A Real People Proposal

    As I have been reporting on Cascade City Council since the first city administrator, Larry Farley, was hired in 1990, I will be making the following proposal at Monday night's council meeting: that city residents get to vote on who is hired and how long he/she remains on the job. Shame on me! Early on, I was idealistic and unaware of the damage a city administrator could do, but (Damn!) now I know.

    Eventually, the city hired Randy Lansing. His tenure coincided with Danny ("Dan the Conman") Conrad, Developer of Conrad Addition and lots in the Industrial Park east of town. Now, in wet years, the city must deal with the flooding that some of the code violations those two brought us.

Immediately to the north of McAllister Electric is CLH Repair with NO green space separating the two businesses whatsoever. The asphalt driveway and parking for trucks that are being worked on are simply contiguous. To make matters worse, perhaps during the tenure of the recent City Administrator, Deanna McCusker, a self-storage (MCCC) was allowed to cover the entire adjacent space with hard surface. Barely a yard of green space between them!

My dear Mr./Ms./Mrs. Cascade Citizen--you try that! Recently, I began thinking about it in light of the fact that we pay the administrator almost $80 thou year and the clerk, $50. The two biggest salaries in the city a whopping 80 hours a week. Only the street workers spend more time, but they take orders from these two which only increases their impact. There should at least be a provision in the ordinances to keep a corrupt administration from remaining in their position a dozen years.

 

Naked Power Grabs--Ukraine, McConnell & Cascade City Council

     Yes, there were petitions presented to the city clerk yesterday with 190-odd signatures on them to bring the question of the empty seat vacated by Steve Knepper when he was elected mayor before the voters.  And yes, it rags me big-time to see us spending $1,200 or whatever to schlepp voting machines back here, hire people administer/count a special election and inconvenience citizens to run to the polls for one lousy vote. I like voting absentee, and I doubt that will be possible. 

    Yes, I am ragged big time and it has nothing to do with Sue Green Knepper, Bill Hosch or any other candidate. It has to do with naked power-grabs. As I write this, Russian is doing a Hilter--invading Ukraine, apparently to overturn the vote of the Ukrainian people and reinstate the Russian-backed government--that they had previously kicked out. 

    A year before President Barack Obama's term was over, Mitch McConnell used his power to steal Obama's Supreme Court nomination saying, "The people should decide." They had; but rather than allow the sitting president, as was the custom to appoint his candidate, McConnell held up the appointment and a year later Donald Trump filled the seat. Then...though McConnell had made loud noises about Obama appointing a justice with "barely" a year on his term, with six weeks left in Trump's, he pushed throught the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett. Two naked power-grabs.

   Likewise, when the Cascade City Council appointed Sue Knepper, a mayoral candidate to a city council seat when the custom has been to install the next highest council candidate. These self-serving refusals to follow tradition are dangerous. Statistically, public opinion of the Supreme Court has suffered. People have less faith in it's decisions. Duh. 

    Ironically, spending the $1,200 and putting anyone other than Ms. Knepper on there won't make a lick of difference in the votes. Councilmen Delaney and Rausch seem unable to think independently of Kelchen, and newly-elected Councilwoman Oliphant has yet to show any courage or independence. 

    It's a hefty chunk of change and a pain in the butt to do it, but in the interest of stopping naked power-grabs, it is worth it because we can't govern ourselves if we don't have rules.

 

 

    

Orchids Galore

This large plant was thriving in the crook of a tree. 

There was an infinite variety of orchids in the orchid garden. I admire folks who can grow them, but I  am not one of their number. The water lily pond was impressive.

A white egret waiting for a juicy morsel.

What Do Poverty Jeans Mean?

Somebody once wrote book correlating hard/good times with fashion, theorizing that hemlines (when women wore dresses) went up and down with the economy--lean years, recessions and depressions, brought long skirts; fat, prosperous ones, minis with lots of knees on display.

It is certainly true that when the flappers went to short, slim dresses with drop waistlines, that required a fraction of the cotton bustles and drapes of the Gilded Age required, the cotton industry about bit the dust.

But what do you make of these pix I have taken of "poverty" jeans I have taken in the windows of local shops, which seem to be all the rage for spring? Of course, January weather in Iowa discourages running around with holes in your jeans.

But beyond the weather, does this fashion wrinkle say something about us at this moment? I fear it does--something rather unfortunate about the level of empathy for people who might find themselves in a position where they might not be able to afford new jeans. 

The ubiquity of this fad hit me between the eyeballs this morning. I got an update email from the folks at Ralph Lauren. I never buy anything from them, but they are always thinking positively and sending me emails anyway. 

This morning they sent me this very get-up: a new, pristine white shirt and a pair of poverty jeans. But if you decide to buy them, don't be surprised if somebody comes up, snarls and congratulates you on your empathy!