Strong mayor or weak?

I like Sam Yoon. Who doesn't? He's an earnest, likable chap.

Like many other people, I'm ambivalent about the incumbent Mayor Menino. Boston functions. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. Is that really a campaign platform? I don't think Boston is broken as much as it is a little gummy in the gears and anyone who thinks about it realizes that when it comes to campaign contributions, the incumbent's sticky fingers are in just about every jam pot. I don't scent any more than a whiff of corruption, despite some of the remarks made in last night's debate. It isn't the kind of corruption that drags a city down, at least. Boston is doing rather well and, I admit, we have the current administration to thank for that. We can thank them for the school system too, and the pot holes.

Sam Yoon is charismatic. He brings charm to the table and book smarts too. He did make a remark last night that gave me pause. Mr. Yoon is in favor of limiting his power if elected. He feels a strong mayor is a bad thing. Mr. Menino made the point that he is the Chief Executive Officer of a multi-billion dollar operation (multi meaning more than two and billion implying it is more responsibility any regular voter will ever have to contemplate in their lifetime). If Boston were a private company, which it isn't, I would want a strong executive in charge. I would also expect that the executive has been schooled in budget management and personnel management and efficiency equations and cutting the bottom line to maximize investor returns. A politician isn't schooled in any of these things. The mayor learns his job on the fly. You don't get your PhD in mayoralty and then move up the ranks to the top spot. You make compelling speeches, you become a personality people can relate to, you promise things you needn't necessarily deliver, connect with the voters and, if you do these things go well, well....Hello, Mr. Mayor.

I moved to Boston from a small city with a weak mayor form of government. Let me tell you, it is better to have someone in charge, even someone with no experience, who has to make decisions and take the blame as well as the laurels, than it is to have no one accountable. New London, Connecticut's city charter was hatched in the 1920s when voters were afraid of popular will, machine politics, demagoguery and political corruption. Want to know why New London has been in a recession for decades before the current national malaise took root? It's because New London's weak mayor/strong city manager/impotent city council system stinks. I'm talking stink from the feet up. The kind of stink that reeks out of every pore and alleyway. You want to talk about civic malaise. Look up New London, Conn. in a dictionary and you'll see an illustration of a pock marked soul. If you kick a dead dog it will move. New London is dead in its picturesque harbor for no good reason beyond dead inertia.

The masthead on the city's website will show you it is a beautiful place. A day spent in its borders will prove that it is full of vibrantly beautiful people. A month living there will make you feel like you've planted your shoes in quicksand and the mud is thick with the muck low tide and low expectations leave behind in their trailing wake. If I vote for a mayor I want him to have all the power he can muster to promote the vision I'm voting for. I don't want my candidate to tell me he'll have too much power and he won't be trusted to exercise it wisely. If I'm voting for change I want to empower the candidate who will bring it on with both barrels blazing. The candidate who tells me he'll tell other people to clip his wings? I'll clip your wings for you at the ballot box, buddy.

As for Flaherty and McCrea? Flaherty is as much a part of the system as the incumbent. It's like switching the jack of hearts for the jack of clubs. A meaningless trade. Firefighters endorse Flaherty. I'm all for firefighters but, like many Bostonians, I could do without their union. I can do without Flaherty too. This brings us to McCrea. I like him and I don't at the same time. He is colorful. He is sharp. He is right on target with what he criticizes and I agree with him 100%. Menino has been in office too long. Fresh blood keeps a city's spleen healthy when McCrea vents his spleen, civic discourse is better by it. A little bile goes a long way, however, and that is why I am more inclined toward Yoon.

Sam Yoon is a thinker, a wonk, a man of theory more than practice. I suspect that if he gets elected he'll see the advantages of a strong mayor form of government. Power does tend to corrupt. With power comes responsibility. I think Mr. Yoon will take that responsibility seriously and do what he was elected to do. I think the incumbent does the same. I just think the incumbent has been in office too long and it's time to take the broom and the scrub brush to the scales the current administration has built up around the ugliest city hall in the nation.

This is one man's opinion. 'Nuff said. "Sicut Patribus Sit Deus Nobis"

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!

