The cover story does make simultaneous cases that Dwight Jones is failing to lead the city at a time of economic crisis and successfully leading with a savvy, behind-the-scenes approach to running a city. But it never really provides enough ammo for either case to allow the reader to make an informed decision.
But maybe that's how Jones likes it.
The Dovi/Bass piece mirrors conversations I've had with folks in Richmond's political, business and policy bubbles. Jones is like an affable piece of blown glass -- nice to look at, but hard to get your hands around. And while I was hoping for a tougher piece in Style this week, what they did deliver is the first in-depth exploration of the mayor's first half-year in office -- and raise the bar for the mayor's team to actually begin to move from planning to delivery. And soon.
Has City Hall become too polite? Unlike the always-castigating Wilder, the Jones administration is so bent on keeping the peace that some people worry City Hall is becoming leaderless at a critical juncture. Revenues are dwindling while real estate values plummet, and like the rest of the country Richmond attempts to navigate through the worst economy since the Great Depression. The two most controversial issues facing the city during the last six months — the Shockoe Bottom ballpark plan and the downtown master plan — were settled without Jones’ visible leadership, or anything resembling an official position from the mayor’s office.
If the Wilder adrenaline rush was too much too fast, one high-ranking official at City Hall sees danger in puttering along upstream without vigorous public discourse about where exactly the city is going. Debates have had a tendency to end without much direction from Jones: The Shockoe Bottom ballpark proposal died because Highwoods Properties withdrew it; when controversy bubbled up over the downtown master plan earlier this year, the mayor’s office remained largely silent.
“What is happening is the cooperation is going too far,” the source says of the extended honeymoon that’s descended over City Hall and over Jones’ relationship with City Council. “The city administration and City Council; they’re supposed to be checks and balances, but they’re not acting as checks and balances.”
What’s unsettling, the official says, is that the opposite is true, with some elected officials seemingly more interested in promoting Jones’ agenda than scrutinizing it: “There are certain council members … they’re pretty aggressive about making sure the mayor’s agenda is carried out. Other council members are stepping back and not offering any push back.”
Many people read the mood as simply an aftershock of Wilder.
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