Hey, Joe, I’m glad Ron outted Robertson for the sake of opennnes in government, but sometimes he seems like such a sneaky, stuck-up individual all the time telling us what is “best” for us and how smart he thinks Council is.

Like you, I am tired of being talked down to ……

You write: “Council is attempting to make a political process empirical, which probably will make all advocates mad.”

The only thing I have heard advocated in this blog has been that the appointment be a bonafide resident of the district. And, now that Newbille has opted to run for the office and not seek the appointment, the discussion has been simply that — a discussion of merits.

Since CC is keeping the public out (we can’ be trusted to be empirical?), where doyou or the members of CC get off talking down to us as if we are a bunch of fools?

BTW, what does Robertson think about the way you outed her e-mail to the players involved with the stadium? Does she know what you did?

It is easy to “see” the racial piece. But, please take a moment and “think” it through. If you do, then you will encourage others to “see” beyond the color line.

High city property taxes and poor public education chases out the lower to middle classes to the county which leaves Richmond with the extremes of upper classes and a huge poor population which hurts the public schools. The rich send their kids to private schools meaning less federal and state dollars flowing into public education and the poor go to school with the poor. To see how bad it can get, just take a look at middle schools in Richmond -that’s what happens when the working class citizens pack up and leave.

Eric, I agree with your number of $30k without children. Maybe there should be some kind of sliding scale for real estate taxes like the one the YMCA uses for memberships. Their monthly fees for family memberships start dropping for those making under $60k.

Ron, Our family is of the educated working class and living in this city in the east end with children is “sleepless nights” stressful. Our taxes are high, our public schools are unsuitable, and private school and college tuition well out of our range; and if we fall ill, we lose our health insurance that we’ve paid monthly for years (I guess that’s what you get for being self-employed). I’ve been talking to a lot of working class citizens and we are tired of paying welfare to the mega wealthy (bailouts, etc) and poor, only to be a hair away from the poor house ourselves. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not against helping the poor, I just don’t believe it’s right to rest the burden on those struggling not to slide into poverty themselves.

Ron, I don’t know what services to cut but if we start attracting the working and middle classes like the counties do, the city will naturally pull in more dollars through sales, services, property/real estate taxes; and the public schools would also see an increase in student population thus an increase in funds. A city with the majority being poor will only increase poverty but maybe the powers at-be want that. Reminds me of my history lessons in Latin American dictatorships.

Tiny, Read the entire chapter:
“There is no Refuge in Conservatism”

The issue isn’t racial as much as it is how poor and middle class BLACK AND WHITE people have been DOMINATED by CONSERVATIVE politicoes BLACK AND WHITE.

I am a little disturbed by some of the racial comments on this thread. I really thought the we as a community had overcome a lot of these racial tensions. I can only hope that by the spotlight this forum sheds on this issue will leading to healing and tolerance in our neighborhood.

McQuinn has been re-elected over and over again by huge margins. In these elections, she always faced strong opponents, yet the voters continue to vote her back in. Clearly, the majority of voters in this district is satisfied with her service and show up at the ballot box to voice their support. They vote because they think she does a good job, not because they have all been mass-brainwashed by the “Marsh Machine”.

I know many people oppose McQuinn and it is certainly their right to express their opposition. I am simply pointing out the fact that McQuinn and her son J.J. enjoy great support by the majority of her constituents.