Mayor Jim Ellison shows up almost at every one, God bless him, but except for David Poulton our city commissioners rarely show up at civic gatherings. Capello did, too, when she was active. Goodwin almost never. Rasor did in the beginning but dropped off the last couple of years. DuBuc and Fournier have young kids and they show up now and then.
Perhaps the two young fathers can arrange to take turns attending public gatherings and pressing the flesh. One gathering a month each should be sustainable.
Let's hope that newly elected Sharlan Douglas and Jeremy Mahrle show up when scores or hundreds of people gather at such places as the Farmers Market, Elks Hall, Emagine, Historical Society Museum, Red Run, Music Theatre, and Stagecrafters.
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It is in the individual and cluster conversations at such gatherings that one quickly picks up what residents are thinking about, what matters to them personally and politically. Such live input from a handful of gatherings tells city leaders much more than they will ever learn from surveys, mailed or online.
Attend such gatherings several times a year and one gets early alerts re what will be "trending" or "going viral" in real, rather than in virtual life.
