Mayor gets praised by woman he beat
Boy would that make a good headline, huh? Well, Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown did get an endorsement this week from former mayor Pat Owens, who Brown beat in the 2000 election.
The reason this is is Owens knows what Brown has been through because she's been there herself. In 2000, she was the City Hall insider whom Brown blamed, more or less, for the problems that came with flood recovery. Today, Brown is the insider blamed, more or less, for undefined inefficiencies at City Hall.
After he got into office, Brown realized he was wrong about Owens. The city wasn't as broken as he thought. This is a story he's told me a few times even before this latest election cycle.
It's actually a story I've heard from City Council members, too. When some of the current members came in with Brown in 2000, they were extremely suspicious of city employees. The two sides aren't necessarily buddy-buddy now but the council members have learned to delegate and not micromanage.
So it's understandable that Owens does what her predecessors did for her back in 2000: she endorses the incumbent.
This sort of thing resonates with me because, as a reporter, I so often hear complaints from people that are simply misplaced.
Sometimes the complaints are directed at me. Why won't I report the tax subsidies that go to the Alerus Center? Well, I do, but not all the time. Voters approved the subsidies. Why make a big stink about it?
Sometimes the complaints are directed at the city. Why are property taxes so high? Maybe it's because the school district collects half that amount and it has to because everybody wants small classroom sizes. The city only collects a quarter of the total.
Don't get me wrong. When people complain taxes are high. Well, they are. Taxes go up higher than wages. Who wouldn't groan? When people complain about public officials being out of touch. Well, they can be.
But you always have to take what political newcomers say with a grain of salt. They may change their tune when they find themselves before the TV cameras and the press making crucial votes. They may find themselves studying the issues as they never have before and coming to different conclusions. They may find themselves becoming political insiders who shake their heads when the outsiders complain.
Of course, the Brown administration is different from the Owens administration. Everybody's got different priorities. But it's a lot more like the Owens administration than it's like the administration that Brown thought it would be before he took office.
In a way, I don't really care who wins the mayoral race. Mayor Mike McNamara or Mayor Larry Humble probably won't make any drastic cuts to services, which means that there won't be any drastic cuts to property taxes. The city's priorities in certain matters may shift but not by a whole lot. Governments operate within a lot of constraints: Voter expectations, interest groups, state requirements, available funding, internal divisions.
Every once in a while, somebody will say, can't the city just freeze property values for a while so taxes won't hurt so much? That's a no-no under state law. Can't we cut X service? The people getting X service will make a fuss and the City Council will take their side. Can't we give use more sales tax dollars for property tax relief? Businesses will make dire predictions if you take from economic development and a lot of people will agree with them. Take too much from special events funding and people are going to be unhappy when there aren't any fireworks for Fourth of July.
Elected officials tend to learn a lot of these things as they spend more time in office.
Blast from the past
Below is a story I pulled from the archives. It's about the three former mayors endorsing Pat Owens. Pretty funny stuff.
Grand Forks Herald (ND)
June 10, 2000
Edition: FINAL
Section: C-LOCAL/OBIT
Page: 02Column: MAYORAL RACE
EX-MAYORS FALL INTO OWENS' CAMP
Author: Dan Curry, Herald Staff WriterArticle Text:
Three former Grand Forks mayors have endorsed incumbent candidate Pat Owens for Tuesday's mayoral election.
HUGO MAGNUSON, MICHAEL POLOVITZ AND H.C. BUD WESSMAN HAVE CHOSEN TO BACK OWENS, WHO IS IN THE RACE WITH MICHAEL BROWN AND ELIOT GLASSHEIM.
I don't think this is a good time to be changing at the top, said Wessman, who is now a federal administrative judge for the Medicare Provider Reimbursement Review Board in Baltimore.
The city's leadership should maintain continuity from flood disaster to full recovery, he said.
Brown would be a stronger candidate if he had leadership experience in the public sector, Wessman said.
Physicians, with all due respect, are sort of in command of the ship all of the time, Wessman said. They don't tend to listen to their people - that's their training.
The mayor's job is not something in which you can simply delegate.
Team player
As a candidate, Glassheim is a better team player than team leader, Wessman said.
I've known Eliot since he was a pup - he's a good guy, Wessman said. I don't think he has the level of broadness of understanding that (Owens) has.
Former Mayor Magnuson also said that he would like to see Owens win.
Pat Owens has been mayor over a period of much activity and controversy, he wrote in a letter to the Herald. She has proven her ability to handle each situation with applied intelligence, calmness and good judgment.
Polovitz, who could not be reached for comment, endorsed Owens in a June 1 letter to the Herald.
