[Mpls] My candidacy for mayor

[Fredric Markus]

Wizard has the high ground here and I applaud her incisive commentary. I've
repeatedly warned R.T. in face-to-face conversations and in writing at one
remove here on Minneapolis Issues that the turn away from NRP and the
establishment of CPED were/are recidivist gestures. 

Now I understand why the mayor's campaign was so turgid early on when I
warned that lack of groundwork in my part of town would be a negative thing
when DFL choices were being made. Sure enough, that played out in the city
convention. Well, if the incumbent mayor is playing only to the fertile
crescent - the most prosperous parts of town along the south and west edges
of the city - why bother with the inner-city wards? Why take on
responsibility for all the city of Minneapolis if deep pockets are all that
matter when policy decisions are made?

Have we ever been down this road before! The whole point of NRP from my
perspective was to build on the grassroots initiatives of the 1970s and
1980s. Indeed, by the late 1990s we had a large cadre of informed and
capable neighborhood leadership - not always that representative, but those
who show up are the ones who care. Now the precious few of us who remember
staff stonewalling in the 1970s have lots of companions in the bottom-up
approach to governance in this town. 

When CCP-SAFE came along and even more collaborative capacity emerged, as
has been well established by Wizard and others, we saw a very marked
turnaround in the realm of personal safety and protection of property. 

These were important steps forward and our more prosperous brethren who may
wish to shy away from social responsibility need only watch the horrible
disaster movie now playing on CNN. We have our own slippery slope to
contemplate in re class and race challenges and I don't see the present
mayor acting in accordance with his stated rhetoric. Not a good thing.

Fred Markus, Ward 6, Phillips West