Well, what have you done for Fayetteville lately?
The poll undertaken by a current Fayetteville mayoral candidate to see how much name recognition he has may be a little off the mark; maybe the question should be a variant of “What have you done for me lately?”
It’s only April, and we have no reason to suspect that even more people might not throw their hats into the ring for the mayor’s race - this is actually a pretty light field, compared to some years.
But we aren’t just light on the number of candidates, or name recognition. We are light on something else, too - public service to Fayetteville.
Admittedly, Lioneld Jordan has been seen as a player for time now, being involved in a number of issues - both as an alderman, and as a Union Man. But Steve Clark? Well, state service aside, there seems to be no real emotional connection to Fayetteville here.
Grandkids aside, what else is there? Because all he is offering up so far are cliches.
Jeff Koenig has been around for a while, and does have some name recognition, for his financial work behind the scenes, for people who have been paying attention. That was a while ago, and moving into town so you can legally run just raises eyebrows.
Besides, this whole “name recognition” poll makes him sound like a candidate for one of those old American Express commercials back in the 1980s. “Do you know me?”
And as for Walt “The Funkster” Eiler, well, well, again, what connection do you have?
In the recent past, we had candidates like Dan Coody (remember him?) and Cyrus Young, who had served on the city Council - or in Coody’s case, the City Board of Directors.
We had Paula Marinoni, a noted preservationist.
Robert Reus, who helped spearhead the drive to change Fayetteville’s form of government in 1992 from City Manager to Mayor/Council. Or business people who had been prominently involved in the community before deciding to run for mayor.
I’d feel a lot better about this race if we had more people of their caliber running, instead of just one man with real experience and three other men who can’t quite tell us who they are or what they really have to offer.
Except for the Funkster, who is gonna make us all funksters . . .
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On the Air - Free Tibet
On March 10, 1998, the Fayetteville City Council joined communities across the globe by declaring solidarity with the people of Tibet, who have lived under the cruel yoke of Chinese domination for decades. The resolution -“Fayetteville Tibetan Independence Day - was introduced by Alderman Randy Zurcher, at the behest of Students for a Free Tibet, a local group concerned about conditions in that country.
Later that month Frank Parigi, of Students for a Free Tibet, appeared on “On the Air,” and we are showing the program again this week.
Show times:
Monday - 7pm
Tuesday - noon
Saturday - 6pm
As always, C.A.T. can be seen on Channel 18 on the COX line-up in Fayetteville. Copies of the program can be gotten by calling C.A.T. at 479-444-3433.
