I grew up in the 1950s and 60s in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Just about every mayor of that city went directly from City Hall to jail, do not pass Go and do not collect $200. The current crop of mayors seems to be following in those footsteps. Google Atlantic City mayors who went to jail. It’s eye opening.
The mayor’s office in that city was like a feeder line to prison. Most didn’t have time to even grab a change of clothes.
Atlantic City had a lot graft and corruption based on simple greed. No one denied it. And once gambling hit the city, well all bets were off. Greed became king and, as was so aptly said in that movie, greed was good. Right up until you went to jail.
While I’ll admit that going directly from office to jail is not a good model for our current mayor, let me say that those Atlantic City mayors have a lot they could teach this administration. Those mayors usually had multiple terms in office before moving on to prison. While I’m not saying our current mayor will go to prison, I am saying that maybe, just maybe, he won’t be having multiple terms.
To say this administration is possibly the most incompetent ever seen in Anchorage would be to put it mildly. And that’s the problem. You can be as greedy and corrupt as you want but you first have to figure out how to put a good face on things. In Anchorage, that would start with actually knowing what to do with excess snow. That simple task would give a look of some competence to this administration. It would possibly allow it to skate by on all the other dirty laundry being exposed on a daily basis.
Atlantic City mayors knew how to do this right. While they didn’t have to deal with a lot of snow, they did have to deal with a lot of constituents who wanted things. And they made sure those constituents got enough of what they wanted to win another election. I defy anyone to tell me exactly what this administration has done along those same lines. Simply getting rid of all the “bronsons” (or as they used to be called, berms) piled up at every intersection would be a good start. Those bronsons currently make pulling out into traffic a heart pounding adventure.
I know our current mayor had no experience in government before taking office. But honestly, it’s not all that hard. You simply run around town attending luncheons and dinners while the people who have worked at the city for years are allowed to continue what they’ve been doing. You know, the stuff they are experienced at and you’re not. But instead, this administration seems to have gone out of its way to antagonize the Assembly, all users of the library, anyone who needs to drive to work through unplowed, one lane streets and anyone who believes in the basic dignity of all human beings, including the homeless.
Was this administration seriously out to just annoy everyone? To cause most voters to wonder how much longer they have to endure before they can vote for someone else?
That is certainly what it looks like from out here in South Anchorage. And I’m guessing the same can be said for anyone in north, west or east Anchorage, as well as Eagle River and Girdwood.
In Atlantic City, the corruption, graft and greed that led to the steady march from City Hall to prison was hidden well enough to give those mayors multiple terms and a very nice lifestyle until they hit jail. If Mr. Bronson would like, I could give him the name of some of those mayors. Maybe they could help explain to him that the way to get away with corruption is to have a minimally competent administration. He doesn’t have that right now. What he has are cronies who thought they could get rich quick with a government job in which no one would question them or their decisions. They were wrong. And once they started realizing just how wrong they were, the exodus started.
I miss Atlantic City’s competent corruption.