Progressive Technocratic Longhouse Test

St Paul MN shall lead the way

It was an historic city council election in the capital city of Minnesota, St Paul, in 2023. All seven city council members are Millennial, progressive women, six off them racial minorities: one of Korean ancestry, another of Hmong, two black women, one Hindi adoptee and a mixed Iranian/Korean. The one white woman is quintessential Jewish female city liberal.

Not one of them in their campaign websites touts any private economic experience. Every one of them describes themselves as an organizer. Every one appears to have worked their entire lives for governments or nonprofits. Every one of them talks about the importance of public safety but not one emphasizes law enforcement.

St Paul is now every bit a test case of the technocratic, progressive “longhouse.”

From left to right, Anika Bowie, Saura Jost, Mitra Jalali, Hwa Jeong Kim and Cheniqua Johnson posed after filing to run for the St. Paul City Council together. All five won their races.

“Longhouse” is a word sometimes used in alt-conservative theory, to describe governance by women in a communal arrangement. Alt-conservatives imagine such an arrangement stultifying, stifling of masculinity, smothering, an environment in which there are no secrets and governance is mostly through emotional plea, shame and petty coercion. Of course longhouse living is not necessarily a matriarchy (or anything like what corporate/bureaucratic culture has evolved into), as Viking culture would attest, or Iroquois. But the word has come to be synonymous with HR, woke/trans culture, late feminism and socialist/Marxist authoritarianism, which is ascendant in nearly every institution public and private in the West but especially America. That and safety culture manifesting online increasingly as censorship.

The Devouring Mother of the Digital Longhouse

None of these women of course describes themselves as woke, Marxist, post-modernist or even progressive necessarily (the word progressive is used often but mostly to describe policy choices.) All of them give homage to liberal shibboleths, the policy vision/issue/plan for each are virtually identical, the language of each fundamentally left; more government and more spending is always the best and really only solution to every problem. They are all quite specific about how they are going to govern.

Laboring in the Longhouse

The history of young, progressive, female dominated city councils is not broad, nor is it very encouraging, from a public safety or budget perspective. These ladies are going to be in the spotlight, and I have every expectation that they are going to be media darlings. I suspect they could very well become semi-famous.

All of the following information was drawn from campaign websites specific for each individual.

Anika Bowie, Ward One

Miss Bowie is a lifelong resident of St Paul, who went to St Paul Central High School and Hamline University a “serial entrepreneur, a creative in the field of arts for social change, a community organizer, policy strategist, with a passion for improving people’s lives through civic engagement and public servant leadership.” She is not clear about her college degree, or any entrepreneurial thing she has ever done, but she was the Political Director for the office of Keith Ellison, State Attorney General (the first Muslim to be elected to a statewide office in America, he was described off-the-record by another candidate for St Paul city council as the sort of guy who wants to be the local warlord in a dystopia. There are now at least three St Paul City Council members from his office.)

Miss Bowie’s vision, in order: Roads and public infrastructure [the roads in St Paul are post-apocalyptic,] Community First Public Safety, Fair and affordable housing, Work and live with dignity, A stronger snow removal plan, Inclusive Economy and Equity Tax, Accessibility for all, The future is green, Restore second chances.

Particularly spicy is her language about a Land Trust, “taking land out of the speculative market for affordability in perpetuity...housing and commercial properties.” Aside from making more and more of the economy government owned, she also thinks the city should remove all snow from all sidewalks within 24hrs. Presumably that is what all the new migrants are going to be doing, being a veritable snow removal army. Except currently, for years, the city has not plowed most of the streets; there is a foot and more of caked ice on most side streets by midwinter, which turns into axle-busting off-roading in the spring melt. Her Inclusive Economy and Equity Tax is mostly finding ways for low income people not to pay any taxes or fines or fees, including “alternatives to debt collection.” The tax in that phrase is never mentioned, but presumably someone has to pay more to hire that veritable snow removal army to clear snow from streets and sidewalks in 24hrs, who we can assume will still be paid the 330+/- days it is not snowing - especially after budget loses due to poor people not having to pay any tax, fine, fee or debt payment.

Her Community First Public Safety ideas would be good, in a more perfect world that was not a debt-laden empire in decline treating criminals like victims.

Rebecca Noecker, Ward Two

Ms Noecker is a Jewish mother of two, a former school teacher, and non-profit worker in India and Uganda, where she saw “how people struggle when government fails to address staggering social inequality, when who you know or how much you can pay is more important than the rule of law...how frustrating it can be to get help from a local government that is stiflingly bureaucratic...those experiences showed me the power of local government to make a positive impact on people’s lives.” I don’t get the sense that she blushed when she wrote that, in this staggeringly technocratic, bureaucratic empire with such systemic racism, inequity, misogyny…

Her “Issues,” in order: Creating safe and welcoming neighborhoods, Growing great jobs, Investing in our youth, Building a just city, Accessible and responsive government, Housing for all.

