If Jim B. Clarke could serve on every city council across America – a possibility that should not be ruled out – the state of the USA would be infinitely healthier, it is widely agreed.
Mr. Clarke, in the prime of his professional life, is the quintessential nuts-and-bolts politician.
No topic is too esoteric. No resident is too irrelevant.
And for darned sure, no detail – ever, ever – is too minor not to warrant serious, even prolonged, research.
Mr. Clarke knows more about weeds than the most brilliant scientists on the planet because that is where he spends his days, his nights, and whatever else is left of weekdays, weekends, holidays.
Days off are the enemy.
He has not been known to take even one. A bachelor’s lifestyle allows that. But Mr. Clarke’s work ethic transcends even that explanation.
In Culver City, the City Councilman who is senior in age to his colleagues, comes closer than anyone else to knowing everything about everything.
Call him at 3 in the morning and he will supply as full of a response to a complicated question as he would have at 3 in the afternoon.
The question of the moment for Mr. Clarke was:
After last month’s joint study session with the advisory Planning Commission, what aspect of the parochially raging topic of mansionizaton will he next tackle?
The detail-oriented Mr. Clarke’s response was predictable, in a positive way:
“I have gone to Planning Commission meetings. You learn a lot more there (than you do by merely receiving written summaries). You can often get into the weeds on these kinds of issues.
“At every one of these meetings, something new comes up that they had not thought about. I am talking about the issues of roof decks, of balconies, of alleys, of underground garages.”
The takeaway lesson of the disparate complaints from the coterie of the affected/protesting midtown homeowners is:
“You probably are not going to be able to craft a policy that addresses every possible scenario,” Mr. Clarke said.
“You probably will have to come up with a policy that seems to cover the main problems. When they find there are loopholes, you address them.”
