Cities are my jam.
Dedicated home and commercial utilities are critical. Essential urban infrastructure has expanded from basic water, sewer, trash collection, and electricity (also known as "lights," as in paying your light bill), to recycling, telecommunications, streets and roads and subways…
Besides highways and solar panels, we need governments and their agencies to make the city happen. Dedicated people are behind all the hard and soft (schools, libraries, fire, police) infrastructure. It's all intricately interconnected!
The magnitude of election day Tuesday's blue wave astonished and excited me. But locally? My candidate for Los Angeles mayor didn't win. Although she was the incumbent who over the past four years had done well with the chaos she started with and that later developed, not enough people realized how she'd succeeded and what they'd lose if she wasn't reelected.
Rumor has it the winner is academically brilliant but doesn't know how to get anything done. I haven't lived in her city council district, but I've heard none of her ideas ever happened. She wasn't prepared in the debates. And other negative assessments.
Before she became mayor of the second largest city in the country, the candidate who lost had represented her district in Washington DC. She knew how government works on all levels. She knew she couldn't be a loner. Not only was she dedicated to the city at large, to the electorate, and to the calling to do the job, she was prepared.
Whether elected or appointed, dedicated public servants are critical because people are behind whatever we need to make the city hum. But dedication isn't enough if you expect results.
If you want to be a mayor or an administrator or if you want any particular role or position, although passionate dedication will keep you focused on the future as it helps you survive tough times, you need to know the job qualifications and prepare yourself to meet them.
Please know I wish the mayor elect the very best and I pray she surrounds herself with people who will do everything possible to help her and the city she's clearly dedicated to become a cleaner, safer place to live, work, and play.
It's going to be an interesting ride.
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