Readers Write: Minneapolis City Council, International Women’s Day protests

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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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

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In his recent opinion piece dated March 7, Payne asserted that it is the progressive majority of our City Council that best understands and represents our communities and city. He seems to imply that pragmatic, centrist voters who feel that their voices and perspectives are being ignored have been duped by what Payne calls corporate-backed super PACs and “wealthy elites.”

I believe that the majority of Minneapolis residents have grown tired of this divisive, ideology-driven narrative where leaders vilify people and groups according to their demographics, like economic status. It is demeaning and arrogant to assume that residents who disagree with you can’t actually think for themselves or are being manipulated by outsiders. It does nothing to promote constructive dialogue and bring people together.

As a longtime Minneapolis resident and current Minneapolis Park Board commissioner for District 4, I believe many in my community are not aligned with the agenda of Payne and our current City Council majority. We elect our local leaders to manage our city in an inspiring, functioning and collaborative way. Represent your constituents, get things done and focus on the core key services of our city. I have been a part of this type of authentic leadership at the Park Board, and am now responding to voices in our community to run for City Council this year. We can do better!

Elizabeth Shaffer, Minneapolis

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Payne’s message is amusing at best and deeply divisive at worst. He labels Minneapolis as “a progressive city” and any opposition to the council’s efforts as a cabal of “wealthy elites” who will “hand pick” the next City Council and remove any checks on “executive power,” meaning the current mayor. Say what? This highhanded, I-know-better-than-you approach by the majority of our City Council’s Democratic Socialists is exactly why we lost the presidency and have a dysfunctional city government. They consider the Chamber of Commerce an opponent to be ignored rather than a knowledgeable constituent with important input to consider.

If the “wealthy elites” he fears were truly running the show, Minneapolis would not have put forth the slate of candidates for or elected the councils of the past decade. The parallels to GOP tropes are alarming. This is not to say Frey is the best mayor ever, but he does his best to deflect the worst of the council’s ideas and reflect everyday reality. I believe most citizens would rather we returned to a more centrist, merely “liberal” approach. Unfortunately, we have had no such candidates on the ballot for a long time, which again counters Payne’s assertions (exceptions like Linea Palmisano are rare).

Despite the council’s regularly exercised veto power, Payne paints the mayor’s office as “the singular executive in control of local government.” Please recall we citizens voted for this check and balance of City Council power. Payne claims the City Council shows ”fiscal discipline” when they have regularly wasted taxpayer funds, reduced the tax base or both at once, like the Hennepin Avenue redesign in Uptown that eliminates driving lanes and parking, which kills taxpaying, job-creating businesses. Or the grandiose 1,256-page (versus St. Paul’s 304), costly and “progressive” 2040 Plan response that shows us the lengths to which our council will go to pad their progressive resumes at taxpayer expense in both dollars and livability. They favor the voices of tiny minorities like a bike lobby that has given us impassable streets with no parking for shoppers, deliveries or residents and are used sparingly whatever the season. Payne’s attempt to create a boogeyman merely reflects his own elitist, socialist efforts at the expense of common sense and the broader common good.

Daniel Patton, Minneapolis

I was very disappointed to read Jennifer DeJournett’s statement in the March 9 article “GOPers pressured to continue town halls.” To quote the article:

“Republicans believe the protests are meant to sow chaos rather than create a dialogue between voters and their representatives. They suspect many of the protesters do not live in the districts where they’ve gathered.

“ ‘They’re not actually even advocating the positions that they care about effectively,’ said Jennifer DeJournett, executive director of the Minnesota Republican Party. ‘It’s sort of manufactured outrage in an area where they don’t even live.’ ”

OK, GOP, show me the proof.

I attend these gatherings. The concerned citizens holding signs and requesting to speak to their congressional representatives are local and reside in my district. At Rep. Brad Finstad’s office in Rochester, they happen on Tuesday or Thursday mornings. Who has time to drive across the state — or from out of state — to attend a one-hour vigil on a weekday morning?

I see my friends, neighbors and colleagues at these events. On International Women’s Day, March 8, over 220 Rochester-area folks gathered for a peaceful protest. Again, I saw dozen of faces and smiles that I knew. These are Finstad’s constituents. They are not outsiders being bussed in or paid to attend.

I would really appreciate it if DeJournett and Republicans could put that urban legend, that tired old misinformation, to rest.

Indivisible, the nonprofit formed by a husband-wife team in 2016, is nonpartisan and has local groups in nearly every American city now because voters started these offshoots. These are local, grassroots movements, just like every other movement in the history of our great nation that has shifted the public discourse and the political landscape. Good luck silencing voters’ voices in a democracy.

Pam Whitfield, Rochester

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I went through the pages of the March 9 edition of the Star Tribune twice, thinking I somehow might have missed your coverage of the International Women’s Day and Trump protest rally that drew thousands of Minnesotans to the State Capitol the day before. I didn’t. There was none. Nothing. Where were you?

Brian McDermott, Minneapolis