By Susan Lenfestey
Susan Lenfestey is a Hill & Lake Press founder and board member. She lives in Lowry Hill.
November 5th brought no good news to our country, or the world or the planet.
When MAGA Republicans lose an election, they blame others. “Massive fraud, crooked poll workers, rigged machines!” When Democrats lose, they blame themselves.
They hold a wake to talk about the what the deceased should have done to avoid being run over, and don’t mention that a car was going 65 mph on the sidewalk.
This is not the America I was lucky to be born into, where the belief was instilled in us that together we could use education to overcome ignorance, vaccines to overcome deadly disease, laws to overcome brutal racism, regulations to overcome poisoning our planet, and a Peace Corps to extend an open hand to the world instead of a fist.
We went to the moon to boost our national pride and not a billionaire’s ego.
Starting under Reagan, we’ve seen the belief in FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society slowly chipped away and replaced by the right-wing belief that people deserve to fail, that government is the enemy, and that unfettered capitalism is the answer.
Despite getting no credit for it, President Biden did more for workers and for the planet than any president in decades. And now the president-elect and his degenerate cronies are gleefully planning to take a wrecking ball to anything that’s left of those programs.
We know that those with the least will suffer the most. But how will others get through?
Those of us who are buffered by circumstances that may protect our homes from being broken, but not our hearts. Or the youngest among us who will have to pick up the pieces.
I’m contemplating downing a draught of hemlock. But first I’m going spend more time in neighborhood bistros, bookstores and businesses that are the mainstay of community.
And I’m going to pay less attention to the right-wing extremists in Washington and more attention to the left-wing extremists on the Minneapolis City Council. Their daffy out of touch priorities and virtue-signaling policies would be laughable if not so damaging to our city.
We can no longer be told that what we are seeing isn’t real, that encampments are not a dangerous burden on those living near them or safe for those living in them, that concrete bunkered bike lanes and painted red bus lanes save lives, reduce carbon and aren’t harmful to businesses, and that we need to police our businesses but not our streets.
Our schools are facing an $84 million deficit, Hennepin County has a $30 million gap in its proposed 2025 human services budget, and the proposed city budget calls for a tax increase of 8.1% in 2025 and another 9.8% in 2026.
We can be a city with a heart, but also one with a brain. We need healthy businesses to provide livelihoods for people and to pay taxes for the social programs and oversight boards this council is so eager to fund.
We may be the happiest city in America, but we are still a city in crisis.
We need experienced leadership on the council to address the serious issues facing our city and not policies in foreign affairs. People who can collaborate and debate without overwrought oratory.
There is a municipal election in 2025, and precinct caucuses will be held on April 8. Caucuses determine which delegates go on to the ward and city endorsing conventions.
In our one-party city, the candidate who gets the most supporters to show up at a caucus has a very good shot at winning in the general election.
Never been to your precinct caucus? This is a critical year to start and to show up.
Environmental journalist Bill McKibben was once asked where people should live in the coming climate crisis. He replied, “Wherever you have a strong community.”
I believe that. It will be impossible to ignore our national bloodbath for the next four years, but this old bean plans to focus on the issues closer to home with whatever snap I still have left.
That includes working to replace the ideological far-left members of the City Council with reasonable and responsive adults. If we don’t, we’ll only have ourselves to blame.
Nicely written, Susan. I might idealistically agree with some of the aims of the current City Council but realistically and pragmatically they are failing to understand how their policies and head-in-the-sand attitudes towards the prevalence of petty and violent crime, negative impacts to the businesses that support the city and make it livable, and their failure to proactively address homelessness and other social issues are causing great harm to an otherwise wonderful city, and by extension, the entire metro area. I really hope Minneapolis voters re-examine their choices for governance in the next election. The national political scene is scary enough, let’s get it right in our own communities.
Ms Lenfestey hits on a lot of my own observations of the ongoing idiocy that surrounds all levels of the current Minneapolis government functions. There are more configurations of street lines, parking, and bus only lanes – while the roads and sidewalks deteriorate. Our parks are lauded as superior – but are largely unkept and overgrown. The City Council is 3rd rate with surrounding cities have a vastly superior version of reasonable adults. The constant bickering between the Mayor, Clown Show, City Attorney, and Police Chief – doesn’t generate confidence – it creates a clear picture of a city in decline. I worry that 30% property tax increase in 4-5 years will drive away the people willing to live, buy and purchase in the city – we need to keep in mind they fund all the programs, social services, and salaries of the largeness of the city.
A friend recently wrote me sounding warning alarms about something the incoming administration was up to. This is what I wrote back to them:
“I know there’s a lot of stuff going on on the national stage and the international world. I’m frankly more worried about the Communists taking over my city, county, and state. Oh I’m sorry socialists 😉”
Sounds like on this we are in wild agreement!