Climb the steps at Ukiah City Hall, look up at the building’s exterior and what do we see?
A filthy, grimy, mildew-stained surface that would probably take 10 minutes to power wash back to its intended creamy yellow color.
Now look down, left and right, along the concrete edge where flowers were planted. What do we see?
Not flowers. Instead it’s two lonnng stretches of dead weeds and parched soil that would probably take 10 minutes a day to water.
It isn’t fair to judge city officials for not noticing or much caring about tiny details like moldy exterior paint or dead flowers at the building’s entrance. As long as they run a tight ship, don’t waste taxpayer dollars and keep their collective eyes on the big picture, who cares about a few dead posies and pansies?
Did you know the City of Ukiah is $216 million in debt, and its credit rating has been reduced? Did you know the city is hoping to annex hundreds of acres surrounding Ukiah?
I’m skeptical our leaders are capable of rolling up their sleeves and getting to work on a proposed annexation plan that would triple the size of Ukiah’s current footprint. I don’t believe they have a track record of getting things done both on time and under budget.
An annexation project to vastly increase the dimensions of Ukiah would be difficult to pull off even by skilled, talented, hardworking leaders with a history of competence. Let’s be clear: the words “skilled, talented, hardworking” have never been uttered to describe the wizards in charge of the drifting enterprise known as Ukiah.
Not that long ago all city offices, from the building department to the electric department to where you went to pay a parking ticket were in a small building at the southwest corner South School and Church Streets. Council meetings were held in rented space now home to Oco Time Restaurant. Ukiah’s population back then was around 13,000.
Today City Hall is a vast empire, a warren of offices and cubicles that house ever-more employees, so many that your leaders had to buy the old two story BofA building on South State to house them. Ukiah’s population today is around 16,000.
The most robust and thriving business in Ukiah is Ukiah, Inc., which grows and grows. And it’s looking to grow even more by way of annexation. They tell us adding hundreds of acres will streamline services and maximize efficiencies. More coordination between agencies. Enhanced this, improved that. More, and better, of everything.
Cue laughter.
ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Now we’re leafing through the June 6 New Yorker Magazine; on pg. 5 we are treated to a review of a new restaurant (“The View”) in a prime spot in the biggest city in America.
Why am I telling you this? Because the Executive Chef is Marjorie Meek-Bradley, a young lady who learned her way around the kitchen in, yes, Ukiah CA. Marjorie is daughter of the deservedly well known Deborah Meek and Martin Bradley, longtime Ukiahans and among the several parents of Plowshares.
It probably does not need mentioning that The View is a high-end dining spot, and boasts a feature unlike any other in New York: it offers diners 360 degree vistas. This nonstop circumference of windows gives diners a view like no other in a city like no other. The restaurant itself, says the writer, “specializes in American comfort food of a retro, ritzified sort.”
Be sure to stop in at The View next time you’re in Manhattan, and take time to say Hello to Marjorie. Tell her Tommy Wayne sent you and you’ll get a free napkin with every meal.
GOOSES & GANDERS
Raise your hand if you’re among those soiling their undies because Donald Trump thinks he’s King for refusing to follow court decisions.
Now raise your other hand if you were similarly outraged when King Potato Head ignored three separate court decisions, including the Supreme Court’s, and continued to pay off college student loans with my tax dollars.
And Slo-Joe spent four years in open, flagrant defiance the country’s immigration laws. Did you think he was above the law?
Time to rinse out your diapers.
Tom Hine spends his time between Ukiah and North Carolina, but wherever he goes, his invisible friend TWK is with him.
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