VOTE!

Today is Election Day. It's a local election—every bit as important as the national ones. Micro becomes macro.

Here in Quincy (where Valhalla is located) we’re voting for a new mayor. I’m keen on seeing the current one replaced.

Under Koch (related to the infamous Koch Bros? Dunno):

• The HUGE downtown renovation project’s totally stalled. Quincy Center’s been dug up, fenced off and, just generally, a total mess for at least three years now. NOT an appealing area of town despite the comic book emporium, coffee shops and the Fat Cat.
• Quincy Medical Center was shut down (though there's still an emergency room of sorts there) during Koch’s reign. Quincy, the eighth largest city in Massachusetts, is now without a hospital.
• Also in downtown Quincy, there’ve been mas grande cost overruns in renovations at Old City Hall. Street-Works Development LLC, the city’s ex-downtown developer, has quit. Whyzat?
• Those new flood maps (which show who’s in a flood zone and is in need of more insurance {$$$} coverage and who’s not) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency? That whole biz was handled poorly to say the very least.

 So yeah, I'm not inclined to vote for Koch. His opponent is Bill Phelan. I can't find out much about him beyond what comes from his campaign site and Wikipedia. He was the mayor of Quincy from 2002-2008 though. I def don't recall him being a bumbler like Koch.

Also in the race were Anne Mahoney and Doug Gutro but they lost the primary to Phelan. They both looked good but they're out and throwing their support to Phelan. So then, given Koch's record, what I've read of Phelan's and the fact that Mahoney and Gutro are in favor of Phelan—I'll be voting for him versus Koch.

This decision feels unscientific. That is, I wish I had more solid info on Phelan before I pull the lever for him. Local elections, local campaigns don't get the scutiny, the bright klieg lights of press coverage and that's rotten.

The final penny for me not voting for Koch, came last week. A friend works for the printer who's done all of Koch's promo pieces—brochures, postcards, signage. Apparently, on a 5,000 run of big, full color, gloss brochures, Koch's name was mispelled! The printer had nothing to do with the text, design or layout—they just printed the damn thing. Koch's own campaign staff not only bungled their man's name, they didn't catch the error when proofreading (IF they even bothered to proofread).

They ended up making stickers to place over each and every mispelling. Think of all the needless hours spent applying those stickers. If his own cheerleaders, his campaign staff, can't manage something so simple as spelling their candidate's name correctly (or giving a decent proofread), what else, what other bullshit will rain down on Quincy if he's elected mayor yet again?