Local Government
Audacious in Chicago
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Local Government, Public Policy and Governance on March 29th, 2012
This morning’s New York Times reports that Rahm Emmanuel will announce a 7.1 billion-with-a-b infrastructure improvement plan for Chicago. Improvements will be made to everything from the water system to the airport, from public transportation to parks. The improvements will be financed primarily through a public-private investment trust, details of which Mayor Emmanuel is supposed [...]
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Sausage-Making at Work
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Gay Rights, Local Government on March 27th, 2012
There’s an old saying that the two things you should never watch are sausage-making and law-making. Good as that advice is, it can be very enlightening (if somewhat nauseating) to be present as the democratic process unfolds. Yesterday, I accompanied the President of Indiana Equality to South Bend, where the Common Council was to deliberate [...]
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Disturbing Questions
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Local Government on March 18th, 2012
We woke this morning to news reports that five teenagers had been shot while walking along Indianapolis’ downtown canal. The shots evidently came from the parking lot of the Historical Society–where a wedding was taking place at the time. As I write this, little is known except that two of the teens are in critical [...]
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There’s No “We” in Mitch Land…
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Local Government on December 7th, 2011
When Steve Goldsmith was Mayor–talking incessantly about government’s “customers” while shifting costs from the operating to the capital budget in order to “reduce” taxes (i.e., push the costs to the next administration)–I used to grouse that his vision of the ideal government would be one that eliminated all municipal services so that the City-County Building [...]
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The Devil You Know….
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Local Government on November 9th, 2011
A couple of political truisms–which I have always accepted as “givens”–went up in smoke last night. The first was that at-large candidates win or lose based upon the performance of their party’s mayoral candidate. The second was that in close races, victory is largely a matter of getting your vote out. In Indianapolis yesterday, the [...]
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