I like Sarkozy

There are many things the French are good at, though I don't think government is one of them. Despite that, I have a lot of respect for the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. He is very French: dapper, amorous, talking with his hands, passionate. He is a politician but he seems to be himself. Even if it is sometimes a tad larger than life, his persona appears grounded in his personality, that of a bon vivante who also wants to accomplish something and do right by his republic.

He is labeled a conservative and got along well with the last American president. He is French though, so his perceived conservatism may be be difficult for American eyes to discern. He's no McCain or Palin or Bush or Cheney. He maybe wants factory workers not to threaten to blow up the factories they're being laid off from. He may want to cajole, though not force, people to work something like a forty-hour week for lavishly subsidized benefits. He seems to like government accountability for money spent, in France. And he is more business-friendly than most Frenchmen, even French executives who are usually publicly apologetic about every decision they make. Atlas didn't shrug in France. He moved to Idaho to tutor libertarian militiamen. It was a direct flight to Boise without entering Logan or enjoying the hi jinx played out under the watchful eye of the Sacred Cod.

Even when he's in hot water, Sarkozy swims with aplomb and grace, with a world weariness and acceptance that doesn't cramp his style or diminish his joie de vivre. The photo above is not provided with any context and I don't want to discuss how the American president was really turning to help someone off frame down a steep step. Let us take the photo alone and admire Sarkozy, a man who has seen his share of debauchery, no doubt, and who knows how to sum up events with a knowing eye. He's not exactly smug, just contented as a cat that has eaten its share of canaries.

I haven't done much investigating on this photo, but I doubt there is as much reaction to M. Sarkozy's pose as there is to Mr. Obama's. Everyone is aware the French President appreciates curves in the right places and he also enjoys the play of sparks when boy meets girl or man meets woman and all the trouble and pleasure that follow. He's not Berlusconi. He is younger, more dashing, and better equipped to get away from a naughty kerfluffle without political ramifications. He's Sarkovy, a ladies' man, but a man of France. A president not a demagogue.

What does this have to do with Boston or Dorchester? Do a little photoshopping in your head. Replace Obama with Mayor Menino. Replace Sarkozy with Sam Yoon. Their personalities are not close parallels, in fact people compare Yoon to Obama, somewhat unjustly, more often than not. Sam Yoon is no Barack Obama though he may be a candidate for change. The differences between them are more than the similarities. Yoon's rhetoric doesn't soar, but the bar is set an increment above pothole level in Boston so it doesn't take much height to gain traction and then eventual liftoff. Yoon isn't an orator from what I've gathered. He is pretty smart though from all available evidence.

I'm not sure what people compare the incumbent mayor to and I'm not sure all of the comparisons would be flattering. If Mayor Menino had a current European president as a doppelganger, I don't know...the president of Belgium? Luxembourg? Lichtenstein? There isn't a ham-handed, inscrutable Soviet bloc anymore so it's hard to say.

Anyhow, I can picture the incumbent mayor being snapped in a compromising backwards glance to help a constituent down a steep step and, in the moment of the flash bulb, it may seem like he was ogling some passing girl's shapely hindquarters. The documentary evidence would provoke a chuckle because, as every Bostonian knows, the Urban Mechanic is focused on doing right for Boston every minute of every 24-hour day without time for frivolous thoughts or passing fancies. The pillow talk in Hyde Park is geared more to curing insomnia than stoking passion.

As for Yoon replacing Sarkozy? That's a tough fit too. This boyish, exuberant candidate has a young family and doesn't appear to be a tomcat. What he does when no one is watching is none of our business and we are not watching. We are looking to Boston's future and how the city should be run. Sam Yoon certainly doesn't have as much experience under his belt as Nicolas Sarkozy. Few men do. If Sarkozy had chosen to vacation in Boston instead of on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee father north, Bostonians would have a chance to see a world leader up close in repose instead of the usual panorama of parochial leaders in action. Yoon is always earnest but he also always seems relaxed, comfortable in his own skin.

That fact alone makes him more like Sarkozy than the current incumbent mayor. The incumbent is comfortable in his role as Boston's mayor but, obviously, not comfortable being anything else. If he were, he wouldn't be maneuvering to be in office longer than anyone else in this old city's history. He could find another arena in which to play his talents to their fullest to better social benefit. If you are good at one thing, you may be better at others if you give yourself a chance. Human Resource professionals catagorize this as either personal or professional growth depending on the circumstances. People stuck in one view of themselves are sometimes called Peter Pan by laymen. You can't go home again.

