Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009 | I am likely one of the individuals who belong to groups the mayor referred to as defeatists who have no faith in the future.
In fact, he couldn’t be more wrong. What I and my fellow activists envision is a different, more optimistic, future than the mayor.
He believes in propagating the status quo, the culture of cronyism and the inept torpid management of the city that has come to be the hallmark of his administration. He believes in rigged advisory committees that always recommend what he wants inevitably populated by different combinations of the same tired old faces.
We believe in open government, public participation in civic decisions involving major expenditures of public funds for capital projects, efficient government with accountability and attention to detail, legal advice that rises above the mediocre and fixed-price contracts free of legal loopholes that are actually written by city lawyers not the contractors.
We believe the future extends past the next election cycle and that requires political leaders with real vision and passion. That is why we are fighting for an enduring, truly world class, downtown waterfront that neither the mayor, CCDC nor the Port District have any interest in creating.
As I sat listening to the mayor talk about erecting flawed edifices, spin the facts, and ignore the city’s financial problems, I looked around the room, and with a few exceptions, saw the past masquerading as the future.