EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third of six profiles of 2017 mayoral candidates we’ll be publishing before the Stranger Election Control Board announces its endorsements.
Mike McGinn is sweaty. He biked to this little community gathering outside the Evans Pool in Green Lake, as he does everywhere else. On this particular Saturday morning, he’s forgotten to take off his chain guard, a piece of string wrapped around his right pant leg. A woman points out that he still has it on, and he reaches down to untie it.
“I forget, you know,” he says, thumbing the string like it’s a set of rosary beads. “I carry a jacket in my bag so I’m camera-ready.”
A camera crew has arrived to interview the 57-year-old third-time mayoral candidate and one-time former mayor. A dozen or so elderly Green Lake neighborhood activists hang around with signs that read “No to Privatization” and “Save Evans Pool.” They oppose a parks department suggestion to work with a nonprofit like the YMCA in order to repair and renovate the dilapidated community center. To critics of a public-private merger, the plan meant “privatization.”
