The Town

Brief look at the place I am mayor of

Published on November 14, 2003 By Desarius In Politics

About the Town
I am the Mayor of a town that is one of the fastest growing municipalities in a Midwestern state. We are struggling through a change from a "Mayberry RFD" outlook on village services to one that is professional and proactive. The census figures for the first 90 years of the towns history are 0 drifting up to 1600 then in 10 years we jumped to 3500, then 10 years later to 5500, that's when I come in as Mayor. Less then 3 years later we are 15,000 people on the way up to 30,000 by the end of this decade. I arrived here during the jump from 3500 to 5500, and am the first newcomer ever elected to anything in this village let alone the top spot.

Oh and by the way we have no commercial development, it appears to have been discouraged by my predecessors. So that's one of the other challenges on my agenda and more about that later.

Comments

Patty O

on Nov 14, 2003

I understand your need to intitiate "progress" in Mayberry, but you are a "come-here" not a "from-here." Your predecessors were wise in not wanting the trappings of city life. There is a lot to be said for maintaining a small town w/o commercial development. It tends to destroy the charm and beauty of small town life, even though it may have an economic benefit. I challenge you to poll the citizenry, and see if indeed their idea of progress is the same as yours. Not criticizing. I'm a small-towner myself.

Patty-O

The Mayor

on Nov 14, 2003

Actually my predessesors wanted commercial development, they just went about it the wrong way, they built homes like crazy, and put no infrastructure or commercial planning for shopping and any ammenities. We are about 7 miles from the nearest supermarket. No major chains are able to move here becuase all the commericalviable land have houses on it. Every resident asks me when am I going to fix it! Its the overwhelming reason I was elected.

Mayor

Patty O

on Nov 14, 2003

Mr. Mayor, Just curious...Are there any companies supplying jobs in your town or surrounding area? How do your folks earn their living? Are they mostly production workers, blue collar, white collar, are you a college town? Wondering who supports the employees of your town.

Patty-O

Desarius

on Nov 14, 2003

There are very few, we have one employer of 4,000 peopl. We are about 80 miles outside a major metropolitan area. So there are a lot of commuters into the inner suburbs living here. Most of the people moved here seeking affordable housing. Although new home pricing is $200,000 which does not strike me as affordable. But people are moving here like crazy. We have a increasing number of white collar workers and a stable base of blue collar.

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