Sarkozy will be voted out of office some day as will Obama, no matter how much or little leering either of them do. One of them, because of term limits, doesn't have a choice. I haven't looked into the details of the current French constitution, but I doubt Sarkozy will mind passing on the reins of power and going on enjoying his life at its next stage as an seasoned, elder statesman. That says much of a man, and a leader. We all have our roles but only when it is appropriate to the play. Actors don't stay on stage after their lines don't add to the plot. Politicians shouldn't either.

It's up to the voters of course, but I posit this: If you caught the incumbent doing something out of character in his role as mayor, would you be embarrassed for him? I would because even when he rides a bicycle, which is out of character despite the health claims he's made, or the reversal on whether charter schools are good, the incumbent is more wind sock than mechanic. Whoever is the next mayor will be granted public goodwill for awhile and then outlive their usefulness. A Wang computer in 2112. We upgrade every other device when they wear out in everything other aspects of our lives, why not Boston's executive office>

Maybe Thomas Menino has a few good years left in him. Whatever the upcoming election reults, he's no Nicolas Sarkozy.

.........or....

Flaherty and the bell curve

Michael Flaherty supporters were out in force to support their mayoral candidate on every corner of Edward Everett Square's many converging sidewalks this afternoon sporting signs. They weren't really engaging the public when I passed, just chatting amongst themselves in tightly knit knots leaning against their sign supports. It wasn't so much a revolution as a layabout.

This busy intersection is just outside the current City Councillor's political stronghold of South Boston, Southie, in which you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a campaign sign stuck in available dirt. Everett Square is in N'orchester and while there are some Flaherty signs in lawns and porch windows, there are also signs for Yoon and the incumbent. Not so many for McCrea. From a conventional viewpoint Flaherty has an upper hand among the challengers. The incumbent, of course, holds most of the cards and most of those are pressed close to his chest and he's not debating about whether he holds a winner.

Flaherty is the strongest candidate because he is the most entrenched in Boston's government echelons. I understand he has been in office a long time. The argument can be made that Michael Flaherty can walk down any City Hall corridor and say hello to the marriage license clerks he passes and ask about their grand kids. He has a long-employed staff that can do the same, so Mr. Flaherty's support network is well connected with the pistons and gears that keep the city running. Much like the current mayor he has the advantage of incumbancy and familiarity. These are not really ingredients one looks for in a recipe for change.

Boston isn't broken. It hums along well enough, making incremental progress. It is still a provincial city with a world-class reputation. The tourists keep coming and the hospitals and universities still make the news and employ citizens and keep the urban economic engine chugging along, chuff, chuff, chuff.... Leadership? Vision? Promise? I don't see much of these things at play in the current political ring.

I like Yoon. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, a mensch, and he's got his policy and his poli-sci down cold. McCrae, the dark horse in this race, likewise has good ideas, but again, most of them are about how to govern, not about why. More openess in the goverment process and trimming the budget a smidge here and there are commendable goals. Boston's government should be more efficient and accountable, but I would like a candidate to tell me what Boston should be besides more efficient and honest. I'm all for crooked government if it brings results and I won't ask any questions if everyone gets their slice of the pie, myself included, and every other tax-paying, voting citizen. If there is gravy to spread around spread it thick and even. Even a thief can be elected time and time again to the top office. Mayor Curley knew this and he knew how to do it: vision and results.

To my mind, Flaherty is another incumbent. A schlub who can organize people to stand lackadasically on streetcorners as human signposts. They may be volunteers but if that's the case they will be paid one way or the other in the end. I passed through another Flaherty sign-bearing posse in Roslindale a few weeks ago on an errand, they seemed as disinterested in campaigning as today's squadron in Everett Square, enjoying the weather and each other's company but not much else. I haven't seen any Yoon supporters on the streets, but I don't usually stray too much from my commuter route and Yoon seems to have my part of town, if not sewn up, then solidly behind him.

