A mayor’s power is often seen, even when compared to a governor’s or prime minister’s/president’s power, as having the highest potential of actually being appreciated, as the latter positions come with having a bunch of invisible pieces and filters to tend to, even supposing you decided to be dictatorial about things. Despite this, or maybe in spite of this, whenever I see very loved and communal individuals, they see it as above their area of motivation to run for local office. There isn’t a single city, town, or village I’ve been to where the mayor’s level of connection to the people around them isn’t overshadowed by that of at least some of the citizens, in fact I see the mayor, district attorney, sheriff, town judge, etc. in my own area as being visibly condescending blowhards who are bedfellows with the local activists who are known to have no issue ruining childrens’ lives the Ally Bank way. Even to you I’d recommend running for some form of town office, though with you too, I doubt the challenge would be stepped up to. You could make a difference in your own little fragment of the world.
So considering most people I talk to wouldn’t take up the suggestion to run for something like mayor, district attorney, sheriff, town judge, etc. what is your local government scene like? And are you different from those who won’t step up to the challenge?
Our mayor doesn’t even live in the same state, if that tells you anything.
My city’s most recent mayoral election is arguably a better argument for FPTP sucking than US presidential elections. The progressives were split between two candidates so we got the moderate, who’s pro-car in a city where people move for walkability and is painfully clearly trying to get an inroads to national politics.
It’s better than the nearby, bigger city though. SHEESH.
Our local Mayor is a millennial. Everyone on the city council is boomer or older. The boomers are children playing highschool politics with obvious smear campaigns, audience plants, and are clamoring about “disrespect” that the mayor showed when forced by the media to make a statement about the councilman doing something so egregious in a meeting it made national news.
I feel bad for the Mayor and hate those city council fucks. But I live outside the city boundary so even though we’re affected by their policies we can’t vote or anything.
It’s horribly shameful.
We don’t have a mayor, we have a first selectman. She’s a woman but still calls herself first selectman. I can’t decide of that’s anti-feminist or feminist AF, it is her choice after all
It’s not much of a scene, we’ve only got the one.
We have a mayor, some people complain a out her, others don’t. I sat next to her at the airport once. That’s all I know.
Our mayor has been a mixed bag. He has been fairly progressive in terms of improving public infrastructure, but has had a poor track record on social issues.
Currently, he is courting a scandal involving a violent altercation at a safe injection site where someone got bludgeoned to death. His response was a rather draconian closing of the facility (he claims it’s only temporary) and essentially telling the homeless in the area to get lost. As you might imagine, this is not going well.
I have no interest in running for any political office, though if I did, the city council would likely be highest on my list. I actually enjoy watching them in session from time to time on the local cable channel, as there is less partisan bickering at the municipal level and, as you say, the decisions they make are more likely to affect your day-to-day life.
I am sort of half-heartedly angling to get on a committee involving the city’s cycling infrastructure, but that’s about the extent of any political ambitions.
A former ice hockey magnate. Very much a boomer. People either like him or dislike him for his antics.
Currently driving through a change in policy that would disallow closing streets for construction. Which is a good thing because the city has been too lax in this regard.
What is a mayor?
I prefer the council/manager scene myself, although that’s probably less common.
I’m close enough to the people in charge that it would be unnecessary, I already can ask certain things. Once oversaw a guy being run out of our slice of life, twice, when in every other area his malice has been supported.
Most people are generally happy with our town, so the mayor gets a lot of automatic support. She’s good at the gladhanding and baby kissing - shows up to all the local events at schools and parks and stuff. She always has an opponent but I don’t think she’s too worried.
Good people do not, as a rule, seek personal power for themselves, and a drive to do so is a prerequisite for seeking public office. The result is that the best you can hope for in electoral politics is a psychopath who shares your values, because they are all psychopaths, and most of them don’t see the rest of us as human, much less their equals.
