Now if they could maybe work together to bring the positive sense of ourselves into an uplifting vision of the future, with the inspiring leadership to bring others along with it, we might have something, or someone, worth voting for.
Editorial: Mayoral contest begins with tales of two cities
Fargo and Johnson look at Sacramento and find two very different communities
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, March 30, 2008
The postman rang twice last week, delivering a pair of strikingly divergent images of Sacramento and its current leadership.
Incumbent Mayor Heather Fargo sent out a glossy mailer that claimed the nation's news and business leaders have "put Sacramento on their 'best' lists." It included snippets from East Coast magazines concluding that Sacramento, at least up until last year, excelled in hospitals, business climate, job growth, cost of living, "food scenes" and other important indicators.
Then came challenger Kevin Johnson's mailer, which countered Fargo's boosterism with a dose of gloom.
"I know that Sacramento can be one of the most vibrant, growing cities in the country," Johnson wrote. "But right now, people see our city government as nonresponsive, tired, uninspired and bureaucratic."
So there you have it.
Sacramento is either the envy of a nation or an uninspired lump of red tape. Or perhaps our nonresponsive bureaucracies are the envy of the nation. It's a very confusing picture the two leading mayoral candidates are presenting. That, in turn, should force voters to choose: Which Sacramento do you live in? And which of the seven candidates for mayor can possibly take the city to the next level?
