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The-Dane t1_jcw1mfa wrote

Reply to comment by TitsMageesVacation in Zeke Cohen officially declares run for City Council President by gothaggis

why do you say that?

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TitsMageesVacation t1_jcw23eh wrote

Personal experiences with his office. Downvote me all you want, but he is just more of the same old, same old. He’s all talk. His idea of action is “we are thinking of convening a panel that could study the problem next year, but we have to think about it for 6 more months.”

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LarsThorwald t1_jcxs633 wrote

I’ve had a handful of experiences with Zeke. He’s incredibly accessible as a politician. I’ve messaged him on Facebook, tweeted at him, called his office. All on regular things (pothole/garbage collection shit), and he — not his staff, him — has always responded.

On one thing I was particularly impressed. A friend ran into a house to save two people from a fire. He was badly burned. After he was awarded and decorated, two years later one of the people who lived in the house — the son of the woman who owned the house, who my friend tried to save — was a guy with mental health issues who was living on the back patio of the burned out house. Sadly, his mother had died despite my friend’s rescue attempt. The son was left alone. He was out of his depth and autistic. With no home, no place to go, he just started sleeping on the back patio of the house.

Neighbors saw this and we reached out to Zeke. He gave us as much assistance as he could do in his job. He had the house condemned, which allowed neighbors to do certain things to give the son a way to live on the patio (which he wouldn’t leave, so we got him a shelter and port-o-potty). He, Zeke, took the initiative to reach out to us now and then, to check in.

Sadly, the son died of alcoholism after several months of us providing him shelter, food, clothing, and taking him to homeless shelters now and then until he checked himself out.

Zeke has always been responsive. He was responsive then. I always heard from him, not his staff. When I’ve reached out to him over pothole-like issues, I’ve heard from him, not staff. He responds like a neighbor, not a politician.

One of the dings against Zeke I’ve heard is that he’s too empathetic, too soft for the job of City Council President. I understand that. He’s compassionate and kind and looks to long term solutions for underlying causes of crime, and some people think he’s not as focused on reducing crime in the near term..

I get all that. It may hurt him.

But he would hardly be the sketchy dealer Mosby is.

I’m all in on Zeke.

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JessLevelsUp t1_jcxwup7 wrote

That’s a very nice story - thanks for sharing. So kind of you and your neighbors. This gives me a greater understanding of Zeke. I hope he can create change!

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PleaseBmoreCharming t1_jcw6inp wrote

I mean, there's only so much you can do as a legislator. That is, pass laws and form committees to hold people accountable on the public record. The executive branch is where the regulatory practices are conducted, and laws are enforced. If you want to be angry at something, be angry at the bureaucratic processes from that side, not something that was never set up to "act" in the first place.

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DemonDeke t1_jcwocz7 wrote

The legislative branch can be more active and has more tools at its disposal than that.

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bmore t1_jcy6p3a wrote

It sure can be, with a council president that doesn't neuter it deliberately to undermine reform efforts and consolidate power.

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The-Dane t1_jcw3d6h wrote

nah not one of those... I know what you mean by downvote.... its fair thats what you have experienced, why would anyone downvote that. What I can say is, he is better than our old counsel person. he was there for the paycheck only

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TeachGullible t1_jcznezv wrote

I can list off several instances where Zeke and his office helped my neighbors and I resolve issues with immediate effect. Would you mind sharing the personal experiences? I am happy to share mine.

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TitsMageesVacation t1_jczrhoq wrote

Too many to list but primarily not showing up to a very important community meeting about the violence uptick in Fells. It was via zoom and he could not post. Didn’t even “send” a staffer. It was a joke and everyone involved was dumbfounded.

Most recently they forgot to tell the entire neighborhood about all the road closures for the bike race on Labor Day weekend until about two days before. When questioned they straight up lied to me in writing and said the race course had only recently been disclosed due to security reasons, but I found a 6 month old post by the race organizers with the route.

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