Of Interest, Too
This morning, Peter Spear strayed from his unusual habit of speaking from alleys to deliver his chat from Henry Hudson Riverfront Park, adjacent to the Colarusso dock, to remind people of the public hearing being held by the Planning Board tonight. Although he talks about Colarusso, the major theme of the chat is leadership. A memorable quote from the chat, speaking of our current mayor, is this: "In opportunities to lead, he has chosen to divide." Today's chat can be heard on Instagram here. If you are not on Instagram, the chat will in a day or so appear here, on the Spear for Mayor website.
What stuck even more with me in the video is Peter identifying Kamal's favorite card to play: The ignoramus card.
ReplyDeleteIt's the mayor perpetually self-indicting. I think it's the card he also plays when he doesn't have an opinion on something, such as the waterfront. Personally, I'd much rather be called disinterested than clueless.
A mayor should be neither disinterested nor clueless when it comes to what's happening in the city.
DeleteI think a mayor is absolutely allowed to not care as much about one issue as compared to another. The problem is not the lack of interest.
DeleteThe problem is when he stops being a leader. He needs to recognize that, while he may not care, a large number of his constituents might. That is where he would be expected to step up as a mediator and facilitate a solution.
If he doesn't care one way or the other, he should still be concerned with his Planning Board getting applications resolved. It seems he has provided an abundance of "guidance" to the PB when it came to Mill St but has done no such thing as far as the Colarusso C.U.P. is concerned.
This void of leadership has allowed the relationship between Colarusso and portions of the Hudson public to deteriorate in a way that may well be disadvantageous to both.
It speaks to Peter's remark that Kamal is a driving force behind various divides that we are seeing here. The waterfront one happened to emerge through negligence but at the end of the day it's all the same.