Jencunas: Potholes - An Opportunity for Elorza
Thursday, March 12, 2015
After a New England winter, potholes are as inevitable as death and taxes. For Providence mayor Jorge Elorza, filling potholes is a chance to prove his administration can do better than their subpar snow removal.
Boston Mayor Tom Menino, whose 21 year mayoralty saw the city’s economy boom, liked to say that “visionaries don’t get things done.” He didn’t mean that mayors didn’t need to have ideas – Boston’s glitzy commercial waterfront started in Menino’s mind and was made a reality by persuasion and brute force from City Hall.
What Menino meant was that for a mayor to accomplish big projects, they first need to prove they can handle the basics of running a city. Mayor Elorza has yet to prove his managerial competence.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTProvidence’s initial response to the January blizzard was fine. Elorza dodged all of the blizzard pitfalls that can harm a mayor. Nobody died because an ambulance couldn’t reach their home, no houses burned down because the fire hydrant was buried in snow, and power was restored in a reasonable time. I praised Elorza and Raimondo’s response to that first blizzard and still think it was effective.
But after the first storm that Elorza stumbled. It was clear early on that the city didn’t have enough plows. Providence’s smaller residential streets were snowed in long after similar areas were cleared in other cities. Rapid improvement was needed and the mayor could have converted skeptics by taking decisive action and getting more plows.
Instead, Elorza turned down plowing help from Johnston, sending the message he thought Providence’s plowing was doing fine. There has been no apology, no mea culpa, not even an acknowledgment that the city deserves better. That shows a mayor out of touch with public opinion, always a warning sign for a politician.
Mayor Elorza probably thinks it’s better to seem optimistic than give his opponents easy fodder by admitting to screwing up. But there’s a difference between unrealistic optimism and delusion – pretending the city’s snow removal was effective is the latter.
Elorza should have admitted that the city was less prepared than it should have been, that he made mistakes, and then promised that next winter would be handled better. He would have been attacked by his harshest critics, but opened minded Providence residents would have appreciated the candor and given him the benefit of the doubt.
He squandered that opportunity. The potholes are another chance. If Elorza can fix them quickly, before too many cars ruined, he can show naysayers that he can manage a city. If he can’t, and the roads stay in their current third-world state, it will tell voters they should have listened when Cianci warned about a mayor who needs on the job training.
Brian Jencunas works as a communications and media consultant. He can be reached at [email protected] and always appreciates reader feedback.
Related Slideshow: 10 Questions Elorza Has to Answer as Mayor
Related Articles
- NEW: Morales, Kwan and Narducci on Elorza Transition Team
- Dr. Downtown, David Brussat: Free Advice for Elorza
- NEW: Mayor-Elect Elorza Retains Public Safety Commissioner and Chief of Police
- Jorge Elorza: 14 Who Made a Difference in RI in 2014
- NEW: Mayor-Elect Elorza Announces Appointments to Senior Leadership Team
- NEW: Mayor-elect Elorza Holds Final “One Providence” Listening Forum
- Battle Lines Being Drawn Between Labor and Elorza
- NEW: Elorza Announces Transition Team
- NEW: Council President-Elect Aponte Learns of Elorza Transition Team from GoLocal
- Will Esserman Return to Head Public Safety Under Elorza?
- Mayor-elect Elorza Announces ‘One Providence’ Listening Forums
- Jorge Elorza: Ten Issues He Can’t Hide From
- NEW: Mayor Elorza’s Office Accused of Deleting Facebook Posts About Snow Removal
- Elorza, Aponte Nominate Six to Providence Ethics Commission
- Elorza Inducts Three Community Leaders Into MLK Hall of Fame
- Geoff’s Superlative Sandwiches To Introduce the “Jorge Elorza” Sandwich
- NEW: Speaker Mattiello, Mayor Elorza “Disappointed” in Fox Felony Charges
- NEW: Mayor Elorza, Seattle’s Mayor Murray Make Super Bowl Wager
- Elorza Yet to Submit Any Appointments
- NEW: Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s Inauguration Speech
- Leaders React to Elorza’s Vision for “New Providence”
- Jencunas: Elorza’s Challenges and His Best Chance at Success
- NEW: Elorza Staff Salaries Released - Totals Nearly $900,000
- Elorza Outlines Providence Pothole Strategy