To combat gun violence she spearheaded the passing of an ordinance to make sure lawful gun owners keep their weapons locked and safely stored. Of course she does not have the power (yet) to enforce such an ordinance (another use for the military-aged migrant men, snow removal army?), it is described mostly as a way to keep guns out of the hands of kids, but also to reduce the number of guns stolen from vehicles. Except there is not much discussion about the point of having a gun at the ready for self defense from the sort of people who steal guns from cars. She also designed a customer service survey, for people to fill out after interacting with police, which I imagine did not make her many friends in the police department. She led the charge to increase property taxes every year for ten years, above and beyond the typical increase, dedicated to “reduce child care costs.” She is leading the charge to assure all bathrooms in city facilities be gender neutral (because nothing says justice like making women share public bathrooms with men.) She co-chairs the audit committee, which audits city department performance and makes suggestions, so she probably has not made many friends in government either. She is also fond of a “land trust” buying houses and businesses to take them off the market to give at a much reduced rate or free to other people, section 8 on steroids. She did spearhead the use of 37Mil of American Rescue Plan funds for tiny houses for mentally ill drug addicted unhoused, because sleeping on a pile of garbage in a tent is less dignified than sleeping on a pile of garbage in a tiny house. I don’t know, maybe Ms Bowie’s sidewalk snow removal/gun safety inspection army will clean tiny houses for unhoused too. Ms Noecker has been an insufferably busy council member since 2016, though she is clearly popular with her constituents, receiving 40% more of the vote than her nearest competitor.

Saura Jost, Ward Three

Saura Jost is Hindi, adopted by transracial parents, married with one child to a black man, a civil engineer, a lifetime St Paul-ite also a Central High grad who, “when I’ve seen the need for change in my community, I have taken action and I have the receipts to prove it. Even as a young person I stood for equity, inclusion and justice for all of us [even before anyone knew what equity and inclusion was.]”

Her “Priorities”, in order: Housing stability and access, Engaging our community, Early childhood care and education, Public infrastructure and transportation, Supporting our local businesses and economy, Addressing the climate crisis, Comprehensive public safety.

Her language is boilerplate messaging for city liberals, look at all the nice things we can have and it won’t cost a thing. Her first three priorities could be lifted from Bernays Rules for Snowballing Your Constituency aka the DNC Narrative Club. Color me silly but is early childhood education more about the kid, or a make-work for college graduates and for government getting to them early, and getting women back out into the workforce while general taxes and increased city debt pay for child care?

Being a civil engineer she might have been more specific and detailed about how she would govern. She is very excited about the Highland Bridge project, a former Ford plant on the bank of the Mississippi, 14 acres the city sold to Ryan Co builders for 100mil, then giving them a 100mil tax break, to build mixed use recreational, commercial, and housing for 30,000 people with next to no parking. See, STEM training breeds magical thinking too. She doesn’t totally reveal herself until she says, “The climate crisis is worsening, and we have less than 10 years to stop it…climate justice is racial and economic justice.” Her three examples of how she is going to create climate/racial/economic justice? Rent stabilization, more efficient trash collection, and to update the city’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan (2019) in a “more expansive, inclusive, equitable and sustainable way.” She did not add an exclamation point but I was tempted to. She has a lot of ideas about what will fix rampant crime public safety, but not one of them is about stabilizing families or the importance of strong, stable men in the life of boys (a refrain you will not hear in any of these city council campaign websites.) Instead, longhouse thinking, it is about (government) “making sure people have their needs met and investing in public spaces...supporting our teams of mental health professionals, case managers, police officers and community based organizations...neighborhoods can be better served when members of the community can join these public safety teams as a career path.” Never mind so much government ever-expanding might be much of the problem.

Mitra Jilali, Ward Four

Ms Jilali reclaimed her council seat with an astonishing 79.4% of the vote. Another one from the office of Attorney General Keith Ellison. Of mixed Iranian and Korean parents, a former social studies teacher, who has “committed her entire life to public service.” As a council member she secured 74mil for “deeply” affordable housing, she passed rent caps/stabilization, and helped create a city-county encampment response team, to house, clothe and feed the mentally ill drug addicted unhoused.

