Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Data Shows Female Mayors Deal With Way More Bullshit
The results of a 2024 survey asking mayors to share their personal experiences with matters like sexual harassment, death threats, and critiques of their physical appearance are as depressing as any woman who’s ever had a job would anticipate. A few horrifying findings, via the report:
- In office, “40% of women reported experiencing sexual harassment compared to 5% of men.” A whopping 84% of women mayors experienced harassment while campaigning, while men are at an (also bad!) 64%.
- On the campaign trail, 39% of women reported “threats and harassment to their family compared to men (20%).” One survey taker writes: “[People threatened] to kill my husband . . . [they said] there’s too many rats in [my city], so [we’ll] give the rats the poison and . . . poison your [children].” Another reports spending half her $10K salary on security cameras.
- In office, "20% of women mayors reported experiencing questions about their ability to do the job related to their identity while governing compared to just 9% of men.”
For the project, around 235 mayors answered questions via an online survey. Former Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, who had a hand in developing the poll, doesn’t expect any changes to come in our current political climate. “I don’t know if America is ready to talk about the steps that are … giving greater permission and room for violence,” she tells Politico.
AI Data Centers Stay Creepy
Data centers are huge, consume massive amounts of water and power, cause noise problems, and are generally opposed by the public when a company attempts to set up shop in Minnesota. That last bit can be a huge problem, as lawsuits can really slow plans down. So they’ve adopted a sneaky strategy: staying dark until a project reaches the permit stage, blindsiding an unsuspecting public.
Peyton Haug details for the Minnesota Reformer how early planning documents may use code names; Hermantown’s was called “Project Loon” while Farmington’s is “Project Bigfoot” (as in, big carbon footprint?).
Another tactic is to get agreeable elected officials to sign NDAs blocking them from discussing potential plans with constituents, sometimes months or even years before deals go public. “In smaller communities where there’s often less oversight, where fewer media are paying attention to it and fewer citizens participating, councils can get away with an awful lot of secrecy for a very long time without anybody complaining about it,” U of M law professor Jane Kirtley tells Haug.
In Hermantown, St. Louis County Commissioner Ashley Grimm is proposing a ban on NDAs for elected officials, but her NDA-signing colleagues have been predictably resistant to the idea. (For something really special, watch this video of commissioner/NDA signer Keith Nelson repeatedly telling a Duluth Monitor reporter “I don’t give a shit what you think” at a community meeting.)
How Do You Keep Homeless Folks on the Street? Fence Off the Sidewalk.
That’s a thing our cities are doing now, and it makes about as much sense as bulldozing through an encampment. Friend of Racket Bill Lindeke agrees, and he explains why this practice is dangerous, dehumanizing, and pointless in this great opinion piece for MinnPost.
“Fences have become a scourge for anyone trying to walk around downtowns or working-class Twin Cities neighborhoods over the last few years,” he writes. “Instead of solving challenging problems, our governments have turned to fences that cut off necessary urban connections, and it amounts to an abdication of public obligation to people on foot.”
Lindeke discusses fences blocking paths along Franklin Avenue, sidewalks near Lake Street that go under 35W, and a stretch of sidewalk closed off in front of the Catholic Charities complex in downtown St. Paul. Getting around these areas can add considerable extra mileage to a trip as well as force people to walk in precarious areas—an especially big deal if you’re disabled or elderly.
Gentle Sea Creature Moves to MN
Let's end today's Flyover with some good news: a loggerhead sea turtle named Snooki has made her way from Cape May, New Jersey, to her forever home at the Minnesota Zoo. According to the North Carolina facility that rehabbed her, Snooki is a 300-pound “zaftig lady” who loves the spotlight. While she’s still getting acclimated to her new digs in Apple Valley, guests will be able to see her once she gets settled in. In the meantime, check out this splashy little bath time video.
