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City Currents Spring 2023 – Less politics, more cooperation, please

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A response to the Mayor's recent editorial in the City Currents Magazine where he again uses that forum to make the case for his policy preferences. I reject using public money to promote a political agenda. He goes on to scold the public for not being more supportive of the City's Marina and economic development plans. I offer some notes on how our downtown got to where it is and some practical suggestions for improving the downtown and Marina without spending millions of dollars....

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Ad Hoc Rules of Procedure Meeting #3 Post-game

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The third Ad Hoc Rules of Procedure meeting was, in some ways, the most chilling yet. It began with an argument over recording the meeting and went downhill from there. I strongly urge people to listen to 20:00 where the City Attorney uses a recent Supreme Court case to argue that the Council has an unlimited right to censure a member for basically any reason it chooses--including displaying any form of 'dissent' following the meeting or any form of 'criticism' of staff'. Though the term 'staff' was left undefined. There was also a lengthy discussion on 'hats'. As the kids say, "Mask off."...

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Weekly Update: 03/12/2023

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Last City Council Meeting featured two housing issues. Orcas. An essay on how we got into the mess we're in with the airport, which is really another land use issue, why we continue to handle it incorrectly... and something about casinos? :D Why I'm on the fence about HB1110 and multi-family housing....

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Weekly Update: 02/26/2023

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This Week: City Council meeting features 'goal setting'. I offer a review of last year's similar meetings--and how the Communications Consultant deal got started. Last Week: City Council meeting features Future Cities, communications consultant contract and more cop cars. A follow up to last week's essay on The Hard Fork, which for Des Moines means not making the same mistakes over and over... and over....

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