24 July, 2019 0 Comments

Can Mayors Be Good Presidents? Yes, But One Job At A Time Please

July 24, 2019 By Leave a Comment

Mayor Quimby is NOT the best example.

There was a fascinating profile last week in the New York Times’ Sunday Magazine about Mayor Pete of South Bend, Indiana.

Pete Buttigieg, 37, is running for president and as of today is considered a “top-tier” Democratic contender in a large field of candidates.

I’m drawn to the Mayor Pete story for several reasons but mostly because he’s a mayor, having been elected to the top office in Indiana’s fourth largest city while still in his 20s.

I can relate –somewhat– to the story having also been a mayor albeit in my late 30s of a city that toggled between the third and fourth largest in Palm Beach County at the time.

That’s kind of where the similarities end.

Mayor Pete went to Harvard and was a Rhodes Scholar who speaks 8 languages. I went to SUNY Oswego (the Harvard of Central New York) took Spanish in junior high school and studied Hebrew for my Bar Mitzvah but never really could master either language.

But we do have something else in common.

Mayor Pete, while running for president, is trying to heal a city in the wake of a police shooting of an African American resident. I had a similar experience in 2005.

What I don’t understand is how you can do two jobs at once—run for president and serve effectively as a mayor.

Perhaps you might be able to slide by if you’re in Congress if you miss a few votes, but serving as a mayor is the political equivalent of a hands-on, 24-7 job.

As someone is quoted in the Times story—when you are a mayor “every turd tends to land on your doorstep and everyone knows where your doorstep is”.

Not the most elegant description but apt nonetheless.

And it doesn’t matter if you a so-called “strong mayor” like Mayor Pete or if you serve in a council-manager form of government like we have in Delray Beach and Boca Raton.

The buck stops with you on everything that happens in your city. Some of it you can exert some measure of control over—zoning, budgets, capital projects—but some you just can’t control—such as shootings, natural disasters or when the principal of your local high school decides to question the validity of The Holocaust. In Florida, schools are the purview of the School Board, but you can be assured that my friend Boca Mayor Scott Singer was deeply involved in that recent controversy as he should have been.

When a shooting occurs in a city the mayor needs to be present.

The NYT story quotes Buttigieg as saying that mayors serve as their community’s pastors and commanders in chief—an interesting and accurate description.

When tragedy strikes and anger, sadness and emotions swell, mayors are there to absorb the pain.

It’s hard to do that when you are campaigning in Iowa or pressing the flesh at a fish fry in New Hampshire.

That said, I’m not of the school that mayors can’t be good presidents, even though none have ever made the leap directly from City Hall to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

In fact, mayors may be uniquely qualified to serve in this moment of division and gridlock. After all, when you are mayor you are compelled to solve problems, tend to look for non-partisan solutions and are always reminded that policies at their core effect real people, something that every elected official ought to remember.

Mayors serve in a fish bowl, everybody sees you. There’s no hiding behind a party and no voting in distant places like Washington orTallahassee.

That proximity keeps the best mayors grounded in reality—they have to live close to the impacts both positive and negative– of their decisions.

I like that—it leads to accountability but only if your constituency is paying attention as we should always do.

So yes, I think mayors could be good presidents. But I don’t think they can or should run at the same time they are serving their cities.

We’d all be better off if the people we elect concentrate on the jobs we elected them to do. That goes for the Mayor of NYC as well, who was out of town when his city suffered a large blackout earlier this month.

Yes, you can fly back as Mayor DeBlasio and Mayor Pete did when crises occurred. But then they have to fly out again—which leaves their cities rudderless.

That’s never a good thing.

 

 

 

 

 

4 June, 2018 0 Comments

The Perils of Bickering

June 4, 2018 By Leave a Comment

I subscribe to Axios.com which is serving as my morning news fix because my newspaper carrier can’t seem to deliver before I leave for work these days. (Sigh)
Axios is a compilation of well written news “bites” and analysis that makes you feel somewhat “in the know.”

Last week, there was an item that caught my eye and made me think. And worry.
The writer opined that the era of American economic and technological dominance was coming to an end and that China was going to surpass the USA within a decade.

Whoa!
Why?

Because China has a vision to dominate trade and technology and to become the world’s indispensable nation.
But beyond having a vision, China is executing by making investments in infrastructure, artificial intelligence and robotics with a stated goal of dominance.

