The Suicide of Saint Paul

Tom Swift gave a Saint Paul history lesson last week:

During the tenure of Norm Coleman we enjoyed unprecedented progress in Saint Paul. Anyone who lives anywhere near W. 7th street cannot deny that Coleman's vision and hard work turned that dingy, moribund thoroughfare into a veritable showpiece of prosperity.

The brownfields that made up the north shores of the Mississippi river recieved the pre-planning that resulted in the rehabilitation and construction that one sees under the Smith Street Bridge. The exodus of the downtown was stopped, construction of unique and eye pleasing condominiums were completed.

And all done while maintaining a budget with a zero percent rate of growth.

Sounds pretty cool, huh?

Of course, the latest Minnesota Poll shows Kelly down by almost forty points in Saint Paul as we head into tomorrow's election. Let's see - we have unprecedented prosperity, a city that's rebounded in many ways from the malaise of the Latimer/Scheibel years (although there's room for improvement), with crime at a fraction of Minneapolis' rate.

No, the biggest problem in Saint Paul has been a public health issue; progressive left-wing Saint Paul DFLers have been dropping dead of coronary arrests from the incessant anger at Norm Coleman and Randy Kelly's apostasy and, by the way, success.

It's been a lousy decade-and-change for Saint Paul's radical left, since they last ran things. Oh, they've controlled the City Council, with a heavy, alpaca-clad hand - but they've been consistently faced down by a couple of strong, principled mayors who ran political rings around them.

Barring a miracle (a miracle I'm praying for), it could be all over tomorrow. And for the "progressives", the Jay Benanav wing of the St. Paul DFL? Swiftee continues:

But the good times are just around the corner for them now.

The city council is filled with just such frustrated socialists who no doubt have reams of special interest projects awaiting black hole funding. The election of Chris Coleman will be greeted with wild approbation from the likes of Progressive Minnesota and it’s spider web network of allies.

Coleman himself is a non-factor.

Chris Coleman is a milquetoast candidate who greeted his departure from the city council two years ago by saying that at least he wouldn’t have to “fake interest, while staying awake” at council meetings.

Hell, now he won’t even have to feign the slightest interest in what happens at those meetings, which is of course what the gang of four are counting on…oh, the party is on.

I’m happy about this because people tend to get comfortable after ten years of prosperity and peace. They’ve forgotten the double digit tax increases of the late 80’s and early 90’s.

A few years of socialist intervention is needed to refresh Saint Paul’s collective memories…and refreshed they will be.

I'm afraid so.

The long, dark night of radical DFL hegemony were lousy years in Saint Paul; Frogtown rivalled North Minneapolis for drugs and violence; University Avenue was a disgrace; downtown was collapsing, West Seventh was undergoing a long and painful recovery from having been gutted to make way for 35E years earlier; the Saint Paul I moved to in 1987 had huge problems.

Saint Paul today is doing much better - but has a problem that may dwarf all the troubles of the Machine Years; the city is controlled by a brace of DFL machine hacks who are supported by phalanx of people - government employees, teachers, union workers - whose extent of political awareness ends at slogans; the slogans they're being fed begin and end with "Randy Kelly Endorsed George W. Bush".

Who needs to worry about a healthy city - we have an apostate to punish!

Posted by Mitch at November 7, 2005 07:29 AM | TrackBack