I saw a report on WANE-TV last night about Mayor-elect Tom Henry officially taking office. Ben Eisbart, the leader of his transition team, said something like this about the difference between Henry and Mayor Graham Richard: The outgoing mayor liked staying out of the spotlight, working in the background on all the intricate details of governing. The incoming mayor will enjoy engaging the public, being the visible face of city government, talking about issues.
You could say that makes Henry more of a "politician," and from what I know of the two of them, I'd say that was an accurate assessment. But being a politician isn't always bad. On Harrison Square, for example, Richard stayed mostly in the background working out all the complicated policy decisions, and didn't do a good job of explaining why the city should want it, which is one reason it was still opposed by 70 percent of the population when the City Council approved it. A Mayor Henry would have kept the public a lot more in the loop.
That doesn't mean that Harrison Square, fully explained to the public, would have been a better or worse project, or that the public's opinion would have been any different. But even those who oppose Harrison Square would think better of the city if they thought the city cared more about their opinions.
