Ward 10 Endorsement: Lisa Bender

Nobody should be surprised I’m endorsing Lisa Bender. I agree with her on just about everything (even though I’m still shaking my fist at the Great Downzoning of 2016!). As someone who bikes, walks, and takes transit, I’m grateful for all that she’s done to make Ward 10 a safer place to travel. 
Bender is solidly on the City Council’s progressive wing in fighting for pro-worker policies and police reform. She leads the way on housing, towards a city that’s affordable for everyone. She’s a tireless advocate for street designs that serve people and neighborhoods, rather than just speeding cars.
What makes Lisa Bender the most exceptional member of the Minneapolis City Council: she’s incredibly knowledgeable, relentlessly productive, and completely transparent about her agenda. I’m constantly impressed by her willingness to do and say the right thing, sometimes at the risk of her own popularity. It’s a rare quality in an elected official; Lisa Bender isn’t trying to thread the needle of public opinion, she’s trying to do things that work for the most people, even the ones who don’t reliably vote.
Lisa Bender has my strongest possible endorsement. Minneapolis is lucky to have her.

Ward 3 Endorsement: Steve Fletcher

I saw Steve Fletcher compete for the DFL nomination earlier this spring. He won on the first ballot at the Ward 3 convention, as the candidate of the left. Before the emergence of Ginger Jentzen’s campaign, it seemed like Fletcher would glide easily to an election victory in November.

My first impression of Fletcher, based on his bio, was as an activist; but when you hear him talk, he has the ease of a policy wonk. I was not surprised to hear him say all the right things on police reform and worker’s rights. I was pleasantly surprised to hear him talk about building a transportation that serves people who bike, walk, and take transit. While Fletcher is no full-blown YIMBY, I consider him an ally. He readily acknowledges that market-rate housing is a necessary part of the solution on affordability. He has my strong first choice endorsement. I’m very confident he’ll be an effective council member.
Because of the successful campaign of Ginger Jentzen, the conversation in Ward 3 has been dominated by discussion of developers and rent control. My position has always been that, while developers are often rich assholes, that doesn’t mean building a bunch of new housing isn’t a net benefit to the cause of housing affordability (obligatory caveat: that’s not to say it’s the only thing we need to be doing, just that it’s a necessary part of the solution).
Jentzen’s campaign has raised a record-breaking amount of money with a message focused on rent control and the idea that new market-rate housing (built with no public subsidy) is the problem. It’s mostly working out pretty well for her. It’s popular! But it’s still not a set of policies that work the way people hope.
I still like Fletcher’s chances, but I think he’s become a victim of circumstance, caught up in the improbable rise of a talented opponent who’s become a sudden national cause. If you don’t believe me when I tell you Fletcher is well to the left of current Ward 3 council member Jacob Frey, just look at Fletcher’s fundraising. The usual big-donor suspects refuse to support him. Despite being a smart, amiable, DFL-endorsed candidate, Fletcher’s getting badly out-raised from the left. And now there’s a well-funded (though longshot) Republican candidate charging in from the right, with the aid of big business.
I have no preference between Samantha Pree-Stinson and Ginger Jentzen for second and third choice, but I’d encourage you to use every line on your ballot. Please leave Ward 3 Republican candidate Tim Bildsoe off your ballot entirely (yes, he’s an actual Republican pretending to be DFL).

Minneapolis politicians attend protest march comparing bikes to Nazis

“Nazi Lane” signs dripping with fake blood (photo: Shane Morin)

Minneapolis election season has collided with backlash to a pair of bike lanes recently installed on 26th and 28th streets. Previous negative reaction to those lanes has mainly consisted of Facebook posts, a never-ending thread of commentary on the Nextdoor website, and Jon Tevlin of the Star Tribune fanning the flames. Today the bikelash became an actual real-life protest with signs reading “Nazi Lanes,” “Mafia Lanes,” and “Suck It Lanes.”

One important thing to know is that the idea for this protest began on social media as a hoax, but became very real after spreading to credulous bike-haters on Facebook. The Facebook event was created by internet hoax artist Jeremy Piatt (known for creating the GoFundMe for Kanye West that was picked up by major national news outlets).

By all accounts, organizer Jeremy Piatt didn’t show up to the protest. But here’s who did show up to march against bikes: two candidates for City Council, David Schorn (Ward 10) and Joe Kovacs (Ward 7); and former Ward 10 City Council member Meg Tuthill; and let’s not forget the group of people carrying “Nazi Lane” signs dripping with red paint intended to look like blood.

