RICHFIELD & ST. PAUL: Democracy -- Good, Elected Officials -- Bad!

Richfield and St. Paul are now the real twins of turmoil in our Twin Cities metro area, thanks to the make-believe democracies created by their respective city officials.

Take another look at St. Paul’s parking meter fiasco, and the undemocratic similarities come into view. Mayor Coleman and the St. Paul City Council arbitrarily decided — behind closed doors — to install parking meters along Grand Avenue without first consulting with their constituency. In other words, these “public servants” talked among themselves and arrived at a decision without any public forums or voter referenda or warnings to the businesses along Grand Avenue. Although the Mayor and City Council hadn’t yet officially voted on the issue, they were all set to vote PRO PARKING METERS. Before their actual voting took place, however, they decided to hold community meetings to showcase their intended plan.

LONG STORY SHORT: Not only did The People of St. Paul hate the idea of parking meters, they really, really hated the way their elected officials had ignored the democratic process.
Ultimately, the plan to install parking meters along Grand Avenue was scrapped. Of course, The Voice of The People did get the opposing forces started. But the discovery that Cale, the company contracted to install the meters, had been bribing officials in Portland and Chicago was the real project-killer.

So, St. Paul officials weren’t actually listening to their constituents after the fact, they were just afraid of going to jail. Democracy in action? Not really.

What a lot of people don’t realize, though, is that the city of Richfield has endured a similar problem. Like St. Paul, our democracy has been taken over by a power-mad elite and turned into a real oligarchy. Complain about it and the elite will blame voters for not voting in local elections. The chosen few will rationalize their power grabs by citing voter complacency. But why bother voting when the decisions have already been made by a small imperious faction?

Long before the parking meter fiasco on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, there was Richfield’s MasterPlan to destroy Richfield as we know it.

Bye-bye, Urban Hometown. Hello, barren urban landscape that someday will be divided up to become parts of South Minneapolis, Bloomington, even Edina…just like Morningside became Edina-Morningside, then finally dissolved into Edina.

Well played, Richfield Planning Commission, well played.

Before denials start flying hot and heavy, though, here’s a little background info.

Over 15 years ago, during the late 90’s, the City of Richfield shared its MasterPlan for the 21st Century to its residents — AFTER these city planners had already decided what to do and how to do it. Essentially, the big plan was to tear down nearly all of the single family homes — mostly on the east-side — and replace them with that old redevelopment chestnut called “multiple dwellings.”

You know, expensive condos, overpriced hamster cage-like apartments, lots of shops with living spaces on upper floors. That perfect marriage of business space and residential units. Classic Urban Renewal for residents of an urban hometown who didn’t know or want to be renewed in the first place.

Bad enough that our city fathers and mothers had already made plans without knowledge or approval of residents.

But after they’d made these plans, they actually had the gall to hold “open town meetings” all over Richfield. Just so residents could share their opinions about these Big Plans — i.e., tell the city fathers and mothers how great their plans were.

Needless to say, this faux democracy backfired.

It’s not democracy if a handful of city officials keep making decisions and acting on them without first consulting with The People.

Needless to say, We, The People, who attended their faux “open meetings” at City Hall and surrounding church basements were not impressed.

During one such meeting my verbal sentiments echoed what everyone else had been saying and thinking. “So you want to tear down my house and put up an apartment or condo that I can’t afford to live in?” I asked.

The presiding city officials stared at me and the rest of the soon-to-be displaced residents like deer caught in headlights. They gave no answer to my question.

“Bad idea,” I told them. “Bad idea to tear down the house I can afford to live in and replace it with something that only people with a lot of money can afford to live in.”

As bad as that idea was, The City forged right ahead with its plans to destroy our Urban Hometown under the guise of Urban Renewal. As if people who don’t have a lot of cash on hand should be weeded out and banished from living in Richfield?

Little by little, The City of Richfield has arbitrarily decided — behind closed doors — to do what an elite group of insiders with their own agenda had always planned to do. That is, they decided to TEAR DOWN most of its older homes and replace them with more big box housing to contain young professionals and old retirees. As if the young and the old really want to live in big boxes that cost more money than their current dwellings?

Thanks to our former mayor and city council, the families that have long been the backbone of this city have been forced to live elsewhere because they can’t afford to live here anymore.

And please, no more excuses for these elitist bureaucrats. Spare us the praise for that “visionary” old fart who used to be mayor. Spare us the misplaced kudos for our current mayor who refuses to take a stand on much-needed affordable housing and other important issues. As for city council members — past and present? Well, there’s nothing nice to say about them, so let’s not say anything at all.

Thanks to them, Richfield is now trapped in a make-believe democracy that ignores Voter Referenda because now the oligarchy is in charge.

Surprise: We, The People, know what you’re up to, we just don’t know how to make you act like public servants.