Of course, China is a one party dictatorship with a President who just made himself leader for life. What Xi says goes. Period.
It doesn’t exactly work that way in the United States. Good thing too.

But it does make one wonder how we stave off competition from a nation as large, as capable and as determined as China.
It also makes you wonder when the last time we had a national vision that went beyond the next election.

It wasn’t always this way.

The Space Race, World War II and the war on terror are just a few examples of near universal national resolve.
It seems like everything else has been a struggle: civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, health care, immigration, gun safety etc., have been battles.

There is nothing wrong with struggling for what you believe in. In fact, it probably makes you more appreciative when you achieve your goal. Also, Democracy is inherently messy and loud. But if it is to remain viable and competitive it needs to lead to something. The process (struggle) should be Democratic, but there needs to be outcomes too–or you risk losing your edge as a nation. Today, we have too many problems left unsolved by national “leaders” focused solely on beating their enemies, getting re-elected, rewarding their friends and erasing the other team’s work. Partisanship reigns over patriotism. It’s not just sad, it’s tragic and fatal if not addressed.

This blog is a champion of local solutions (localism) but there are some things that only a competent and effective federal government can accomplish: a national defense for instance, immigration policy, rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure.

But…
These days we bicker. These days we dawdle.
All the while, the competition plans and executes.

Still, on this corner of the web, we focus on cities and hyper local topics and so here’s where there are parallels.
The cities that have visions; the cities that execute win.
The cities that bicker and dawdle miss out.
It’s that simple.
Really. It is that simple.
So make decisions.
Take risks.
Be civic entrepreneurs.
Invest.
Re-invest.
Reach out and involve the whole community.
Listen.
Learn.
Question.
Experiment.
Make the good stuff easy.
Turn down the bad stuff.
But don’t bicker.
Don’t dawdle.
We live in a competitive landscape and we can’t afford our communities to major in the minor.
Progress and prosperity flows to cities which create a culture that celebrate those who aspire.
Progress and prosperity will miss places that bicker and dawdle.

As Bruce Springsteen sings about Atlantic City: “Down here it’s just winners and losers and don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line.”

 

23 October, 2017 0 Comments

Wouldn’t It Be Nice

October 23, 2017 By Leave a Comment

Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs wrote,   “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” 

Kind of a nice sentiment right? 

I mean who can disagree?

But maybe..,just maybe…a part of you is wondering if that’s just pie in the sky idealistic hooey. 

And I suppose it may be. But…

Ideals are important. Values too. 

It’s vital that we try and it’s imperative that we strive. 

I keep hearing how we live in an age of disruption where everything we know is being challenged. 

How we work. 

Where we work. 

How we get around. 

How we shop. 

Name the sector or the subject and it’s being rethought. 

Retail. 

Higher education. 

Cars. 

The Presidency. 

It’s both exciting and scary. 

Me, I’m cool with change.

I find technology interesting and I love to learn about new things and new ways of thinking. 

But I also feel it’s imperative that we hold onto some foundations, cling to bedrock values and think about what we want to see last. 

Traditions are important. So are roots and history. 

But they shouldn’t shackle us or prevent us from going to new places in our minds and communities. Values and traditions should inform us and the things that work should endure. 

Inclusiveness is one of those things. 

So Jane Jacobs was right. 

The table —so to speak—should make room for all who wish to sit there and participate. And efforts should be made to involve as many people as possible. We need the coalition of the willing to be ever growing. 

I think often about what my city has taught me (us) if we take the time to reflect. 

We work best when we include, when we seek to unite, understand and engage. 

We fail and we hurt others when we exclude, divide, label and ignore. 

Inclusiveness promotes respect and encourages participation and dialogue. 

A top down “father knows best” style of governing is a dead end. 

Inclusiveness is noisy, cumbersome, time consuming and not as efficient as top down decision making but it’s worth it. 

And it creates human connections. And we need that more now than maybe ever. 

The comedian Sara Silverman has a new show on Hulu in which she seeks to spend time with people who don’t see life as she does. 

I caught a sample episode online in which the Jewish liberal from New England visits a family of Trump voters in Louisiana. 

They talk about hot button topics including  gay marriage and immigration in a humorous way that doesn’t change any one’s mind but does change how they see each other. They laugh. They bond. They leave with their humanity not only intact but enhanced. 

To quote The Beach Boys: “Wouldn’t it be nice”.