And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

This all started as a hobby.

Early last year, citizens of Maplewood starting seeing signs that things were not right in city hall. I went to my first-ever city council meeting. My first impression was that this council was, to put it mildly, dysfunctional.

When drawnLeftward and I started this blog, we saw it as a sort of entertainment project. Admittedly, making fun of a city council that displayed a serious commitment to acts of self-parody wasn't the most challenging project in the world, but we thought we'd give it a whirl. The new council majority seemed to invite ridicule, and as polite Minnesotans we could hardly refuse them.

As the year went on I found myself drawn more and more seriously into the issues of Maplewood — both the details (things like the budget) and the bigger picture (things like the fundamental questions of good government and respect for process, and the implications beyond Maplewood of council actions like their undermining of civil service protections). We've also had an increasing number of readers and commenters.

Now it's 2007. In Maplewood, that means it's an election year. After a year of escalating bafflement as the Gang of Three unveiled one travesty of governance after another (and we at WLOM did our best to poke fun at them), we're now in a year where something can change. A new member can be elected to the council, to change the balance of power and start restoring reason to city hall.

I'd like to be that person. You've come to know me as Frostbrand, but my name in real life is John Nephew, and I will be running for Maplewood City Council. You can read more about me and my campaign at www.johnnephew.com.

What does this mean for What's Left of Maplewood? Frostbrand will still be on the masthead as a contributor, but I won't be able to write or comment as much as I have this past year. That's one of the reasons we invited LookingNorth to join us, to help keep the conversation going here.

When I came home from my first city council meeting, I went looking on the internet for a place where people might be talking about the situation in Maplewood, as I had become accustomed to finding blogs all across the political spectrum on state and national issues. There didn't seem to be such a place, so we decided to create it. I enjoy writing here, with a mix of whimsy and serious discussion, and I hope that it will continue to flourish while I'm busy trying to win an election.