For a moment, last evening’s landmark City Council meeting looked upside down — new faces on the dais, old face in the crowd.
Without neon business on the agenda, it was a time to concentrate on new and old stars.
Thomas Small and Göran Eriksson, audience veterans in Council Chambers, took their seats on the dais for the first time.
They looked out upon a larger audience they than were accustomed to seeing at their commission meetings, typically private affairs
Jeff Cooper, the most funloving of the Council members, made his debut as the vice mayor. He played the role to perfection. Except for standing loyally invisible and flawlessly voiceless, the City Hall dictionary says that the vice mayor is not suspected of having definable duties.
Jim Clarke, normally in a wing seat on the right end of the dais, was in the center seat because he was elected mayor by colleagues last month. This would be his first meeting in charge.
The perceptive eyes of the City Council’s senior member scanned the audience.
Mr. Clarke espied an old friend against the back wall, casually attired Andy Weissman, the vice mayor until a few days ago. This marked the first time in more than eight years that Mr. Weissman had attended a Council meeting as an informally dressed spectator.
Mr. Clarke asked Mr. Weissman to lead the sizable audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Without a hiccup, the meeting proceeded apace. Mr. Clarke, mayor for the first time as he enters his seventh year on the Council, was tailored for the job.
During the public comment period when a speaker exceeded his allotted three minutes, Mr. Clarke sat patiently. The gentleman, Jack Susser, was interesting and thoroughly prepared with his complaint about formerly private Hetzler Road descending into a public, crime-friendly roadway, so perilous the mail cannot be delivered.
Mr. Clarke was genuinely attentive as Mr. Susser provided details, and the new Hizzoner promised prompt attention.
The attention-worthy section of the Council agenda concerned a wide-ranging discussion of what were called “visioning options” for the Washington-National project, known as the Transit-Oriented Development District.
No discussion of substance, just process.
It was more a what’s-in-my-backyard and what-I-may-want-to-be-in-my-backyard than a NIMBY chat.
At least no one said it was about stopping development. On the City Council’s part, they x-rayed a process for evaluating the impacts of current and future developments and how to consider ways to lessen impacts on the residential area in the Arts District. There was the desire to swiftly move the planning forward.
