Vision. Is there a commodity that's ever been harder to come by, or worth more on the global market, or been in greater consumer demand?
To be sure, everyone knows exactly how to fix *some* of the problem—their particular slice of it. But nobody has a handle on the great, cosmic *all* of it. No one sees how to view all the wildly thrashing pieces together in context to find the way forward. It's like the old Dylan quote describing a comparably bewildering era:
"The 60s were like a flying saucer, man. Everyone talks about it, but nobody saw it."
Here at Bumperactive, The Great Global Catastrophe of 2009—the final year of a decade for which nobody has come up with a consensus name—has turned our thoughts toward our home town of Austin, TX.
Partly this is because, in a world this crazy, a general emphasis on neighborliness seems like a prudent survival strategy. But it's also because so much of what's busted out there is 100% beyond the capacity of a dinky little make-your-own-bumper-sticker website to do a damn thing about.
Not so for the lives of our friends and our neighbors who are caught up with us in this mess. And the other small businesses and community groups we buy and sell with, and the fellow travelers we drink with at the Poodle Dog, and suffer through parking-lot-hour with on the asphalt of Mo-Pac.
So this year, for the first real time, we've turned our attention to affairs of city-state, and in particular toward the candidacy of city council member Brewster McCracken for Mayor of Austin.
Mayor's race stuff: That's traffic-and-schools-and-potholes, and most of all cops and ambulances, right? Seems to be a huge part of it (and so not surprisingly, Brewster's been known to extemporize on the optimal dimensions of a single-stream recycling bin. The dude's personality contains a hefty streak of "trash can geek.")
But that's not all of it: City politics is also about defining who we are as a community of citizen neighbors. City politics is where democracy works most. It's the level at which individuals can not only speak up, but be heard, and effect meaningful change in the lives of people they actually know.
Accordingly, nowhere else are the values and vision of governance of greater relevance than at the city level. A city with vision can revitalize its urban core, safeguard its environment, and ignite the creative spirit of entire cultures and industries—as Austin has done in the past—regardless of the tumult of forces crashing about the globe.
Alone of the five mayoral candidates, Brewster McCracken gets this. And alone he has mounted a campaign grounded not just in issues, but ideas.
It's been said, with much truth, that among two the front-running candidates—Brewster and fellow council member Lee Leffingwell—there's hardly an inch of daylight on an position-by-position basis. To balance the budget, Lee wants to cut unspecified programs, but it will also probably require pay-freezes or pay-cuts. In sharp contrast, Brewster calls for pay-freezes or pay-cuts, but balancing the books will also probably require cuts to unspecified programs.
And of course, everybody who wants to be elected believes, on balance, "More Green Jobs" would be a good thing.
But there's a vital difference between Brewster McCracken and the other candidates (Leffingwell, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, David Buttross and Josiah Ingalls). It lies in the philosophical approach that's brought them to the "yes-no-maybes" of their largely shared positions. And you can see it for yourself easily enough through a quick visit to each of their campaign websites.
The talking points of the others are all nuts and bolts, such as Lee's core planks of "Jobs-Traffic-Safety-Health." Brewster, on the other hand, presents a framework for charting Austin's future in uncertain times. He has a vision for how to put the nuts and bolts together:
- "Prepare our city for the 21st century economy," according to the economic model developed by UT Business School Dean George Kozmetsky in the late 1980s, which fueled Austin's reinvention as a leading technology center.
- "Build upon our position as a clean energy leader," through new initiatives, and by extending the landmark Pecan Street Project to produce one power plant's worth of renewable energy within the city limits. Brewster took the lead in facilitating the birth of Pecan Street as a city counsel member in 2008.
- "Ensure that Austin provides opportunity for ALL its citizens." Brewster is alone among the front-running candidates in giving social justice initiatives pride of place "above the fold" on his website.
- "Improve the livability of Austin neighborhoods" by forgoing the expensive, high profile city development projects of the past and sharing the money across the city so that every Austinite can see his or her neighborhood get a little bit better.
- "Support Austin's Creative Class" through supporting affordable healthcare and housing, providing the technical infrastructure needed to maintain Austin's position as a world music and film capital, and creating a formal Department of Music within City Hall.
Jobs-Traffic-Safety-Health it ain't. It's something much more powerful *Why* we should Jobs-Traffic-Safety-Health, and *What Kind* of Jobs-Traffic-Safety-Health we need. Most of all, it's an articulate concept of *How* we can Jobs-Traffic-Safety-Health together, the Austin way.
There's a consensus opinion on the kinds of steps Austin needs to take for the future, and then there's the leadership needed to take those steps. There are laundry lists, and there is vision. There are qualified, devoted, well-intentioned candidates for Mayor of Austin. And there is Brewster McCracken.
Vote for the city we see we can become. Vote Brewster for Mayor during early voting beginning on April 27 at these locations. If you don't do that, vote Brewster on election day May 9. And while you're at it, go ahead and plan now to do it again in the likely runoff election on June 13.
