Pothole Update

I received my May Newsletter yesterday from CM Reich, and hallelujah it talks about potholes, and what Minneapolis is doing to fix them.  I'd like to thank CM Reich for voting in the funds to help solve what I'd like to call a crisis.

As you are probably aware, May also brings another month of potholes. Due to specific weather conditions that occurred this past winter, the pothole season is worse than usual this year. In response to the high volume of needed work, the City Council in April approved an additional $500,000 to double the number of repair crews for a 6 to 8 week period this spring.

First Ward residents who want to report potholes now have three options: call 311, go online at www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/311 or call the Ward One office.

So I was wrong, I thought it was a million dollars additional added to the 'pothole fund' but $500,000 is still a pretty nice number.  Doubling the number of crews should mean that I see Industrial Blvd, and Broadway fixed up here soon.  The potholes are actually starting to resemble rock quarries. 

Anyways, you can bet that I've called 311, and I will also be going online to report the potholes.  I'm thinking of maybe taking some pictures as well just to really drive home the point.  Or perhaps I'll just send in the bill I get from the mechanic for an alignment...Nah, I think I'll just keep fightin' the good fight by going through the proper channels, and not pissing anybody off.

Ward 1 Pothole Situation

I can't take it anymore!  This pothole situation has gotten completely out of control.  I've held off posting about this issue for quite awhile, trying to give the city some time to get out and work the miles of roads in our great city before complaining.  I think enough time has been given, and now I'm turning my anger on the individuals that represent the Ward.  Not long ago Mayor Rybak allotted an extra million dollars to be used on pothole repair.  I'm beginning to think that all of that money was used to repair roads in South Minneapolis rather than the East Side.

Maybe my route to work is just the worst in the entire city but I'm beginning to think that I may need to start looking for a Lunar Rover as my next vehicle to maneuver the craters on St. Anthony Pkwy/Industrial Blvd and Broadway.  I have actually seen hubcaps fly off of vehicles as their wheels disappear into a cavernous hole.  The sound of your shocks and struts bottoming out is never a pretty sound, and it is something that I hear on a daily basis.  I can no longer dodge the holes on my route due to the sheer number of them.  I know this isn't the most heavily traveled route in the city but it's getting ridiculous. 

I don't say this very often but I am thrilled when I hop on 280 and cross into St. Paul right now because they have done a fantastic job at filling every pothole, even on the very light traffic roads that I take into work.  I'd like to thank the city of St. Paul for their hard work (even though some news stations would disagree with me).  I'd also like to call out our Councilman, Kevin Reich, and implore him to do something about this situation.  If it would help, I am volunteering to walk behind a tar truck to fill the potholes myself.  I'm sure I could find more than a few volunteers for this activity.  Mr. Reich, would you like to join me?  Help me save our cars!

Ward 1 Convention Observations Part Deux

Kevin Reich's turn...



My first observation of Reich was that he didn't make it to the convention until after most of the delegates had arrived. I figure he either slept in, was very confident of the outcome, or (hopefully) was home making phone calls to delegates.

Reich did a much better job of shaking hands, and meeting with delegates than Howitz Hanna did. His team was fairly well organized with numerous signs, and what appeared to be a good floor plan. I enjoyed the fact that his volunteers had headsets, I'm not sure they were necessary but it at least gave me a good chuckle. I wish somebody would have mentioned to the Reich campaign early on that by having a 3 color scheme they're going to be spending a fortune on signs and lit. I'm a believer of the 'signs can't vote' thinking but also realize you have to have them. Keeping them cheap should always be the goal.

Anyways, I tried finding some video of Reich's speech, answers, or acceptance speech but had no luck in my search. Since I don't have a photographic memory, far from it in fact, I'll have to paraphrase what was said. Please comment if my memory is again fabricating things, and I get some of the paraphrasing wrong. It's also good for you since it means a much shorter post.

Reich's speech was much more organized than Howitz Hanna's, and had more of a conversational feel. He spoke a lot about his grassroots campaigning in both his speech and acceptance speech. He really talked up the success of the small house parties, and how they energized the people, and allowed him to get his platform out to the public. Grassroots campaigning takes an enormous amount of passion and devotion, I just didn't get that out of Reich. He came off almost shy at times, and didn't speak with much emotion. He spoke a lot of bringing job growth to the Ward, and building up areas with green jobs. His points in the speech were on target with what the delegation wanted to hear. Though his plan was right, I didn't hear how he planned to accomplish any of those plans. As was mentioned in the previous post, the next council is going to have a real budget crisis and tough decisions will need to be made. I'm not sure what Reich sees as areas that need to be cut but it will need to be addressed soon. I realize that the 'plans' are probably out there, and I intend on doing a later post about websites and conversations with candidates that I'm sure will address these issues. This is simply observations I made at the convention.

It was a pretty anti-climactic convention, with the outcome becoming fairly obvious after the first ballot. Riech had put together a good team that was able to turn out loyal delegates in masses, and that's the name of the game. Reich's acceptance speech I thought was very good. He accepted the nomination humbly and thanked the people he needed to. He also gave me hope by talking about his plans to be at the summer events around Ward 1, and to connect with his constituents.

Losing an endorsement isn't easy but I walked out of the convention with my head up thinking the delegates had made a good choice with a candidate that would be ready and willing to take on a job that is difficult, time consuming, and stressful...