I've never seen a McCrae rally. I've gotten emails from his campaign, all of them as dull as dishwater pretty much just asking me to attend a speaking event or contribute money. I read McCrae's emails and I think, "Weeeeelllllll, maybe I should get more involved." Then I think I'll just be guilted into giving a donation and asked to help someone who isn't really helping himself. I think again: "Probably not. If I don't have nothing else to do, I'll go to what McCrae is hosting." Well, I haven't seen the man yet in person nor any of his cheerleaders. I always have something else to do that takes precedence. Believe me, its nothing that can't be put off til tomorrow. I like his honesty but he doesn't tempt me. It's too bad, because I think he is the best person for the job. I relish a businessman used to looking at the bottom line in office, delivering the best services possible. I'm not convinced McCrae is focused on the city's bottom line as he would be for his company. He seems to be hamstrung about accountability. It's important, but delivery is more imporatant. Accountability doesn't matter if everyone is content. McCrae seems to be a share-all, public business zealot, a goo-goo. There is nothing wrong with that if the city works, but the focus is on something other than what I care about: the working. I don't think he's as nimble and sharp as Yoon, who I have also never met. Yoon is the better politician.

Wheels within wheels and Boston's future direction at stake. I don't think this city will change course after the upcoming election from what I've seen so far. Another Menino term, anyone? The odds are in the incumbent's favor. He doesn't do a bad job and middling is better than disaster. A cheery prospect: more mediocrity. Well, there is nothing wrong with being in the middle of the bell curve.

The Mayor's madness

The parallels aren't exact but, reading today's featured book, I was struck by that old truism that power tends to corrupt. Does Boston need a five-term mayor? That's for the voters to decide. I have a lot of admiration for what Mayor Curley, that Rascal King, accomplished, but even he didn't have serve back-to-back-to-back terms. He gave the public a little breathing room.

Mayor White has an oversize statue downtown where he is depicted walking with purposeful stride on his way to conduct urgent city business. His neck tie flaps in the wind of history. Mayor Curley has two statues, side by side, both life sized. One statue depicts him puffed with pride, full of power, a bull pulling the plow for his constituents' harvest. The other depicts him contentedly sitting on a bench, a man resting in the midst of the fray of city life, both observer and player. What will Mayor Menninno's statue look like? I picture a squat, stocky pygmy wearing overalls and pointing a monkey wrench at a topographical map of Boston. The Urban Mechanic set in bronze with a few crescent wrenches hanging out his back pocket.

What is today's featured book? A little light reading from Tacitus that illustrates what happens when people get too used to thier office. The volume is slim enough to fit into your back pocket to read on the T.
No offense intended toward the incumbent should I ever need to apply for a permit. No endorsement for Messrs. Yoon, Flaherty or McCrea either. The voters will decide who they want to run the city. Let us hope Boston won't be like Rome.

A Place in the Sun

There is a place in the sun for everyone and New London is one. May eases toward June like ripples in the surf. The Thames River sparkles, dappled with sunshine whiter than the clouds. When tide comes in from Long Island Sound, the breast of the river takes on the slate blue of the Atlantic. When the tide recedes, the river turns as clean and pure as the rivers that feed it.

Connecticut’s Thames River starts where the Yantic and the Shetucket Rivers meet. These two are fed by the Mount Hope, the Willimantic, the Quinnebaug, and myriad streams that flow through forest and farmland. The Thames collects the effluviant from far upstate, in Connecticut’s Quiet Corner where life has changed little since the Civil War.

The Thames River is New London’s life blood. It was once called the Pequot River, and then the Mohegan River. New London was called Pequot Plantation. After the Pequot War, the legislature found the name distasteful and suggested the lands Indian name, Nameaug. It is a Mohegan-Pequot word that means “Good Fishing Place.”

The inhabitants of Pequot Plantation had a different idea. They had found their place in the sun and they wanted to bask in it. An Algonquin name didn’t sit well with former Englishmen who knew they sat on the best port in the world. They petitioned to name themselves as they saw fit. As the home of two governors, the city had its way, setting a precedent that has stood the test of time.

The citizens of Pequot Plantation knew what they should be called. They stood tall and declared across the Atlantic that their city would be called New London, and one day it would change to New and Improved London. They intended this as a toss of the gauntlet and set to work making an improved New London, Conn.

