It Means ‘The Good Land’

May 14, 2019 9:55 AM

“For most of his twenty-four years as mayor, Hoan lacked a sympathetic majority on the city council. But he won over many colleagues by showing it was possible to both expand public services and balance the city’s budget. In 1932, however, voters installed a leftist majority on the council, and Hoan was emboldened. At a time when many cities resorted to violence to intimidate striking employees, Hoan pushed for a law that allowed the mayor to close any factory if the employer refused to negotiate with the workers. He asked Milwaukee’s voters to support municipal ownership of the city’s electric power system and streetcars. They rejected the idea in a referendum, but other cities around the country embraced it.” What Milwaukee Can Teach the Democrats about Socialism
posted by The Whelk (2 comments total)

It's interesting...my hometown owns our gas & light department. I never really thought too much about it until fairly recently (I'm talking the past 10 years or so) when Facebook hometown-based groups started popping up and people would mention electric outages. Our town has very few, and our service is kind of crazy-good, and all the complaints people have with their power companies just...kind of don't occur all that much with our Municipal Gas & Light. It's really a great way to get that sort of resource, especially since the council that is in charge of it is made up of elected officials.
posted by xingcat at 10:26 AM on May 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Obligatory
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 11:47 AM on May 14, 2019