Her “priorities” are, in order: Building community wealth and economic development, Climate action and sustainability, Community first public safety, Affordable housing and homeownership

I’m not sure what government “programs that put more money in people’s pockets,” means, but I assume that has something to do with “mixed use development in all our neighborhoods,”and “racial equity at the center of investment priorities.” Her ward was heavily impacted by social unrest in 2020, and the effects of government mandated shutdowns, but it seems she had a grand time distributing all those millions in unrest and covid relief funds. She is very excited about the projected 17.6bil surplus at the state level. She is a big supporter of the Office of Financial Empowerment, which is about taking money from some and handing it to others, “directly into people’s pockets,” including 150 families with $500/mnth in guaranteed income. She used federal Covid Relief funds with the Hamline Midway Investment Cooperative, buying commercial real estate to take it off the speculative market, ostensibly to “keep it local.” She is evidently passionate about helping small business receive local, state and federal money, particularly BIPOC businesses. Her campaign website is like a grab-bag of what was possible with 10trillion in Covid money printing. To her credit she does seem to want money made in the community to stay in the community. Except all that broken glass and those damaged, mostly small, minority owned businesses was a “rightful” response to social injustice in 2020, and of course an opportunity for the government to spend more money. That is Ms Jilali’s solution to climate, public safety and housing, spend money, expand government. Housing shortages is a discrimination thing. Never mind all the housing now taken off the market for public housing; I know personally at least one man, a self described pimp, drug and alcohol addicted, who is living free on the section 8 dole, at 40. That is anecdotally at least one housing unit that is not available for someone well adjusted and working – in her city.

It really is no wonder at all how she won 80% of the vote - she really seems to have a gift for finding money “to put directly into people’s pockets.”

Hwa Jeong Kim, Ward Five

Ms Kim is Korean-American, a non-profit executive director and former legislative aide. Her “vision”, in order: Affordable housing, Community First Public Safety, Combatting [sic] climate change, Workers rights, Transportation equity.

Safe and stable housing is a “human right.” But try and unpack this sentence: “the kinds of funds or financing used to construct the building or how long ago it was built should not determine a person’s right to stable housing.” I’ve read that sentence a dozen times and I’m not sure what it means, except maybe anyone has a right to any house? I don’t know how one can have stable housing if they themselves are fundamentally unstable drug addicted and mentally ill, but then I am never going to be a St Paul city council member. She does want to eliminate single family zoning, which would absolutely increase “land trust” opportunities to buy homes, tear them down and build multi-unit “deeply affordable” public housing.

“Crime is a social issue solved by [government] providing people with their basic needs...our most significant crime deterrent is investing in people through resourced programs that ensure everyone in St Paul has their basic needs met.” Those two sentences were in the same paragraph. She ends it with “I will intentionally invest in a culture and a community of care.” Longhouse. She wants to assure all new longhouses have solar panels, and or wind turbines and geothermal. This was especially spicy, “Pilot Green Zones...to encourage equitable distribution of community assets...establish the cadence of our urgency.” Green is the new red brigade (more work for the migrant snow removal army, aside from gun safety inspections and cleaning tiny houses for mentally ill drug addicted, enforcing “equitable distribution of community assets.”) Her workers rights are mostly about expanding administrative oversight and fines for businesses that are not adequately paying sick leave, minimum wage and prevailing wage – imagine all the new city employees dedicated to that! It is about to get even more fun, running a business in St Paul (the problem is, all those city officials/migrant red brigade dedicated to figuring out if you are breaking the rules start treating every business person/regular citizen like they are guilty until they prove themselves to be innocent.) I especially liked this sentence: “support the richest Saint Paulites and the largest corporations to pay their fair share – so that we can und[sic] things we know ensure the well-being of our communities.” She wants you to know that the .001% of people who commute by walking or biking are happier, while riding the bus or train with unstable mentally ill drug addicted and petty/violent criminals without any more legal recourse to defend yourself is more environmentally friendly than driving a car.

Mao would be so very proud.

Nelsie Yang, Ward Six

“Unleashing My Inner Me,” is how she introduces herself on her candidacy website. “I began community organizing in 2015 to liberate myself and communities from the chains of racism, sexism, and classism that kept us from living joyful and dignified lives.”

Ms Yang has been on the council since 2019, “the youngest and first Hmong-American woman elected to the St Paul City Council.” The Hmong community in the Twin Cities is the largest community of Hmong in America. “I grew up hearing stories from my Hmong elders...I still remember the chills and goosebumps...listening as they recounted the pain in fleeing genocide and political persecution after the war was lost [to the communists.]” Her parents lost their dream home in 2013 to foreclosure, two days before she graduated from Park High School. She has a social work degree and is a mother.

Her “Vision”, in order: Dignity and economic sustainability for all East Siders, Economic sustainability for small businesses, Affordable housing and rent stabilization, Community-based public safety and programming, Climate and environmental justice, Equitable roads, transportation, & city services.

