Sunday, May 11, 2008
Harris sails off into the sunset
Dan Radmacher
Recent columns
Nelson Harris is a good person who genuinely cares about Roanoke. He had a compelling vision for the city's future and worked to make that vision reality.
But under his mayoral leadership, Roanoke City Council acted more like the Soviet Politburo than a small city democracy.
That cost Harris the mayor's office. I worry it will cost Roanoke much more. I hope the election results represent a populace tired of being shut out of the process rather than a resurrection of the ghost of Victory Stadium.
Harris ran for mayor promising to save the decrepit stadium. When a new school administration became more open to the concept of smaller stadiums at the city's two high schools, Harris supported that as a more reasonable and fiscally prudent option -- which is what it was.
Finally resolving the stadium debate in the dust of its demolition was a service to the city. The decade-long argument had consumed far too much time and political energy.
But even though the rubble of the stadium has been carted away, resentment apparently lingers.
If that is what cost Harris his job, then shame on Roanoke. The city will never move forward if it cannot let go of past grievances.
Change, though, doesn't come easy here. On election night, David Bowers supporter Clive Rice reflected a far too common sentiment in Roanoke when he said, "I don't like a lot of change myself."
Harris thought pushing too much change too fast might have gotten him defeated. "But I would have rather created change, taken some bold steps, had some initiatives and lost the election ... than have done nothing and just kind of placated the body politic, and won the election," he said.
Harris still can't seem to acknowledge that had he gone about pushing change differently, he might have gotten more cooperation --and electoral validation -- from the public.
Democracy is messy. It always has been. It's inefficient. And after the Victory Stadium saga, I can understand a certain impatience with public input.
But, as Winston Churchill said, "Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
Democracy usually works. Let the public in on deliberations. Make citizens part of the process. Listen to their ideas. Then when the tough decisions must be made, even those who disagree with the final outcome have reason to feel they were heard, if nothing else.
There will always be malcontents who are never satisfied unless they get their way completely (Brian Wishneff, for example). But had Harris and his fellow council members given the bulk of Roanoke citizenry the benefit of the doubt, Bowers wouldn't have had nearly as much ammunition for his campaign.
Harris said he won't run again for public office. That may be for the best. A Baptist preacher in his nonpolitical life, Harris didn't seem to have the temperament for politics. He certainly didn't handle criticism well.
Though The Roanoke Times editorial page was generally supportive of council's initiatives, Harris took our criticisms of its penchant for secrecy quite personally, shooting off petulant e-mails that were quick to call our motives and ethics into question.
He whined that we failed to credit the good things he had done -- which simply demonstrated a selective memory that filtered out the praise we regularly offered.
Only in the last month or so did I get the impression that he was listening to his critics and attempting to learn from what was usually offered as constructive criticism.
In one meeting with the editorial board earlier in the year, Harris said he often felt like a box turtle trying to cross the road. He likened the editorial board to rowdy teens behind the wheel who would swerve in a malicious attempt to clip the turtle.
I knew Harris genuinely felt as harassed as that turtle, but I couldn't help suggesting he could learn from the turtle and its thick skin.
Despite his faults, though, I'm sad to see Harris exit public life -- and not just because I've heard what a train wreck Bowers was as mayor before.
Harris was far from perfect. But his dedication to the city could not be faulted. Bowers seems to believe the job of mayor is mostly about pressing flesh, kissing babies, marching in parades and taking visiting dignitaries to dinner.
Harris knew there was more to the job. I have a feeling Roanoke will learn to miss having him to kick around.
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