The anti-bike marchers began by walking in the newly installed bike lane on 26th Street, east from Hennepin to Lyndale Ave. They then walked in the bike lane, west on 28th Street. Observers on social media remarked how fortunate they were to find refuge from cars in the bike lanes.

Former Ward 10 City Council member Meg Tuthill (left, in sunglasses).
City Council candidates David Schorn & Joe Kovacs (right, on sidewalk).

— Franklin Sayre (@mysnuggle) October 14, 2017

> Drivers freak out about bike lanes
> Fake bike lane protest organized online as joke
> Conservatives actually show up w/“Nazi Lanes” signs https://t.co/bgKkIxW34M

— Tony Webster (@webster) October 14, 2017

Cannot fathom the fucking nerve to carry a sign that looks like it’s dripping with blood. Car violence IS killing PEOPLE. That’s real blood https://t.co/ahJWb5l3qr

— Ella Rasp (@ella_enroute) October 14, 2017

Do you think the irony that a nazi killed a woman with a car and not a bike in #Charlottesville is lost on them?

— Heartsapian (@Heartsapian) October 14, 2017

The anti-bike protest was followed a few hours later by an event billed as a “Bike Lane Party” attended by a few dozen residents, including current Ward 10 City Council member Lisa Bender. Bender advocates for policies that create safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists, and has been the target of criticism from bike lane opponents on social media.

Lisa Bender’s opponents in Ward 10 include: David Schorn, who was at today’s “Nazi Lane” protest; Saralyn Romanishan, who is fond of comparing city government to Hitler/Isis/ethnic cleansing; and Bruce Lundeen, the Republican candidate who made racist remarks at a recent candidate forum.

Counter protest “Bike Lane Party.” Lotta bikes. No offensive signage. @lisabendermpls is here. pic.twitter.com/g7WRJWXPVS

— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) October 14, 2017

Downtown business interests pay for mailers supporting conservative city council members

[Post updated with additional waves of mailers sent on behalf of conservative city council members aligned with Barb Johnson. See this post to read how the group funding these mailers has aligned with the right-wing PAC that helped flip the Minnesota House and Senate from the DFL to Republicans. Minneapolis Works is supporting a slate of candidates that includes incumbents Lisa Goodman, Council President Barb Johnson, Blong Yang, Kevin Reich, John Quincy; and challengers Tim Bildsoe (an actual Republican), and Mohamed Farah.]
There’s a political fund called “Minneapolis Works!” sending mailers supporting Ward 7 incumbent Lisa Goodman [and a bunch of other candidates, as indicated above]. On both sides of the mailer, a diverse collection of disembodied thumbs can be seen endorsing Lisa Goodman as the “proven progressive.”

The group had raised $12,000 at the end of August. Funding was provided by the Downtown Council ($1,000); Steve Cramer, President and CEO of the Downtown Council ($500); developer Steve Minn ($5,000) and wife Lucille Minn ($5,000); and Jonathan Weinhagen, the President and CEO of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce ($500). Based on the large volume of advertising from Minneapolis Works in the last half of October, future finance reports will show a much larger fundraising haul.

[Update 10/21: We now know this group is soliciting corporate checks through an alliance with a right-wing PAC called the Minnesota Jobs Coalition.]

Send your tips/pictures to newsroom@wedgelive.com if you happen to see advertising from Minneapolis Works!

UPDATE: more mailers from Minneapolis Works: Barb Johnson in Ward 4, Kevin Reich in Ward 1 and John Quincy in Ward 11.

UPDATE: Round 2 of Minneapolis Works mailers (arriving October 19th/20th). Lisa Goodman, the pretend progressive; Kevin Reich and the stock image diversity 🌍 children; Tim Bildsoe, who was a Republican city council member in Plymouth until 2014, is labeled a “proven progressive”; and John Quincy, famous for doing nothing, is the progressive who gets things done.

October 25: Attack mailers from Minneapolis Works! start arriving.
October 27 update:

Facebook ads begin appearing October 26:

November 1:

Conservative Minneapolis incumbents running scared from democracy

Blong Yang; Barb Johnson; Lisa Goodman

Wards 4 and 5 in Minneapolis are composed of 14 North Side neighborhoods where people of color are the majority. By a wide margin, these wards have the lowest turnout in Minneapolis municipal elections. These wards have also produced two of the most conservative members of the Minneapolis City Council, Barb Johnson and Blong Yang.