Curiously, her Vision is written about her, in someone else’s voice: “Because she lived much of her life in scarcity, she vows to never let poverty write anyone else’s story again.” That is a grand vision indeed. How is she going to accomplishing that? Aside from working on many boards, building relationships with unions, non-profits and organizations, “she led a grassroots campaign to ensure marginalized communities on the East Side had access to the Covid-19 [“]vaccine.[“]” She wants an early learning program for kids 0-5. Tax relief for East Siders.

She might not be able to see the irony of her Elders fleeing for their lives from Marxists, but she can’t very well run for city council without promising help for small businesses, as the Hmong are an entrepreneurial people, more generally. She seems more passionate about rent stabilization, though. She too helped access 74mil in covid relief funds for “deeply” affordable housing. But she didn’t hire a voice-over who is grammatical: “Nelsie not only advocates for affordable housing and rent stabilization that unites people across race, gender and class but also implements mixed income housing and neighborhood median income moving forward.”

“Divestment in the East Side has left much of the community trapped in cycles of poverty and violence….Nelsie is a former criminal justice organizer, and believes restorative justice programs can dismantle the root causes of crime….[and] community based pubic safety liberates all communities from institutional racism, sexism, and classism.” Messianic messaging like that though has to deliver, so those programs and that restoration better get on it, because after George Floyd, Covid Policy, defunding police and not otherwise enforcing laws, crime and violence on the East Side is rampant. It kind of seems to me it was government and the fight for social justice that caused the divestment on the East Side. Color me hard right but most of these community policing schemes seem to be about making more government and non-profit programs jobs, make-work for college educated, but seemingly exacerbating violence in working class communities, if current trends are any indication. As for climate and environmental justice, that is not last on her list but it is the least passionate. Potholes seem like a bigger priority, which are as post-apocalyptic on the East Side as anywhere in the city.

All in all, Ms Yang seems like the most woke of the council so far.

Cheniqua Johnson, Ward Seven

Educated at the UofM with a bachelors in Family Social Science, Ms Johnson is “the sole Council candidate who has worked at every level of government.” She is also a former Congressional staffer in the office of now State Attorney General Keith Ellison. She worked as a Congressional staffer for the House Subcommittee on Aviation. She was the St Paul Equity and Inclusion officer. She worked for the Hillary Clinton campaign. She owns a house on the East Side. She was the first person in her family to earn a Bachelors degree.

Her Vision, in order: safe and stable homes for all, Safe streets, safe communities, Economic justice & direct investments in East Side businesses, Climate action and sustainability, A city that serves us all.

Previously I have never heard the word “deeply” to describe affordable housing, but this is the third time I have read it in these campaign websites. A cursory online search defines it as housing for people making less that 30% median income for a period of ten years. Deeply then means something like tax and financing subsidized to the tune of about 80-200%.

Tax relief has been a common refrain too, among the candidates, particularly property tax relief. I can attest. In Minneapolis, my property taxes went up approximately 12% year on year average, 2006-2022. Ramsey county tax increases are at least as bad, but Minneapolis at least manages to plow every street. The roads are bad in Minneapolis, I probably don’t need to say again how they are in St Paul.

Ms Johnson is literally the only one who mentioned enforcing the law, in this case, speeding, as speeding has been a problem throughout the Twin Cities especially in working class esp in the inner-tier cities since George Floyd died. Potholes and snow removal are a thing for her too. To her credit, she sounds the least woke/Marxist of the bunch. She even seems to think climate action is about carbon. Like the rest of them though, she thinks most people need to walk and bike to work more. Which is frustrating because I would be willing to bet, none of these ladies are walking or biking much of anywhere in the winter, or even in the summer really.

Despite my sarcasm, I don’t mean these women any ill will at all, I want them to succeed and make St Paul a more livable place - it’s the capital city of the state I have called home most of my life. I do not envy their position at all either, coming to preside over St Paul in 2023. What with an increasing number of people chronically ill, not working or working little, violence seemingly out of control, the Federal government effectively broke, interest payments on city debt chewing up so much more of the budget, WWIII in the offing, the winds of decline are not in their favor. I’m inclined to think too, their political thinking can only make the social and economic ills that beset America worse. Who knows though, if these ladies know anything at all about organizing, it could very well be a windfall in St Paul going forward. I’ve no doubt largesse is going to be heaped upon them. Even so, I suspect that would result mostly in a lot of new gov and NGO jobs…and more crime, more violence, more potholes, no real increase in snow plowing, even less housing available for working people, same inexorable climb in CO2 parts per million….and who knows, maybe an army of migrants tasked with taking “care” of the city.

One thing is certain though, these ladies are going to break a record in unanimous votes. Every thing on the progressive wish list is going to get a hearing. They are not going to disagree on much, or hold each other very accountable, probably.

Whatever happens, if they do anything fascinating I will be sure to report. We will see how St Paulites like living in a technocratic, progressive, milennial female controlled longhouse. Based on this election, that seems what they want.