After three hundred fifty years, New London has become a place full of civilization’s amenities. There is a place in the sun for everyone. The Whaling City is one.

An Obituary to Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin is a particular hero of Whalehead King. Boris Yeltsin is quoted as saying:
“A man must live like a great bright flame and burn as brightly as he can. In the end, he burns out. But this is better than a mean, little flame.” Whalehead King heard a recording of Mr. Yeltsin’s quote in its original Russian. Whalehead King didn’t need a translation. He knew exactly what the speaker meant. Yeltsin was a kind of Kerouac in his way, the way Whalehead King, in his dapper persona, stills experiences beat epiphanies every day.

Mr. Yeltsin moved inside the system as a subversive until he parlayed his strengths into positive power. All he ever intended was to enable people to have pride in their lives and the optimism to take a chance. He wasn’t successful in every sense, but he was dramatic and he gave whole nations, even the whole world, hope for a brief time. Some people are good at grandstanding and forging a vision into an anchor to which others can cling, waiting for rescue. Other people are good at being bean counters and administrators. To bring New London, Conn. into this obituary for a grandstander and empowered drunkard, let it be said that many citizens of New London wish for a leader of Mr. Yeltsin’s stature.

In New London, the bean counter administrator is in charge by antiquated fiat. This is a city that yearns for a leader who personifies the hopes and dreams of a community often scorned and shadily portrayed. A city so full of eloquent performers and artistes should be able to express itself. Imagination burbles all over New London. People have aspirations. They would like to live in a city in which they can take pride. City Hall is tone deaf, numb and dumb and blind. All it can do is taste is business as usual. Despite the contents of official proclamations, New London’s government relishes the taste of decay.

It is a city of conflicting visions because no one but a bureaucrat is running the show. We have an ineffective council of well-intentioned cab drivers, construction workers, school teachers, non-profit predators, and political hangers-on who need their egos stroked. We elect then every two years out of the list of like candidates of devils-we-know. You are more likely to see a New London City Councilor sitting at a picnic table at Fred’s Shanty with a mustard stain on his or her tee shirt, than standing on top of a tank. If a tank were in front of City Hall, there would be have to be a lottery to decide who would get the pleasure of pulling the trigger. You can bet your bottom dollar that most of the City Councilors would be out of town at prior commitments and the City Manager would be looking for another cushy job with a fat salary in a city with low expectations.

Godspeed to Boris Yeltsin.

Home Sweet Home

If home is where the heart is, then New London's skyline shelters 25,999 happy citizens. There is one person not wholly convinced that she belongs in New London and her loyalties have wavered of late. Our correspondent met with her recently over coffee at Muddy Waters Cafe to learn the cause of her disenchantment.

Sitting in the back with The Whaling City's Goodwill Ambassador, this middle aged lady recited her reasons. To whit: New London is too small, too boring, too poor, there is no interesting work and nothing happens here. She is thinking about relocated to a larger city that proves what it promises with cash, glamour and stimulation.

In retort to these complaints, The Goodwill Ambassador replied point by point, "Firstly: while New London is small, it isn't too small; it is just right. It may be small in size but it is big in heart. Secondly: only boring people are bored, you cannot expect the rest of us to entertain you, we are busy pursuing our own joys, but you are welcome to join us. Thirdly: New London may be cash-poor but it is rich in spirit and in potential, as anyone who has listened to politicians and real estate agents can tell you. Fourthly: while the job market may be a little lackluster if you don't want to work in law, medicine or the restaurant trade, this is a place that attracts entrepreneurs who try their luck in New London's marketplace every year and become their own boss. This experience usually lasts a year and then they are perfectly content being employed in law, medicine or the restaurant trade. Fifthly: things happen in New London more slowly than in other places. You have to remember that New London has its own time zone where a minute is triple the length of anywhere else. You get used to it after awhile."

The lady listened to these sage observations and agreed to think it over a little longer. It is true, once you spend enough time in New London's zone, you get used to it and are lulled into the same stupor.

A Council of Dunces

If a certain City Council meets enough times, it will eventually make a difference for the better. This will happen about the same time a room full of monkeys will type a Shakespearean sonnet.

