It's all about Yoon

The race isn't really all about mayoral candidate Sam Yoon, but sometimes it should be. Though he hasn't yet seemed to mention it on his website, Universal Hub reports that the freshest face in the mayoral race has come up with a gim-crack idea that is long overdue. As Yoon is quoted as saying, "The bottom line is that Boston's residents are our customers (and our bosses), and we should treat them that way."

While the notion isn't exactly fresh, after all, all politicians in a democracy give lip service to serving constituents, Mr. Yoon is proposing offering services at times when people have the free time to utilize them. According to the report, the New Kid on the Block is proposing to keep City Hall open late one night a week. Such a simple idea, so commonplace in any other service sector, struck this reader as a bolt from the blue. Why shouldn't government be available when I am free to access it? Why do I take it as an article of faith that when I need to transact some business at City Hall, I need to be inconvenienced and make arrangements and make my productivity temporarily absent from greater Boston's humming economy?

Everyone knows bureaucracy is a sinkhole of needless effort tripped up by a quagmire of nonsensical hurdles to get anything done. What if the pain of standing in line and filling our forms to be stamped before progressing to the next line and the next forms, could be done without squandering paid time off from work, that most precious of commodities? Would that make the bitter pill of dealing with bored clerks and contradictory regulations easier to swallow? I am going to go out on a limb and say, "YES."

I had to get a resident parking sticker for my motorcycle so I took a Friday morning off to go to City Hall. What if City Hall were open late on Wednesdays, as the Boy Wonder-at-Large seems to be proposing? I would be much happier and not watching the clock as I swam through the morass of providing proof of residence. Especially since it took two visits to accomplish this mission. Total time sliced off my vacation allowance: 6 hours. It wasn't relaxing.

There may be union issues. The proposal doesn't seem to be asking for more hours worked, just a shift in when the 'work' gets done. If City Hall stays open late on Wednesdays, it will close early on Fridays because, really, who wants to get a jump on the weekend standing in line to be told you don't have the right paperwork to do what you want? The unions may say that this will rob employees of time better spent with their families. Think of the summer months when parents will be able to take their children out for larks in Boston's many public parks on Friday afternoons, or be home to help with difficult homework assignments, allowing a full Saturday or Sunday spent bonding and nurturing. This idea is a win-win all around.

I'm all for Yoon's zip car idea and other things he's proposed, but this one is a winner. This could change the race. Will the other candidates make a swipe? Tune into the news tomorrow, but not here. Our political editorializing budget is starting to run low. It's about time for a whimsy injection. Stay tuned!