Voter turnout in Minneapolis (2013)

One way to boost turnout would be to let people know there’s an election going on and how they can participate. Early voting is happening right now. Election day is less than a month away on November 7. Fortunately, the City of Minneapolis produces and mails a voter guide with some essential voter information. This guide contains basic info, like:

  • date of the election
  • times polls are open
  • how to locate your polling place
  • how to access a sample ballot
  • voter eligibility requirements
  • Minnesota voter bill of rights
  • how to mark a ranked choice ballot

Last Wednesday, Minneapolis City Clerk Casey Carl told the City Council’s Elections Committee that his team gets “more compliments and positive feedback on [the voter guide] than anything else we do.”

But Council President Barb Johnson, who benefits from the fact that so many people of color in Ward 4 don’t vote, responded to the City Clerk’s presentation with this: “I’m glad you got a lot of positives about the voter guide, but I got a lot of negatives.”

Barb continued, “Why are we mailing to every house? And what does that cost? Can you give me a price tag about that? Because, as I say, I got a lot of negative feedback.”

Barb didn’t mention specific details about the negative feedback, or who she’s hearing it from.

The 2013 voter guide produced by the city was “identified in surveys as the single most effect voter outreach tool.” It cost $97,000 to send to every household in Minneapolis.

I’m not sure how Blong Yang feels about voter guides in low-turnout Ward 5, but he’s campaigning in a way that makes me think he needs one mailed to his house, because it’s not clear he understands there’s an election happening right now.

One important thing to remember about Blong Yang is he didn’t begin his term on the Council in a position of strength; he received only 42 percent of first-choice votes in 2013. This election year, instead of trying to expand his coalition, Yang’s strategy has been to run and hide. Naomi Kritzer explains the problem with Blong Yang in 2017:

He didn’t get endorsed at the DFL Ward Convention and has been campaigning in what I can only describe as a completely halfhearted way. He has not shown up for many (any?) of the debate/forum type events. He hasn’t filled out any questionnaires. His events (which you can find on his campaign Facebook page) are few in number and the campaign Facebook page is mostly just announcements of these events. On that grounds alone, I would not vote for him. If someone doesn’t want to be accountable to their constituents during the campaign they certainly aren’t going to be accountable to you after they take office.

Reading Kritzer’s post reminded me of this Public Safety Committee hearing Blong chaired in 2015, where he essentially excluded the general public from an impromptu public hearing, but found a way to make time for Bob Kroll and other invited guests who were hand-picked to give the right kind of testimony. Being a city council person involves facing people who disagree with you, right or wrong; Blong Yang seems to have no stomach for that part of the job. 
Last week, I showed up at a Ward 5 forum to see Blong field questions alongside challengers Jeremiah Ellison and Raeisha Williams. Even though I knew Blong had been avoiding debates, I was pretty confident that, as the lone member of the City Council to vote against a $15 minimum wage, Blong wouldn’t run away from a forum sponsored by the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce; but he wasn’t there. And it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Blong thinks either that he can’t win, or that his candidacy doesn’t stand up to the tiniest bit of scrutiny. This page on MSP Votes has a list of forums and questionnaires Blong Yang has avoided.

Ward 7 features another conservative incumbent, Lisa Goodman, who’s been dodging debates and refusing to answer candidate questionnaires. Now, you might remember that when Goodman finally showed up for a candidate forum a few weeks ago it became an international scandal, as first reported by Wedge LIVE (no joke: Lisa Goodman’s public performance really was horrific enough that it showed up in a UK tabloid).

Ward 7 incumbent Lisa Goodman is hiding from the election.

Goodman has skipped two other recent candidate forums, including one hosted by the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. She has refused to answer questionnaires on housing, transportation, racial justice, and other topics. Goodman did find a way to attend a forum sponsored by the five “lakes area” neighborhood organizations, featuring an audience question that instructed candidates to “restrict their answers to only the five lakes-area neighborhoods” (which tells you a lot about Ward 7 political dynamics).

