The Nati

Attended the Forum on Thursday. Was pretty tame and laid back. I enjoyed David Pepper's opening statement, it had more energy and enthusiasm for the city than Reece or Mallory. I would have liked to see a bit more details from all. The closest thing to a detailed plan came from Mallory, who tried to explain his plan for the city to take more control of the Public Schools. I'd still liketo know a little more about that and the pros/cons. Overall Mallory was pretty boring, his opening statement was horrible, detailing ever campaign and office he'd ever run for (I assume that's to try to make his constituents more aware of who he is, which is a bad starting point).

Reece was a little better than I expected, and I have to admit her plan to ban smoking is very attractive to me, so I am partial to that. But most of her other ideas seemed to be disconnected, and seemed to be a lot of more of the same of what we've seen from the city in the last three years (and what I've come to expect from the democratic party)... which is very few ideas, but lots of criticism for the work that others have done (Convergys, Saks, etc). I just think that's the wrong way to govern and lead. You work your ass off behind the scenes to stop something you don't believe in, but in order to make things happen in the future you temper your criticism in public.

David I think did a nice job at being honest about things he supports and things he doesn't (without bashing the things he doesn't).