Impersonal

“In this arena, in this town, obviously what is best for the taxpayers is out the window.It’s more important to posture and beat up on people. For whatever reason, there’s a lot of hatred for certain people and if you’re associated with those people remotely, you are collateral damage.”

UPDATED BELOW

Those words are from Cleve Christie, the Chairman of the Lafayette Yard Community Development Corportion (LYCDC), quoted in an article by David Foster in the Trentonian today. The article discusses allegations of a conflict of interest in Mr. Christie’s tenure as Board Chair of the troubled Hotel. Mr. Foster writes that the Chair is considering his resignation in light of news that he produced several jazz events at the hotel, and received at least some preferential treatment as a client that was not available to other individuals and groups in their dealings with the hotels.

Should Mr. Christie resign? Hell, yes. I suggested as much almost two weeks ago, when the news came out that the Board had failed in its obligation to periodically notify City Council, as they had agreed to, of ongoing developments in the Hotel’s financial condition after receiving several hundreds of thousands of dollars in city subsidy last year. The news came out now only because the LYCDC is back with yet another request for $295,000 in emergency funds, a move that only makes sense if the city is willing to commit to the continued future of the Hotel under new management and a new brand. This decision has a price tag associated with it of not only the $295K, but $2 to $3 Million or more in renovation expenses, a mammoth sum the City and its taxpayers will probably be on the hook for.

You know my feelings on the matter. Mr. Christie and his colleagues should all resign, because of this failure to communicate with Council, and also because each member of the Board sits in violation of their own by-laws. As disclosed in the same David Foster article, West Ward Councilman Zachary Chester lets us know that in addition to being nominated to their positions by the Mayor – or whoever sits in THAT office – the advice and consent of Council is required. This step was not taken for any of the current members, so off they should go. Some members should be considered for reappointment, among whom I will mention Michael McGrath, who has during his nearly 3 years on the Board has well represented the people of the City who own that hotel. But for others, such as Mr. Christie? Bye Bye!

But enough of the hotel, for now. I’d like to return to Mr. Christie’s remarks at the top of this page, which barring any more developments may serve as his self-pitying valedictory to his term of public service, considering himself “collateral damage,” in some bigger battle.

It’s been awfully common in this town, for years now, to say “there’s a lot of hatred for certain people” as motivation for political opposition. “Hatred” is often a code word for both personal grudges or for racial animus, and “haters” a convenient description to dismiss those who take unpopular stands and say inconvenient things.

I’d like to call “Bullshit” on all of this. On this specific occasion of Mr. Christie’s quote, and in general. I am sick and tired of this one-size-fits-all excuse being used to explain away one’s own mistakes, missteps and screwups.

It’s not just the race card, although that is always too easily played. It’s also that this town is so damned small, and everyone has all this personal and family history going on, and that always gets dragged in to things. Grudges from TCHS get played out in City Hall years later. Neighborhood beefs from childhood get resolved as knives in the back decades after.

It all drives me nuts! We are enough of a city to have big city problems, but we act like we are Peyton Place. Enough!

In this space, I have often been very opinionated (surprise, right?) and critical of all the multiple messes, scandals, crimes, and petty incompetence we’ve seen over the last few years; and I have been pissed off at the many knuckleheads who have been committing them. I have not been alone in this, but neither have we been numerous enough to have made much meaningful impact in changing this town around.

But I, and we, have not been motivated out of any “hatred” of anyone or anything. This is not personal for me, in any way. I have never met half the people I have written about, and I probably never will. That’s not important to me. What they do in this town has been my concern, not who they are.

For Mr. Christie and others to throw out the convenient “hatred” charge is highly disrespectful. It discounts the substantive content of my, and our arguments, and reduces them to charges of being merely personal attacks. And nothing, nothing, could be further from the truth.

Charges such as Mr. Christie’s do not serve the public good any, when he raises the issue of hatred, or identifies any criticisms as politically motivated. It doesn’t help the public dialog any by refusing to address the substantive issues and policies we need to tackle if we have any hope of improving this city.

Such behavior also reveals a marked lack of sophistication and an inability to discuss these issues on any but an extremely superficial basis. Mr. Christie unwittingly betrayed this exact mindset in another of his comments. Talking of the criticism he’s received, he said “In this arena, in this town, obviously what is best for the taxpayers is out the window.”

It is just the opposite. The criticisms I and others make is motivated precisely by “what is best for the taxpayers,” largely because well, I am a citizen and taxpayer!  I feel I have been getting a raw deal from the current Administration and other public bodies lately. And I am frustrated at the refusal – among voters in this town as well as among elected and appointed officials – to engage on these matters on any but a personal and entirely superficial basis.

It makes me crazy to read quotes such as Mr. Christie’s, which turn acknowledgement of their own fuck-ups into pity parties for themselves and charges of “hatred” against their opponents.

This has to change if we, any of us, are to have any hope of turning this town around. We all have a lot of work to do. One of the first steps I think is to call out all of the “haters and hating” rhetoric as wrong, lazy, unproductive and divisive.

None of this is Personal, it’s just Business.

The public’s business.

And we – all of us – are the public.

Who are just trying to get along and make things a little better. In spite of the knuckleheads inside City Hall and out who have, and continue, to screw things up for the rest of us.

UPDATE: Cleve Christie has resigned as Chair of the LYCDC, effective today.