The overall turnout numbers in Ward 7 are fairly average by Minneapolis standards. But there’s a wide disparity between the high-turnout “lakes area” neighborhoods (40-50%) and low-turnout downtown neighborhoods (15-30%). Lisa Goodman, facing a serious challenger for the first time since she was first elected in 1997, has a base of support that’s made up of those high turnout areas around the lakes.

At the City Council’s Elections Committee hearing where the city’s voter guide was discussed, a very conscientious-sounding Lisa Goodman said she feels “weird” and “awkward” using “city resources” (her e-newsletter) to promote basic info about the election.

But I don’t think an elected official telling people where and when they can vote is all that weird or awkward. What’s really weird and extremely awkward is Lisa Goodman using city resources to promote herself with a six-page color newsletter, printed and mailed to constituents just before the election. According to Ward 7 residents, this newsletter is not something they usually receive.

Goodman also sent 6 page color gatefold newsletter printed, mailed at city expense. Never seen such fanciness in 5+ years in W7.

— Resolve.Action.Love (@Snowman55403) September 30, 2017

Received my Ward 7 newsletter yesterday. Every four years like clockwork! pic.twitter.com/dQCqwKlIvV

— Conquistador Jones (@devomase) September 26, 2017

Lisa Goodman mailed Mother of All Franked pieces 6 wks b4 election. She send 4-color pieces other times? City return address; taxpayer dime. pic.twitter.com/6rdVknr4VF
— David Brauer (@dbrauer) September 27, 2017

So you should vote this year. A good rule of thumb is to vote against the people who are running away from this election, afraid that more people might vote.

Ward 10 candidate forum overrun by zany, unprepared challengers

Ward 10 incumbent Lisa Bender puts hands to her face in disbelief

Tuesday night’s Ward 10 forum got weird when Republican candidate Bruce Lundeen opened his mouth.

Lundeen said that non-profits are the “path to the urban plantation, which is basically what we keep up in north Minneapolis.”
“If you’re a black man, you need to try and get a good job,” Lundeen said. “You need to imagine that.”

Lundeen continued: “I don’t even see any… very few blacks here. They don’t even bother to come to hear this chatter anymore.”

Lundeen then pointed towards the back of the room, at incumbent Ward 10 city council member Lisa Bender’s policy aide Ron Harris, who is black. Lundeen said, “ok, there’s one…. I wonder if you agree with what I say.”
“Not at all,” Harris replied. “Continue.”

Bender placed her hands over her head during the exchange.

In other news, candidate David Schorn (who readers of this blog might remember as the history teacher whose knowledge of history includes misremembered urban legends) was asked about inclusionary zoning, which is the practice of requiring or encouraging affordable units in new market-rate housing.
In one of his finest moments of the campaign so far, Schorn admitted he didn’t know what inclusionary zoning was. Lisa Bender even commended him for admitting a lack of knowledge instead of faking his way through an answer.
However, in one of Schorn’s worst moments of the campaign so far, he showed up to a city council candidate forum on housing without knowing anything about inclusionary zoning, which is one of the most commonly discussed concepts in housing politics.

It’s important to remember that Schorn is running a campaign that’s largely a series of complaints about Bender’s housing policies, blaming Bender for the cost of housing, while demanding stricter parking mandates (Schorn’s preferred parking policies would drive up the cost of housing).

Schorn got into his usual routine of “vacancy rate trutherism.” In rebutting the idea that housing is expensive because there isn’t enough of it, Schorn claimed that landlords are faking low vacancy rates in order to charge higher rents. Schorn said this theory is based on his personal experience as the resident of a luxury apartment building in Uptown.
Candidate Saralyn Romanishan had a somewhat forgettable forum performance. But I did find her advocating for cutting the estate tax in her Make Homes Happen candidate questionnaire (Make Homes Happen was the forum host):
The estate tax exemption in Minnesota is $2.1 million for 2017. There isn’t a single home in the Wedge that would be reasonably valued at much more than $1 million. Romanishan’s estate tax cut idea would benefit only the very rich. It seems like an idea that Republican candidate Bruce Lundeen might be willing to co-sponsor.
Three Ward 10 neighborhood organizations are planning another candidate forum on October 17. Because it will be hosted by neighborhood organizations, this forum has the chance to be infinitely weirder.

Lisa Goodman puts gum from her mouth into opponent’s hand at Ward 7 forum

At some point, far into the future, when I give talks to classrooms full of aspiring journalists, I will tell them you miss 100% of the weird stories you don’t show up for. That’s why you go to all the neighborhood meetings, all the zoning hearings, and every candidate forum.