Big picture
Polovitz wrote: It is because of her Big Picture style of leadership that the city has rebounded like it has since the Flood of 1997.
Under her leadership for the next four years, the city will be a Diamond in the Sky within the Midwest.
Owens' leadership has often been criticized concerning her involvement in the controversial Amazon.com deal.
But Owens is easily criticized because she was the person in front of the public, Wessman said.
That Amazon.com thing could have happened to anybody, he said. Any time you try to close a deal in an environment where you need some degree of confidence in being discreet, if the deal goes sour it can look sour.
Copyright (c) 2000 Grand Forks Herald
Record Number: 0006100037
Posted by: Tu-Uyen on 5/15/2008 at 10:31 PM | Comments (5) | Permalink
Back in time for the Near Northside
Update 6:22 p.m. 5/15/08: I got a little push back today from my colleague Kristin who didn't know why I was making the Near Northside Neighborhood out to be like "Dresden after the war." She didn't appreciate what Mark Gerrard had to say apparently.
Kristin and I had a quick chat while we were helping out at the Herald Relay For Life rummage sale (9 a.m. Saturday until 6 p.m., I think. I'll be there almost the whole day. Come buy our stuff.).
I explained to Kristin that she may not realize just how creepy the park by Mark's house is since she doesn't go there. You wouldn't think it just driving by casually but another colleague who lives in the NNN said he wouldn't take his kids there either. In both cases, the comments about the playground were totally unsolicited. So, there's something there.
By the way, the NNN is positively infested with Herald people. I'm there, so's Kristin and two other people I know of.
As I mentioned yesterday -- actually it's Thursday now so two days ago -- there's another effort to revive Grand Forks' Near Northside Neighborhood. The action is taking place this Saturday at the Town House where, one hopes, lots of residents will show up to work on an action plan.
For your viewing pleasure, I worked out a map of the area on Google. Notice how the bulk of the residential area to the north is pretty much devoid of anything that might serve as a community hub.
The sort-of new thinking in neighborhood planning says that neighborhoods are better when residents walk around more. They get to know their neighbors and their neighborhood better that way, creating a strong sense of community. This used to be the norm in the United States before suburbia became the new norm.
In traditional neighborhoods, a lot of day-to-day activities happen within walking distance. The corner store, the school house, the neighborhood park. These serve as hubs that encourage people to walk around.
Suburbia encourages driving by dividing cities into distinct residential and commercial areas. All the stores are clumped together. Schools and parks are further away. So, the only people you know are the guys next door, if they happen to be home when you are.
NNN isn't exactly your typical suburbia. Being the city's oldest neighborhood has its advantages. Don Faulkner, the architect facilitating this weekend's meeting, said he felt the neighborhood's walkability was quite promising.
But there's no real hub, as SuAnne Frasier, the Community Foundation program officer, pointed out. Her group is hosting the meeting with the NNN Association. SuAnne, as you know, is a School Board member so if her work with NNN is anything to go by, the neighborhood's got a good friend in the debate over what to do with Wilder Elementary's declining enrollment.
SuAnne said she thought residents would talk about creating a hub of some kind on Saturday. A big park or a community center are some ideas, she said.
If you go to the map, you'll see some of NNN's features. It's got three corridors -- Fifth and Third Streets and University Avenue -- that can serve as its "Main Streets."
There are some hubs though none are very dominant.
St. Mike's is in a central location but it's a hub only if you're Catholic. There was a public school across the street from the church but it's now an apartment building. The schools are all at the opposite ends of the neighborhood.
Nearby is the gas station and convenience store. It could be kind of a hub but it'd have to offer a little more selection.
A small park is next to the apartment but, as you'll read in the story, it's frequented by homeless people who sometimes sleep overnight. Doesn't matter though because it's way too small. You can't have a community picnic there.
While the Greenway can serve as a big park, there aren't really any amenities within easy walking distance.
Downtown has a lot of hubs but it's way on the south side and, as a downtown resident, I think downtown is its own community. I don't really feel a connection with the folks further north.
Also on the map, you'll notice that NNN is getting a lot of attention. Downtown has the Renaissance Zone, which, I think, continues to make a big difference. The mayor created the Mayor's Urban Neighborhood Initiative last year. Oddly enough there is zero information about it on the city Web site -- I tried a search -- and no mention anywhere on the Web other than reprints of Herald stories. I got some data by calling around. MUNI's responsible for 23 renovation projects so far, which is pretty good considering there are 299 family-owned homes and 93 rental units.
I asked SuAnne how many years she figured it would take to really make a difference. Five to 10, she said.
Readers, how about some ideas for revitalizing the NNN? Anyone want to take a crack?
