I wonder why last week it would have only cost me 50¢ to read about Paul Goldman and Robert Grey in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Will Jones delivers two solid profiles -- heavy on bio and light on issues -- of two of the candidates for Richmond's mayoral office. (In case you're saving up your quarters, profiles of the other candidates are on the way: Dwight Jones on September 9; Bill Pantele on September 11; and Lawrence Williams on September 16.)
The big takeaway from the Goldman piece: He has a lot of ideas.
If ideas and e-mails were votes, Paul Goldman would be the front-runner in Richmond's race for mayor.
Since jumping into the race to succeed his former boss, Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, Goldman has fired off dozens of e-mail news releases outlining proposals and challenges to his opponents, the mayor and the City Council.
The big takeaway from the Grey piece: He rides the bus sometimes.
Grey, who last regularly rode a bus as a student at John Marshall High School, has been traveling GRTC Transit System routes that are proposed to be cut because of high fuel costs and low ridership.
The experience has bolstered his belief that the city should be expanding, not reducing, bus service in light of high gas prices. He called transit a critical link between residents and jobs and services.
For Grey, riding the bus and running for mayor are all about connections.
He said running for mayor is "an opportunity . . . to give back to this community, to be a person who could help build a connection for this community to communicate with each other, to work with each other, to live with each other."
