[Mpls] RT and "Risky Behavior"

[Greg Abbott]

On Jul 21, 2005, at 7:35 AM, gemgram wrote:

> They [RT's staff] do a great job of running a campaign,

Not this year, at least so far.


> but they suck at running the City.
>

The performance of RT and his staff has been very uneven.  They  
deserve credit for addressing the budget issues, although they've  
dropped the ball on the number one obligation of any elected city  
official - public safety.

The problem with RT is that he's caught between his substantive  
obligations as mayor, and the rather shallow political rhetoric that  
drives his base. This is why RT flip-flops so much.

Take the stadium, for example.  As mayor, he needs to be a player in  
the stadium debate and he can't do that in opposition.  But at the  
same time, RT has to send anti-stadium signals to his base to  
reassure them he's still with them in spirit.

A similar dynamic is at play with the NRP issue.  RT's base wants  
traditional, top-down liberal agenda setting when it comes to  
allocation of NRP resources, but it's quite impolitic to come out and  
oppose decentralized neighborhood decision-making.  The result is  
plenty of pro-neighborhood rhetoric on the surface, but a behind the  
scenes an effort to reallocate both decision-making and resources  
back to City Hall.

The crime issue is a bit different.  It wasn't on the radar for RT's  
base, and consequently he was way too slow in reacting to it.  RT's  
comment about victims of crime engaging in risky behavior did not pop  
out of thin air.  That's the sort of opinion that many well-off,  
south Minneapolis liberals would express themselves.  Isolated from  
the "bad" parts of the city, RT's base sees crime as an abstract  
policy issue, not a short-term public safety issue.

And when RT blames the crime problem on Pawlenty, the Republican  
legislature, and the Bush Administration, he is simply channeling the  
opinions of his supporters.  RT's not entirely wrong - Pawlenty and  
Bush are responsible in part for the present crime problem.  But  
people who are dodging drug dealers and prostitutes on a daily basis  
are not interested in waiting for the next election cycle.  They want  
answers now.

RT's reply to these people -- a dressed up variation of "It's Not My  
Fault" -- just isn't going to cut it.

Greg Abbott
Linden Hills
13th Ward