a guiding light and driving force in helping Minneapolis to come of age in the 20th century. She was born in 1870 to a family who owned a farm on what is now the entire A