BACKLASH?

Midura has got to learn to either watch what she says, or stand firmly behind what she says. That said, Fielgood is council president, meaning he outranks Midura. Criticizing people below you in rank in front of others, even at a retreat, is a big no no...Well, that might be a stretch, but Fielgood should have been careful about what he brought up in front of reporters.

Anyway Fielgood and the other three who voted for the coffee shop have some explaining to do. It's one thing to vote against the district council member when the council member wants to override the planning commission, but you don't vote against both the planning commission (or HDLC or VCC) and the district council member without a damn good reason. Voting for anything that seems like a good idea, or that they can't see enough reason to vote against, has been this council's downfall on budget matters. If they keep it up when and if the cranes and bulldozers start to come in, it (the city) could get really ugly.

Midura's problem is that she seems to have an unusually thin skin for a pol and a terrible sense for how to pick her battles. I (kinda) like her but she teeters on the edge of uselessness at times.

I agree with most of what you said. The episode doesn't make anyone look good at all.

Oh... I think this unusual coffee shop vote is as much a result of Midura's political ineffectiveness as it is anything untoward. I don't think any other council member would have been ganged up on like that.

And Midura confirmed her weakness by running away from the confrontation.

That DA situation could get real interesting. When we get a new DA, he might decide to start prosecuting a few New Orleans area crooks in order to please his 'rest-of-the-state' base.

A classic double-envelopment attack!

I'm not as hard on Midura as you all are. She's made some big calls that were unpopular with the Council on the IG and Jordan. That is going to cost you political capital and make you unpopular with them and hence, reduce your political effectiveness. But while you seem to think she has no strategy or theory of power at all, from what I've heard from people that office her strategy for political power seems to be very different from the typical New Orleans' politician. She is not trying to build her political power through Council or other political relationships. She is trying to base her political power on a relationship with the public and the media. Thus far, it's worked pretty well. She got the IG through that way. Jordan is going down. And she got chair of Utility Committee, which was a huge coup. None of those things happened because politicians liked her. Her real partners were the public and the media. And I find that approach refreshing. You could say that this was Peggy Wilson's strategy as well, but the major difference is that Shelley is not a right wing Republican crazy funded by rich Republican friends and donors. She's a liberal good government Democrat who certainly stumbles at times in politics but I think it's mostly because she reminds me of some of my friends' moms and how I imagine they'd be if they were in politics. They'd do good, but they would also stumble politically. I'll take that anyday over most of the rest of the members of the City Council.

I was struck by the newsiness of the paper today too. I rarely read as many articles all the way through as I did this morning.

I'm hopeful that Nagin decides to find a way to get rid of Jordan to preserve his own legacy. All's well that ends well.

I'm torn by the Midura thing and believe she's probably right on this issue. At the same time, I've always been disturbed by this pattern of voting with the member who represents the area. Why have more than one person on council, if you're going to do that everytime? I just wish they'd picked another time to think "independently."

Don't know about you, but I was pissed about Piyush's united front with MeeMaw to get the money flowing. What's he been doing the whole time? Why a special trip to DC when he's supposed to be living there most of the time? I'm glad she's going along with it, but he's going to act like he's this bold mover and shaker instead of acknowledging that he's been in the position to do this for more than 2 years but has been too busy worrying about his career and carrying W's water.

Adrastos, you've been paying attention to local politics longer than I have. Am I correct that it's very unusual for the council to vote against the district councilperson when the district rep agrees with the planning commission? Donze didn't mention that aspect of it.

David: Yes the facts you describe are *very* unusual indeed. It happened to Crazy Peggy and to Jackie Clarkson but only a few times. It illustrates Midura's lack of clout even with the other members who are pro-reform.

David,

It is very unusual for The Council to overrule a district council member, even when they disagreed with the planning commission. I refer you to my recent opus on that particular feature of our feudal order. It's a morally corrupt process.

Medura seems to me to be fighting the right battles but doing it poorly.

Well put, Mominem.

After I posted that comment,I remembered that Clarkson was the one person at the Loyola forum who didn't think the council should be able to overrule the planning commission, so I realized it must have happened to her. I'd like for it be harder --5, if not 6, vote-- but not impossible, FWIW.

Thing is, this is a very small matter. I wouldn't want council members to automatically defer to the district rep on a big enough matter to affect the entire city, but on something like this, i can't see any good reason to vote against both the planning commission and the district rep. I can only think of two general reasons: corruption/influence and payback/hardball politics. I can see a bribe to get a bar opened, but not a coffee shop. I suppose it could be just general influence/ doing a favor. If it's payback/hardball politics, there was another article in today's paper that reminds us that it started with toilet seats.

• Don't get the wrong idea, Midura's amateurishness for its own sake strikes me as pretty stupid.

If the TP is to be believe, Head cast the sole vote in favor of Midura yet said that the opposition to the coffee shop didn't make sense. She voted strictly in deference to the tradition of siding with the local council member.

It just seems like there is more to this. When you're one ally questions your cause, then it's hard to believe you had much of a case.

And Midura really shouldn't accuse everyone else of corruption if she has no evidence.

Actually Frolic, it needn't be corruption to do a favor for an influential person or an associate. Like I said before, if it's strictly a neighborhood matter with no impact on the rest of the city, and the appropriate board or commission and the district rep agree, it's hard for ne to come up with legitimate reasons for the council to vote otherwise. Head deffered to the planning commission as much as Midura, whether that was her reasoning or not.

If you ask me, this council's biggest problem is that it will vote for anything that seems like a good idea, or the members can't see anything wrong with. I would bet that almost everybody would agree that they've gone astray voting that way on budget matters instead of strictly voting on whether that expenditure is vital to keep the city running or further the recovery. I would argue that same principle applies to zoning variances or any permit that the planning commission, or any other board, votes against.

If there's more to the story it's probably the ongoing animosity between Midura and the two Cynthias and Fielgood's desire to appear impartial by periodically changing sides.

I've heard that Midura doesn't get on particularly well with anybody else on the Council including her ostensible allies.

Frolic, Midura did not accuse anyone of corruption. You might think that suggesting a vote was influenced is the same thing, but the word corruption is a special word in politics. There's a reason she didn't use the word corruption.

While I tend to like Midura, I think the whole coffee shop thing a bit suspicious. So, the owner of said business rounds up the better part of 200 signatures in favor of this business, versus one nearby landowner who is worried about her own business. That sounds a bit like something our last councilman might have done.

I agree with the general consensus that Midura needs to pick her battles and then stand her ground. If she lets herself be marginalized, she ultimately undermines the effectiveness of the "new blood block" against the Cynthias et al.

The problem is the non conforming use. If Marullo Jr. opens the shop and it fails then there is the potential for another battle. They kept the place like shit, slapped some paint on it and want to open a business for Jr.

I am more upset about the fact that no one in the area gave a crap about converting a large portion of a block into a parking lot for a grocery store that is still not there.

Meanwhile Walgreens throws a big grand opening with Richard Petty as the Star, do we look like NASCAR fans here!!

Point well taken that she didn't accuse them of corruption. I went back and looked at the TP article. But can we all agree that she publicly accused the rest of the council of lacking integrity yet presented no evidence? She may be right. She may wrong. But if a politician is going to take a shot at pretty much everyone she needs on her side to get things done, then she out to make sure her gun is loaded.