You go to a Ward 7 city council candidate forum at a big fancy church on Hennepin Avenue to break a once-in-a-lifetime story that a not-so-clever person might call Gumghazi.

(What you’re about to read is the biggest Wedge LIVE scoop since Deflate-gate.)

Multiple eyewitness accounts and the pictures below show that Lisa Goodman placed chewing gum from her mouth into the hand of one of her opponents. Poor guy thought when Goodman said “take my gum” that she was offering a nicely wrapped piece of unchewed gum. Live and learn. The unlucky political neophyte, Teqen Zéa-Aida, won’t fall for the old gum trick again. Experience matters. (Read Teqen’s account here.)

Photo credit: Canin Apriori

Meg Tuthill works the room 
Former Ward 10 city council member, Meg Tuthill—who is a Goodman supporter—walked around the room before the candidate forum, doing some persuasion work. Tuthill interrogated a couple of sweet, innocent older ladies about who they were supporting and why. The innocent older ladies said they were supporting Goodman’s other opponent Janne Flisrand.

My close encounter with Lisa Goodman (Kingpin Wedge “El Chapo” LIVÉ escapes Mexican prison once again)

Here’s another Real-Life Story from the Ward 7 Candidate Forum. After it was all over (after all the gum had been chewed and spit out into other people’s hands), I stood up and began talking to the tall, handsome man I was seated next to during the 90-minute forum. To my great terror, Lisa Goodman approaches us and asks the tall man, “are you John?” Clearly she was confusing one tall handsome man for another.

Lucky for me, Lisa Goodman had her sights locked on my friend, convinced that this was the “John” she was looking for. But he was not John. I am John. And at that moment, John (me) was making his escape.

My thinking was, if the first thing on Lisa Goodman’s mind after a grueling 90-minute candidate forum is “John” then something has gone terribly wrong.

The tall man will have my everlasting gratitude because he did not waver. He is brave. A normal person would have looked in my direction when asked, “are you John?” A coward would have given me up to the authorities. But the Tall Man looked Lisa Goodman square in the eyes and said “no.” With a convincingly perplexed expression on his face, he gave the impression he had never met anyone named “John” in his entire life.

I believe the Tall Man is tall and handsome and brave enough to play Wedge LIVE in the movie version. In the movie he (I) will say, “So you must be Lisa Goodman… We meet at last.”

Later I spoke with the Tall Man about the incident. He says he was scolded for taking video of the forum (because I guess taking weird videos of city council members slapping a wet wad of chewed-up gum into their political opponent’s hand seems like a thing Wedge LIVE would do). Lisa Goodman said to the Tall Man that she thought video recordings were maybe a violation of the candidate forum rules. In addition to being tall and handsome and loyal and brave, Tall Man thinks that city council candidate forum rules don’t apply to him. Tall Man is a rebel. Sorry ladies, he’s not single.

[Show Lisa Goodman that WE ARE ALL WEDGE LIVE, by wearing official Wedge LIVE team apparel.]

Election 2017 Calendar

We’re going to try to track Minneapolis candidate forums and other key election-related dates on this calendar. You’ll also see a sidebar calendar on the desktop version of the site. I’m asking readers and campaigns to help track down anything we’ve missed: contact us via Twitter or send an email to newsroom@wedgelive.com.


It’s not your imagination—*not driving* is still way harder than driving in Minneapolis.

It’s no accident that not driving is still the hardest way to get around Minneapolis. More than half a century’s worth of decisions by local officials have led to a city designed primarily to serve automobile traffic. This has created neighborhood streets that inconvenience and threaten the safety of anyone not traveling in a car. It’s a destructive trend that, despite recent victories on bike lanes and parking reform, hasn’t yet reversed itself.

Alex Cecchini, an expert who has written smart things for streets.mn, thinks we could be doing more to make not driving easier: “On one hand, biking and transit are easier and less scary than your regular suburban commuter assumes. On the other, it really is way more complicated and shitty than it needs to be.”

Biking / transit require more physical activity than driving, interrupting the planned atrophy of my muscles.

