I Don’t Think That Word Means What They Think It Means
By Mitch Berg
Former ineffective DFL legislator Katie Knuth has been hired as the City of Minneapolis’ “Chief Resilience Officer“.
When I think “resilience”, I think “bouncing back from crises”, “being able to sustain a major human or natural disaster and keep functioning”, or “take a licking and keep on ticking”.
Well, no. It’s described as:
…a new position that coordinates the city’s work on urban challenges from housing affordability to climate change.
Kate Knuth will join a network that includes dozens of chief resilience officers around the world, in cities that have joined the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities project.
Knuth, 36, previously served three terms in the state House as a DFLer representing New Brighton before leading the Institute on the Environment’s Boreas Leadership Program at the University of Minnesota. The City Council approved her hiring on Friday.
Put another way, it’s “providing a paycheck to people who are part of the political class”.
They take care of their own.
June 23rd, 2017 at 11:27 am
Cockroaches are pretty resilient. Actually, more so than Democrats. You won’t see cockroaches melting down when an election goes the wrong way.
June 23rd, 2017 at 12:02 pm
I love how the Democrats change the meaning of words to arbitrarily support their agendas. In this case, I’d fully support the idea of someone who helps plan for recovery against disasters like power outages, serious tornadoes through town, etc. But rather than plan for real world events and risks we see an office dedicated to promoting the Leftist social agenda.
As Mitch implied, nice work if you can get it paid for with someone else’s (tax) money.
June 23rd, 2017 at 12:23 pm
Nerd – Minneapolis has a bunch of people working disaster preparedness as well. It used to be coupled with regulatory services back when Rocco was in charge. Why were they paired together? To create a bigger empire. Federal money pays for most of the emergency management people.
Some of it makes sense. The planning that goes into a frozen 4, RNC, or Superbowl is crazy. Other times it is crazy – think measles vaccination that can’t be targeted at specific communities, since that would be racist.
June 23rd, 2017 at 12:34 pm
“Resilient”. Only because they did not have the balls to call it “Resistance”
June 23rd, 2017 at 12:42 pm
The sad part is a resilient community is actually a good idea. St. Paul is a big enough town that it ought to be able to provide essential services – sewer, water, police, firefighter – no matter what.
Most of the items identified on the Resilient Communities initiative – bad weather, crime, economic variables – have existed since Moses. And in most of the nation (outside deep blue metro cesspools), we know how to handle them. It’s the deep blue cesspools like Minneapolis that need tax money from functioning communities like Thief River Falls to help balance the books through LGA payments.
If we could get the larger cities to stand on their own two feet, plow their own streets, arrest their own criminals, those cities would be resilient and also attractive. Merely hiring another bureaucrat won’t make people eager to move in.
June 23rd, 2017 at 12:48 pm
I wonder where that money ultimately comes form.
How real is Agenda 21? I’m inclined that it’s pretty real. People get power and money off of this crap.
June 23rd, 2017 at 12:53 pm
Everything she’ll work on is already done by one or more Minneapolis city departments.
June 23rd, 2017 at 1:48 pm
Sounds like a lot of unobtainable goals that need plenty of monies.
June 23rd, 2017 at 2:08 pm
We dealt with Kate Knuth quite a lot during her time in the lege. Her parents are both pieces of work, too. Her dad was a former legislator and got out before the posse could catch him, while her mother was a longtime St. Paul school district bureaucrat who I think crossed swords with our host at one point. Knuth’s grandfather was also in the lege. This family has been siphoning money for a couple of generations.
June 23rd, 2017 at 2:24 pm
Mr. D: Very interesting.
People work hard and take risks. They get charged taxes. Taxes that pay for anything beyond genuine public goods add ZERO value. It is just graft.
June 23rd, 2017 at 3:33 pm
Can I get some government resilience? With a side of testicular fortitude? Please?
June 23rd, 2017 at 5:13 pm
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June 23rd, 2017 at 7:07 pm
This is a bigger deal than most people are making of it. The Rockefeller Foundation, by way of paying the position’s salary, is placing someone inside the city government to advise the mayor and city council on how to pursue whatever agenda the Rockefeller Foundation wants to push on them.
Imagine if the Koch Foundation paid for a self-reliance officer to teach city staffers how to help residents rely on themselves more and government less? Of if the NRA paid for a 2nd amendment officer to help teach Minneapolis cops how to interact with legal carry permit holders?
June 23rd, 2017 at 8:59 pm
Im trying to imagine the reaction of my neighbors if our town leaders hired a Resilience Officer to plan for Global Warming. Cant pin the details down, but I’m pretty sure the resulting chaos would make the national news.
June 24th, 2017 at 1:04 pm
In the Mafia it’s called a no-show job.
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