Recent news reported in last Sunday's paper was that the new City Manager is getting along with the Council. He must stock bannanas in the candy jar on his desk. His predecessor had his bean-coutning job for fourteen years, all with the Council's blessing. Many of the same faces have sat on the Council over the last fourteen years. Birds of a feather flock together.

We wish no ill will toward the new City Manager. In fact, we wish him the best of luck in breaking the spiral of inertia that drives the particular city in question. The fact of the matter is the deck is stacked against him. This city's government is irrelevent to all but its employees and those who, for whatever psychological needs, seek election to the Council. Harsh words from a usually cheerful reporter.

Some city employees report that they like going to work now that a new manager is running the show. How nice. At least there is someone in charge. Maybe he will be able to make the city run efficiently and effectively. Then again, why change something about which no one cares? We hope the new city manager enjoys his salary and his tenure. The honeymoon is still in bloom. The daffodils that are sprouting out of the ground this time of year will wither and die. Euphoria, wherever you can find it as related to the city government, will soon turn to its usual ennui.

A word of advice to the new City Manager: Showing up is the easiest part of the battle. Sticking around will take the patience of a saint. Getting something accomplished will be the hardest task of all.

Where's the Sperm??

Connecticut has a Whaling City, a city that saw its fortunes rise by the barrel as whale oil (For the uninitiated: spermacetti is the best grade.) poured into the best deepwater port on the Eastern seaboard. More than a century after the trade has become an illegal pastime pursued only by Norwegians, Icelanders and the Japanese, New London is still affectionately, known as the Whaling City.

You won't find any whale products, not even scrimshaw or rubber whales that squeek when you squeeze them in New London. You will see paintings of whales and pictures of whales, and even whale cartoons drawn in chalk on downtown sidewalks, but you will not find a trace of a part of a real whale. One would imagine that a new, more relevent nickname would have appeared and stuck after the whaling trade's demise. You also won't find any one industry that replaced whaling as the city's defining attribute. So why is New London still the Whaling City?

Many names have been proposed. Few of them were flattering enough to be promoted by the Chamber of Commerce. In fact, there is so little industry left in New London, the city no longer has its own. The field is wide open for someone to come up with a name that will stick, a name that will promote and define the New London of today.

Of course, Whaling City isn't so bad. It still fits.

Hooray for the Status Quo

Well the vote on New London's charter has come and gone. A nineteen percent turnout. Apathy and government irrelevance remain the order of the day. Eighty-one percent of voters couldn't muster the effort to flip a lever. Ah, New London, a city preserved in ambergris that smells like low tide. One would imagine a city of perennial complainers would want to voice thier opinion. Apparently not when it matters.

Do not mistake me. I fell in love with Connecticut's Whaling City twelve years ago. I love it dysfunctional and inert. I love it crumbling at the foundations and full of plucky entrepreneurs doomed to failure. I am one of them after all. This is a city that seperates the adults from the children, even if it is hard to tell the difference sometimes.

If I sound heartbroken and full of bile and venom, it is because I am. I live in a city and I beleive New London is as real a city as one can find anywhere. When I imagine New London's peers, I think of Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, Vienna, Naples, Frankfurt, New York and Los Angeles. All these cities have mayors who make decisions and make things happen. If I wanted to live in a place run by selectmen, I would move to Pomfret, or Sprague, or Griswold, or North Stongington, all nowhere, municipal destinations located in Connecticut. I look at New Haven and Hartford, and Stamford and West Hartford, and Danbury and Bridgeport and even dysfunctionally corrupt Waterbury (also all in Connecticut). I look at cities where things are happening that also happen to have mayors who are in charge.

I am in New London and my heart belongs here. It is a love/hate relationship, the way the most passionate relationships are. New London and I have no conjugal dealings, but we do have a mutual understanding. I will stay out of the government's way if it stays out of mine. We are at cross purposes. I celebrate my city. New London's government stifles its assets the way a crack-addled mother smothers her baby. Strong words, but true ones none the less. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

I apologize for not being as light-hearted as usual.