— Jeff (@j3effcSTP) September 3, 2017


Too Many Cars, Not Enough Buses

Whittier resident Mike Beck says local buses are crowded and don’t come frequently enough. On the way home from his son’s football game, he says, “the bus was so crowded, I had to stand.” And when he attempted to transfer to a second bus, the wait was so long he decided to walk 13 blocks home.

Residents like Sam Jones of Stevens Square place some of the blame on the sheer number of cars clogging city streets. After a long train ride from Chicago, Jones says he was deprived of a bus ride home by “suburban dad traffic” that jammed downtown streets following the conclusion of a teen-oriented pop concert.

He says he waited for an hour in the rain, “even though there are four routes that directly connect my neighborhood to the Hennepin LRT station, three of them high frequency.”

Saturday standing on the 5. This is my not-driving horror story. @StarTribune pic.twitter.com/CuLSAlCINx

— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) September 9, 2017

Rising Costs

Not only is sharing road space with cars a major inconvenience and potentially dangerous, but it can also be costly, as Adam Miller found out when “a car backed into me in the Portland bike lane and I had to walk to [the bike shop] for a new front wheel.”

For bike commuter Nicky of Elliot Park, a lack of secure bike parking means their transportation costs are on the rise, in the form of repairs and replacement parts.

They describe having to “lift my bike up off the sidewalk about 3 feet to lock it to the fence every single day. I have to use 2 locks, because my front wheel got stolen from this insecure location a few months ago, so I lock the frame and rear with one u-lock, and the front to the frame with a second u-lock. And, it’s not covered, so my components are rusting fast thanks to our increasing rainfall levels.”

Cost will soon rise for transit riders as well, with Metro Transit set to increase fares by 25 cents on Oct. 1, with no increase in service. This is due to the GOP-controlled state legislature’s refusal to fund transit at an adequate level.

Concerns for Safety and Comfort

In addition to the usual safety concerns a person might have walking, biking or taking transit–including from drivers distracted by cell phones or from streets designed as high-speed thoroughfares–non-drivers also contend with aggressive behavior and outright harassment on their commutes.

“People have shouted slurs at me numerous times walking,” says Ryan Johnson of Prospect Park.

“Pretty sure I was about to get assaulted once in Northeast, but the bus arrived at the right time,” he said. “Things like that make me prefer to bike so I can GTFO fast, but then obviously, no escaping assholes in trucks. My former roommate had numerous experiences where drivers would road rage and shout slurs because he didn’t seem straight enough while biking.”

Perhaps more disturbing than street harassment is the mental anguish I have personally experienced reading comments on the nextdoor website from people pretending that a new bike lane has delayed their car trip by 30 minutes.

Rider comments via Transit App show not-driving is harder than it should be

Misplaced Priorities

With all the danger, discomfort and inconvenience they face on their commutes, non-drivers sometimes laugh at the parking concerns like those of a suburban lawyer who’d rather drive to work downtown than take an express bus. He makes this choice even though not driving would cut his parking expenses by $1,500 annually and get him to work in the same amount of time. Most city-dwelling transit riders would be fortunate to have a bus commute anywhere near as speedy as a car trip.

Noted guy in the Wedge, John Edwards, who is writing this blog post right now, asks, “Why exactly should a car get to live downtown rent-free for a year? We seem to understand that real estate has value as a place for people or businesses, but too many people think land stops having value the moment someone wants to park a car on it.”

Some residents make arguments that because biking or transit is harder than driving, we should double down on the automobile-centered design of our city. This only perpetuates the problems, says Edwards, guy who has read the comments on the nextdoor website (editor’s note: I am John Edwards).

“People say we should forget bike lanes that make it safer for people to commute by bike because it feels like their commute might be slower,” Edwards observed. “They point to a lack of adequate transit as the reason we should layer our cities with as much free parking as possible, instead of pushing for policies that make better transit viable. This is largely concern-trolling from comfortable people averse to small changes.”

Considering (1) the hazard cars pose to people and the environment; (2) the cost that free parking adds to the price of housing and other things we buy; and (3) the opportunity cost of land we dedicate to parking not serving some other, more productive use; driving remains embarrassingly cheap and easy.


If you believe in the kind of journalism where a reporter isn’t afraid to quote himself in his own story, support Wedge LIVE! on Patreon.

The mayor’s race is a false flag

It’s pretty sad that you care about this llama dressed as a biker more than you care about the city council election.