Posted by: Tu-Uyen on 5/15/2008 at 1:12 AM | Comments (16) | Permalink
Fixing broken windows
I think I got scooped by The Exponent recently. Most people probably would not describe it as that but it is a scoop nevertheless.
As you know, East Grand Forks City Council President Dick Grassel has been complaining for years about them "2,000-pound tulips" that sprout up every spring on lawns and in alleyways all over the city. He's talking about junk cars, of course. When the snow melts, they reveal themselves for the ugly mess that they are.
It's not the most earth-shattering story and I've been content to report it when I hear it at council, which is what I did this time.
Except The Exponent beat me to it. I don't have a copy around at the moment but Karl Lindquist, the former city attorney, wrote the story, I think. The paper ran his story with a picture of an old car that's apparently been sitting in the same place for years. Karl said he couldn't get the thing removed as an eyesore when he was city attorney but after the picture ran, the car was gone.
It's just an old car but he made a difference didn't he? I bet people in that neighborhood were glad The Exponent ran the story.
So the lesson, to me, is the big, fancy cover stories involving weeks of research are great but so are simple stories that makes a big difference in people's lives.
Anyway, I didn't mean to spend so much time on journalistic lessons. I talk about that way too much.
The interesting thing about this issue is the City Council is willing to threaten people with jail time if they leave their junk cars lying around, too long.
This is apparently not new since city attorney Ron Galstad said he's sent several people to jail "half a dozen time" but they still don't give a rip.
So now the city is doing something harder legally, confiscate the junk cars. Private property being well-protected under our legal system, this will take some doing and probably require the city to pay Ron plenty of money to figure it out. Mayor Lynn Stauss figured $5,000 a car!
There were, at last count, 74 junk cars in town. Some have moved since getting warnings from EGF PD but many have not. If the fines and jail time don't do it, confiscation is next.
One argument for spending so much time and money is old cars can be a danger to health because rats will infest them, according to Dick.
I always wonder about this argument since it's not as if the cars are heated. They shouldn't be any more attractive than a tree hollow or hole in the ground. There's no food in those cars either.
The better argument, which Dick also agreed with, is the broken windows theory, which says that if a neighborhood looks run down, pretty soon, it really will be run down. You'll notice in the link above that there's some criticisms of the theory. This is one of the rare times I think the number-crunchers are wrong. It's not that fixing broken windows will directly reduce crime. It's that when people who care about their surroundings feel the neighborhood is going to hell in a handbasket, they move out. People who don't give a rip for one reason or another move in. If people don't give a rip, then they don't care if the meth dealers open shop next door. Then you have crime.
Grand Forks has been trying to attack similar problems for some time, which, I guess, means I better write something about it. I think tried at some point in the past, got bogged down with some big package, and forgot about it. Grand Forks is also working to beautify the Near Northside Neighborhood, which is downtown and areas north of it but south of Gateway Drive.
Posted by: Tu-Uyen on 5/13/2008 at 11:36 PM | Comments (10) | Permalink
Coordination is a four-letter word
Once more the City Beat has neglected the blog. Sorry. I've been tied up coordinating several packages, the word we use when we mean stories, plus graphics and/or photos and/or pull-outs and/or online extras.
As I've mentioned here previously, I think newspapers need to be more creative in presenting information. This is the age of the Internet and giant blocks of grey type isn't going to get us any more subscribers.
The latest project is a voters' guide that tell readers who's running for what and why. They can then circle the candidates they want to vote for, bring our guide with them to the voting booth and feel secure that they're voting for the right people. No doubt voters have done this with the sample ballot for years. My approach is to pack the research and the where-to-vote info in one convenient package.
Sounds easy?
There's the planning, which involves figuring out what we're trying to do, what we need to get it done, who's going to do it and by what time.
There's the question of where to put this guide. I'll spare you the boring details by saying that it's not easy to create a four-page spread when there's so many ads we have to run. Newsprint, ink and people all cost money and we can only go so far in the public service.
Then there's the coordination of multiple reporters -- I cover only City Hall, not the county or Park Board or School Board -- graphic artists, page designers and photographers. Luckily, I only have to coordinate about half of this thing. Pretty much everyone knows what he or she needs to do. But it's still involves a lot running around.
I've got another package running either Thursday or Friday, as well, so I'm doing double the running.
Also, I'm sort of inviting myself to various planning meetings to urge people to quit doing things the same way over and over again.
The rationale behind all this is to put out a better product that people will want to buy. I try not to think about the money part since reporters are supposed to focus on public service not making money. That's for advertising to worry about.
On the flip side, if you're providing a valuable public service, more people should want your product. If they're not, maybe you need to provide a better service. People are really voting with their money.
Posted by: Tu-Uyen on 5/13/2008 at 11:14 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
