SPicy got this email from a reader that thought those of you outside the Highland Villager distribution area might be interested in reading an editorial by Highland Villager Editor Michael Mischke.  He got ahold of the same Media Advisory SPicy grabbed onto about "Saint Paul's Newest Park."  SPicy encourages you to give it a read.  It looks like SPicy is not the only one thinking that the Mayor's office is grasping at straws:

(Once SPicy is notified of the published byline and publication date, this post will be updated to reflect proper information)

PR, Parks and Wreck

Michael Mischke
Editor - Highland Villager
September 25, 2007

Having served as the editor and now publisher of the Villager
newspaper for 32 years, I've seen my share of canned "news" come out
of St. Paul City Hall, packaged by the PR flacks for six mayors
dating back to Larry Cohen. I thought that Norm Coleman's famously
press-sensitive administration had set the standard for the sheer
volume of news releases rained down on the local media until Randy
Kelly came along. However, even Kelly's administration has been
eclipsed by that of current Mayor Chris Coleman.

It seems hizzoner can't blow his bagpipes without the requisite
"media advisory" being issued via bulk e-mail by his director of
communications, Bob Hume.

* Mayor Coleman to Play in Pond Hockey Tournament.

* Mayor Coleman to Ride in St. Paul Bike Classic.

* Mayor Coleman Welcomes Students Back to School.

Those are just a small sampling of the blizzard of e-mails that Mr.
Hume issues almost daily about the mayor's comings and goings.
However, for utter lack of redeeming news value, none tops the media
advisory that was issued last Thursday:

Mayor Coleman to Welcome Citys Newest Park

Mayor Chris Coleman today announced that the city will gain a new
downtown park for a few hours on Friday, thanks to a partnership with
the Trust for Public Land. As part of National Park(ing) Day, the
citys Division of Parks and Recreation will turn the mayors parking
space into a park.

"The city of Saint Paul is blessed with a world-class, award-winning
parks system. This event brings to light the value of public green
space, and allows us to rededicate ourselves to making the
preservation and expansion of parks and open spaces a priority in St.
Paul," Coleman said.

In a joint effort with the Trust for Public Land, Parks and
Recreation staff will be creating a unique urban park using the
Mayor's parking space in front of City Hall on 4th Street.

The event is free and open to the public.

I had to consult a calendar to see if it was actually April 1.

The mayor's supposed paean to the city's parks system might have
caused nothing but head-scatching were it not for the serious threats
that the mayor's 2008 budget represents to the same parks system, and
the imperial manner with which those threats are being dealt.

There is widespread disappointment among people who thought Coleman
would be far more receptive than his predecessor to involving
citizens in city decision-making. But that hasn't proven to be the
case. Three cases in point:

* There is no contingency plan for the city's rec centers that are
slated to be palmed off on private organizations to operate. If no
private partners are found to run those rec centers by the end of the
year, they will close. Yet rec center booster clubs, district
councils and youth sports organizations were blind-sided by the
mayor's budget announcement, and they're peeved about what they see
as the ham-handed, take-it-or-leave-it approach of the
administration. We've known for nearly a year about the city's
looming budget woes, they say. Couldn't the mayor have brought us
into the loop earlier and given us time to find private partners and
explore possible solutions with them?

* The off-leash dog park fiasco is another example of what happens
when the mayor shuns local parks advocates, district councils and
youth sports groups and simply sics Parks and Rec on a "solution" to
a problem that only a handful of Coleman's constituents had
complained to him about: you get bitten on the backside.
Unfortunately, parks staff took the teeth marks when it was the mayor
who asked for them.

* Then there's the outdoor ice rink debacle. Because the mayor liked
to play hockey outdoors when he was a kid, we pick three outdoor rink
locations for refrigerated ice with no prior public discussion at a
time when other naturally frozen rinks are scheduled to fold? But no,
the mayor wants to play hockey outdoors on better ice and that's that.

They say the Mayor's Office, which is peopled with a host of
holdovers from Coleman's 2005 run for office, has yet to graduate
from campaign mode to operational mode. This is one reason why they
say it.


In closing, Make sure to patronize Villager Advertisers, those that have not crossed the digital divide can generally county on reading editorials from Mischke that are (most of the time) right after SPicy's own heart.  Let's all make sure to support those who support the local press.