KSTP November sweeps taxicab expose

KSTP has just done its November hyped expsose: "Who's At the Wheel of Metro Taxis?":

They should have labeled it "Minneapolis" instead of "Metro" since all the incidents they found were there, but there is certainly some truth in what they report.

They found a lot of unlicensed drivers in unlicensed cabs [unlicensed as least as far as the city was concerned] and a lot of undesirable criminal records for the drivers involved, driving violations and other crimes.

They probably could have done the same here, maybe on Grand Avenue or Seven Corners after an ice hockey game, and received similar results with one exception:

In Mpls. they actually have license inspectors and police trying to catch some of the scofflaws.

Two quick observations on our November 3rd exercises

1. Mayor Coleman the Second was reelected. It is certainly newsworthy and important. And I am sure that there are mandates in there some place and maybe somebody will correctly discern what they are and act accordingly.

In 2005 he unseated an incumbent mayor with thirty years of service in elective office and whatever personal machinery had been developed. In 2009, as an incumbent, he beat a non-incumbent with no political experience.

While that makes me question whether service as our mayor has helped Chris Coleman’s political future, it does indicate that he still has a present and we all need to respect that.

2. We approved IRV. It was close but the results did surprise me. It will be interesting to see how it develops when we choose councilmembers in 2011. It also leads me to question how we plan to pay for the 2011 school board primary.