My condolences to Gil Torres and Angelica Torres Peck. Hortencia was a wonderful woman and a wonderful cook. She was an asset to this city who will be missed. Her passing deserves more than a footnote at the end of a diatribe about the state of the Whaling City. I regret that I haven't seen her for so long, but I have only the fondest memories of chatting with her in her kitchen at el Sombrero while she worked at her big cast-iron skillet conjuring marvels our of ingredients she bought the morning before at Shop Rite. She was one of a kind. I doubt I will meet her Heaven, but I know I won't see her where I will end up.

-Matthew Whalehead King

We Need More Traffic Lights

The City of New London votes for a new charter today. If the referendum passes, the city will have a strong mayor in charge of its government. This will be a good thing. Hopefully one of the first things our new executive will enact is longer red lights, especially after dark when there are few cars on the streets.

The State of Connecticut surveyed the city's streets two years ago and found that New London is behind on its pothole quota by 64%. Hopefully the new mayor will dispatch the public works employees with pickaxes and correct this situation. Our streets are too smooth to meet state mandates. What our asphalt needs is a little grinding and pocking.

While on the subject of traffic, all 'Walk/Don't Walk' signs should be set off mandatorily for the nonexistent pedestrians on Colman Street and they should all employ the buzzer for the blind with the volume turned to maximum. The lengh of time they flash 'Don't Walk' should be doubled at least.

New London also needs more one-way streets and summer as well as winter parking regulations. Bus service should be expanded so that it takes two hours to traverse our five square mile city so that every street is well served. School busses should just make random stops with their mandatory stop signs extended so that people can enjoy the scenery on their way to important appointments.

These are just some of the suggestions our new mayor can consider to make our city more livable in the twenty-first century. If you agree, get out there and do your civic duty. Vote for change in New London.

The Shaw Street Stangler

Shaw Street runs between Garibaldi Fountain and the first traffic rotary before Pfizer's Global Research and Development Headquarters. This is old Italian-American turf. This is a working class neighborhood. The Nutmeg Bottling Company used to produce locally brewed sodas for distribution around southeastern Connecticut and the region's Pepsi bottling plant was located here in an old cow pasuture before it relocated to Norwich in 1977. This was a carbonated neighborhood full of fizz and vapors and sweet, fruit flavors.

It is an office park now. This was once a stronghold of Demorcratic politics, where the local party bosses were guaranteed votes and city policy was made. Now it is an office park, as sterile as anything found off a highway exit ramp in Waterford or Groton, in East Lyme or Uncasville or Stonington outside of Mystic's tourist brochures.

What was once a part of New London's guts, is now a complex of six tinted glass and brickface, three-story boxes without any stories in them. Who strangled Shaw Street? Look no farther than City Hall.

Strong Mayor

On March 13th, the City of New London is holding a referendum on how we govern ourselves. The second charter revision committee has presented the council with a proposal to have a strong mayor at the city's head. That would be a novelty New London hasn't experienced for eighty years.

In the 1920s, the city fathers decided a bureaucrat would run the city better than a directly elected representative. The mayor became a figurehead, a golden boy selected by his or her peers, everyone getting a turn for a year. The position is a powerless plum to reward a crony. The City Council, without a mission or a reason to be, devolved into a boring sideshow while the city was run by a faceless, colorless bean counter. The council fiddles while New London declines. The city manager plays the lyre.

This March, New Londoners will have a chance to change the way they do business. Maybe some business will finally get done. As usual, be careful what you wish for. While Whalehead King is all in favor of an active, effective city administration, he has come to love the Whaling City just as it is. Little changes in New London. Our citizens will be in character if they defeat this proposal. The status quo, while disappointing, is predictable. New Londoners love to complain.

We endorse the idea of a mayor with power. We applaud the idea of someone with a vision capturing New Londoners' imagination. If something happens in City Hall, people will take notice and participate. Right now, little transpires in the Council chambers. Meetings aren't adjourned, they expire with no one noticing. New London's government is ineffectual and irrelevant. It is the city's worst enemy.

We need a demogogue. We need a slippery, proficient politician. We need someone to take the lead and take the heat. We need a Guiliani, a Cianci, a Winthrop. We need someone who will poke this sleepy city in the ribs and get it moving. Mark your calendar for March 13th. Think about it. Consider it carefully. Mistakes are lessons from which to learn. New London has learned more than the library contains. Maybe now it will become wise. Remember to vote your best interest on March 13th.