I wrote a whole thing about the mayor’s race, and I hope you didn’t read it. Don’t let establishment media figures like myself use the mayoral sideshow to distract you from what matters in 2017. I’m here to tell you: the mayor’s race is a false flag.

MAYORAL UPDATE: Carol Becker’s dumb lawsuit against Mayor Hodges goes up in flames; Carol Becker declares victory, says “Judge agrees with me.”

City council races are by far the most consequential elections happening in Minneapolis this year. Minneapolis has a weak mayor system. The biggest thing at stake this year is whether we return in 2018 with Team Barb running the council. There’s a vast difference between a council majority led by a President Barb vs a President Bender (to use a wildly random example).

What you do as an individual over the next two months matters. Here’s why. There were only 3,621 ballots cast in Ward 5 in 2013 (the lowest turnout in Minneapolis). How many voters can you bring to the polls by volunteering for the next two months? Easily enough to tip the balance, even in higher turnout wards.

City council elections are hyperlocal battles: neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, person by person. Pick a competitive city council race to volunteer for—right now—while there’s still time to make a difference. If your city council ward isn’t competitive, find a candidate in another ward to volunteer for/donate to. (Find your ward here)

Below is a list of campaigns in pivotal “swing” wards. The incumbents in these wards all pledged allegiance to Barb after the 2013 election.

Where to Help in 2017

Ward 1 (5,942 ballots cast in 2013)
Incumbent: Kevin Reich 👎👎👎👎
Bio: Tool of Barb.

Challengers
Jillia Pessenda: website / volunteer / donate
John Hayden: website / volunteer / donate

Ward 4 (3,940 ballots cast in 2013)
Incumbent: Barb Johnson 👎👎👎👎👎
Bio: Council President; thinks garage apartments cause prostitution.

Challengers
Phillipe Cunningham: website / volunteer / donate
Stephanie Gasca: website / volunteer / donate

Ward 5 (3,621 ballots cast in 2013)
Incumbent: Blong Yang 👎👎👎👎
Bio: Endless whining; seems to hate his job; pretending to be DFL.

Challengers
Jeremiah Ellison: website / volunteer / donate
Raeisha Williams: website / volunteer / donate

Ward 7 (6,594 ballots cast in 2013)
Incumbent: Lisa Goodman 👎👎👎👎👎
Bio: Stands against all that is good.

Challengers
Janne Flisrand: website / volunteer / donate
Teqen Zea-Aida: website / volunteer / donate

Ward 11 (7,494 ballots cast in 2013)
Incumbent: John Quincy 👎👎👎
Bio: Finger in the wind.

Challengers
Erica Mauter: website / volunteer / donate
Jeremy Schroeder: website / volunteer / donate

INCUMBENT RANKINGS
👎 – Not Great
👎👎 – Oof
👎👎👎 – Bad
👎👎👎👎 – Pretty Bad
👎👎👎👎👎 – The Worst

FAQ: Are you endorsing these challengers? These are not endorsements; these are only ideas for where your volunteer time or donations could be prioritized if you are so inclined. (You are welcome to spend your time volunteering for Barb or Lisa Goodman. But I can’t find links that would allow a regular person to volunteer for Barb or Lisa Goodman.)

FAQ: Shouldn’t we focus energy on one challenger per ward? Ranked choice voting is a thing! Splitting the vote between a few challengers doesn’t automatically accrue to the benefit of an incumbent.

FAQ: I still don’t know which candidate to help. Send me a DM or email, and I will help guide you to the right candidate.

FAQ: Where can I find a complete list of candidates on the ballot in Minneapolis this year? Right here.

FAQ: How do I donate to Barb? I refuse to help Barb pay for her cable TV, internet, landline and cell phone service by linking to her donate page.

FAQ: Is it true that Wedge LIVE is conducting a write-in campaign against Carol Becker? Yes it’s true! Instead of voting for Carol Becker, please write in “Wedge LIVE” on your ballot for Board of Estimate and Taxation.

Register to vote.

Key dates:

Early voting starts September 22.
Election day is November 7.

Upcoming city council candidate forums:
Ward 1: Sept 13
Ward 3: Sept 6 / Sept 18
Ward 4: Sept 14 / Oct 3
Ward 7: Sept 6 / Sept 19 / Sept 25 / Sept 28
Ward 8: Oct 4
Ward 9: Sept 9 / Sept 19
Ward 11: Sept 21