Where's the party at?

It is hopelessly naive to suggest that municipal politics is or can be free of partisanship, or partisan-like coalescence based on ideology--as if council should exist as little more than 15 people getting together to compare ward interests, with no discussion of directions the city as a whole is or should take. Allegiances based around common ideologies are a natural output of democratic governments. There should be a conservative/boosterism wing of Council, and there should be a liberal/progressive wing (or at least a group of liberals and progressives squabbling among themselves on how to align themselves), and they should be honest about it.

Winnipeg's ostensibly conservative, Chamber-of-Commerce-types at City Hall have had a hard time with this, countering progressive coalitions with their own coalitions with non-coalition names like Independent Citizens' Election Committee. Or in the case of Mayor Sam Katz in his State of the City address yesterday, claiming to be above all that nit-picky party politics his opponants do (which is, of course, completely bogus).

If for no other reason, I am happy that I ran under the Green Party banner in the last civic election to be forthright about partisan leanings. Other candidates in 2006 were backed by the NDP, a couple by the Liberals, and a number under the Sam Katz banner. But the Greens were the only one to admit their affiliation.
New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, State Governor Al Smith, and unidentified grand old men of the Tammany/Democratic political machine, c.1920s--an age of political honesty

In any case, Mayor Katz is correct when he states that many card-carrying New Democrats are fixing to give him a one way ticket to Scotsdale, AZ, but I doubt this is coming down straight from the top, since the Provincial NDP has learned over the past few years that they don't need a pigeon in the Mayor's office to control City Hall: they just need one that is fine maintaining the status quo of a city so desperately poor that it will take any gift the Province gives them.

Still, if there is any truth to this rumour that appeared on Skyscraper Page, this will turn out to be an interesting lead-up up to October: "I've heard that Viewpoints Research is currently conducting a survey on behalf of the left-leaning/NDP potential candidates [Vandal, Wyatta, Wasylycia-Leis, Thomas]. [...] I'd assume that these left-leaning candidates are going to use the survey results to try and determine which one of 'em has the best chance of beating Sammy in October.

Respondents are then asked a battery of about 15 questions on their level of agreement with a bunch of statements... almost all apparently regarding Sam Katz. Specifically, this is to determine the best talking points to use in a campaign against Sammy. IIRC some of the statements are (do you agree/disagree somewhat/strongly that):
- "Sam is more interested in helping his business friends than he is for the average citizen of Winnipeg."
- "I am concerned about conflict-of-interests Sam has with his position as Mayor and his private businesses."
- "While Sam often talks about being 'tough on crime,' yet he has not done enough to make our city safer."
- "Sam is either freezing or cutting taxes for sheer political interests, when our city's infrastructure is falling apart."
- "Sam lacks a vision for Winnipeg's future."
- "I am concerned about the response time of our emergency first responders."
- and some other typical stuff about potholes/roads, garbage & recycling collection, etc."

Where coaitions matter most of all

I was up in the University of Winnipeg library this afternoon, so I missed out on all the illiterate action going on downstairs at the anti-Prorogue rally:

(h/t)

Embarrassing.

Demolition blues

This is an email that has been circulating this corner of cyberspace:
"This Saturday at 2pm a group of protesters and musicians will gather in front of the Windsor Hotel to rally against the demolition of Winnipeg's most historic blues and roots venue. It is about to be thoughtlessly destroyed to make way for a parking lot. Despite the substantial one million dollar bid to buy the hotel by the owners of the Royal George Hotel: Rick Penner and Boyd Newton as well as their partners, the offer was denied. These bidders would surely respect the institution as a prominent institution in the history of Winnipeg and would keep the musical fires burning in the heart of Winnipeg. Definitely a better choice for our city! Charlie Chaplin stayed there and in the past 30 years, some of the best blues acts in the world have performed there, including numerous local artists who still faithfully frequent the location.

The Windsor is 107 years old and is a historic building."

A rumour of the demise of the Windsor Hotel was first heard in 2005, which was the same year that it was removed from the City's Historical Building Inventory--a move that typically precedes a building's demolition.

Naturally, the Windsor, located at 187 Garry St., straddled between two surface parking lots, and sitting amidst the most barren urban landscapes this side of Gary, Indiana, is to be replaced not by a new apartment block, or even another health authority office (so far conspicuously absent from this particular block), but a surface parking lot.

From the street, the Windsor--from where in 1913, local lore says, touring vaudevillian Charlie Chaplain wrote a letter to his brother saying he was getting into the movies--is hardly an architectural treasure, but it is a building with windows and doors, and is used. Its legendary blues bar is a lonely outpost of (generally) friendly humanity in a neighborhood already ravaged by this kind of destructively numb-skull thinking.

For what it's worth, contact your city councillor.