People sometimes berate me for never speaking out about what our mayor is doing right, and so, because its the right and fair thing to do, I’ve decided to create this post.

Regardless of whether or not I’m a fan, I am not blind to that which Mayor Maggard has accomplished and which can be checked off in the positive column. Here then is my list:

#1 Putting in Heartland Bank in the Whitehall Community Park and taking out the golf dome.

The physical layout of the park was simply too difficult to implement successfully. The upper part was too small and really not amenable to much activity past picnicking at the shelters provided. With the large parking area taking up so much space and a lot of it laying dormant (in front of and to the south of the parking lot) it didn’t attract park goers as it might. So too, its location was such that it was inconvenient for residents to get to, plus, there were so few users, that it made it uninviting. So too the bottom part: an isolated cul-de sac of sorts, there were homeless near the bridge and woods by the creek and because of a lack of users it was nearly empty and thus more scary for those trapped down there where they couldn’t escape. The current plan helps to alleviate most of these issues.

By placing Heartland Bank up top and the offices off Broad it provides the park with a steady stream of users (at lunchtime, etc.). People don’t want to go to an isolated, empty park where they feel vulnerable and scared for their safety. They want to see others and feel secure having other people around in case there is trouble. The more people around the less likely the chance for assaults and other crimes. Plus, opening up the bottom to Broad Street gives a second access. Always a good idea.

Outside of any other ideas proffered or not proffered, because of the difficult nature of the parks two-tiered set up, I think this is an excellent solution. Kudos.

#2 Bringing Whitehall into the 21st century with new traffic light poles.

#3 Planting new trees and making certain the investment that was already made in trees is not wasted by placing the watering bags around them.

#4 Beautifying the city’s entryways with the median planters and the facelift at N. Hamilton Rd.

While I am not a fan of changing the city’s motto ‘City of Pride’ at Whitehall’s entryways with what amounts to a business slogan: ‘Opportunity is here’, I do like and appreciate the stylized three-sailed ‘W’s that grace the medians and have been used to identify the city in numerous ways. Getting the railroad to refurbish the trestle over Hamilton road was also excellent (I’m so glad they kept the art moderne motif intact).

#5 Modernizing and making professional city hall’s employees.

Several years ago when you went to city hall, while it was regular folks doing the business of the city, sometimes it wasn’t the most professional, particularly if they had any issue with you personally or politically. It has changed and everyone is a professional firstly. That is what one should expect when going down to your government’s offices for whatever business one has to attend to, unless of course you live in folksy communities like Mayberry. What I don’t like is the destruction of the interior of the mid-century city hall with thick Plexiglas everywhere. They could have retained the historic ambiance of the original works and perhaps used more cameras where needed if they felt security was so important. With everything of historical significance gone and/or disrespected in Whitehall this was just another act of vandalism of our historic, shared built environment.

#6 Updating and streamlining the city’s IT department and website.

The website is chock full of information and even directs people to resources to help them in matters of food and housing, etc. Good job on that one.

#7 Maintaining the flower baskets along Yearling Road.

#8 Enticing business into Whitehall, ala Wasserstrom, Priority One Designs, etc.  *

My caveat to this is that, while several businesses have received tax abatements as a means to entice them to Whitehall, the taxes from those businesses themselves then don’t contribute to the betterment of the city and its infrastructure and services but the employees who work there do through their taxed income. I know that we want to get business in given our economic crises in the last couple years but, in an organic way, I believe we are in a good position to take advantage of socio-economic waves heading towards us and so feel that we are selling ourselves for a song.  This is a pretty good and fair look into and criticism of this practice:

http://www.umich.edu/~econdev/taxabatemts/

#9 The ‘My Home’ down payment assistance program

On one hand I think its good to help people become homebuyers. Its the cornerstone of American society. On the other, Whitehall is on the precipice of change powered by Columbus’ extraordinary growth and successes, where we will be in the driver’s seat and not have to go begging for people who will live and do business here. As such, the gold we’ll possess in that change will be worth a great deal more than we get currently by entreating people to come here. The city needs to recognize that certainty and, with a little more patience, allow it to happen and wait for its true worth to reveal itself.

#10 Whitehall Home Reinvestment Program 

I thought this was an excellent idea because for years Whitehall merely codified everything and made punitive all their efforts at getting the poorer of Whitehall’s citizens to clean up their act, in essence putting the cart before the horse. In this method they’ve actually given people better tools to help them do things they want them to do. Much better than merely pissing off all the citizens (and treating them like criminals).

#11 Redirecting the entrance/exit of DSCC from East Broad St. to Yearling and Poth.

I don’t know if this was her the mayor’s baby or DSCC’s or whoever’s but, excellent. It was really backing up and creating a traffic nightmare and this alleviated that bad situation.

In conclusion I’ll say this: If there are things I left out it was because I either didn’t have enough information on them to comment, have mixed feelings about them (too heavy of a concentration of Senior housing) or had lost track of certain things.

Mayor Maggard claimed to have ‘vision’ in her elections, that which imbues her with special insight and leadership skills beyond the scope of regular, non-visionary people, that which allows her to take what is there and reshape it and steer it towards heretofore unseen and unknown destinations and results. I have observed leaders over the years from afar whose ‘vision’ was undeniable and recognizable; the Kennedys, Michael Bloomberg, Mario Cuomo, Jane Jacobs, Dr. King, etc. and while Mayor Maggard has lead the city rather than simply managing it as it lurched along, what she has done is in the ‘everything old is new again’ playbook of leadership and city planning. (While I have touted various aspects of what makes communities work over the years, that which I arrived at by reading and observation and thought, I have never claimed to have ‘vision’ as everything I’ve spoken of has either been around far longer than me or is really, common sense). So, while there is no vision, per se, in what the mayor has done, there are definitely smarts about it, and leadership.

Whitehall was, in large part, a victim of organic socio-economic waves and a lack of proactivity by former leader’s lack of understanding and knowledge in tamping down or heading off the worst damage of those waves. It was in fact, a series of waves that crashed over Whitehall. Mayor Maggard, to her credit, fairly tackled that which littered our city when the waves receded. To the casual observer she seems a miracle worker but to those schooled in sociology, economics, psychology and leadership, what she’s really done is simply that which has been done many times before in other places. However (and this is important), to her credit, she did something…she lead rather than sitting on her duff and making half-hearted blunders and attempts. In that, and whether her actions ultimately result in a truly beneficial future for our community or despite any negative criticisms of her I feel justified in having, she is to be rightly lauded for these positive actions and deserves the title of ‘leader’. In the rich, full, in-depth understanding of the entire story which ties Kim Maggard and Whitehall together, that which acknowledges and looks at all her bumps and faults with a critical eye too, I firmly believe she has earned that title.

Huzzahs to Mayor Maggard!

*  While I can give credit to Mayor Maggard for several things and certainly because she is the one running the city of Whitehall, a large amount of credit must be given to Zack Woodruff, Director of Economic Development and Public Service, due to his hard work in this area. I believe he is a heavier producer of some of these successes than most people know. So, kudos to Mr. Woodruff.